Srila Prabhupada Hindi Lecture 21

Ananta Govinda 8.25.19 Sun Night at RG

Your Duty Is To Go Back To Godhead (7/7/20)

Krsna Das 11.6.20

Avani Prabhu 23.7.20 On Hariyali Teej

It was just a couple weeks after that the closing pastimes of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur’s lila took place. He was in the Bagh Bazaar Temple in Calcutta and there his devotees from all around were having beautiful kirtan around him. On the morning of December 31st 1936, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati asked one of his disciples Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Maharaj to sing for him the beautiful song of Narottam Das Thakur – ‘Sri Rupa Manjiri Pada’, which is the eternal aspiration, the mood of the song is eternal aspiration of all true gaudiya vaisnavas. And then he asked another of his devotees to sing the beautiful ‘Siksastakam’ prayers and then he told his devotees that they must serve one another, love one another, preach together, co-operate and he told them to divide the management under a authority called GBC, Governing Body Commission of about 10-12 men who will help to develop preaching strategies for his worldwide movement.

Final Instruction of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur

Krishna told Arjuna “by constant practice and detachment it is possible.” Arjuna said ‘the mind is more difficult to control them the raging wind.’ Can you control the wind? Tell me can you control the wind? The mind is more difficult to controlling the wind. So, can you control your mind? But it is said ‘out of fear of Krishna the wind blows and out of fear of Krishna the wind stops blowing.’ For Krishna, to control the wind is that any difficulty? Similarly, for Krishna to control your mind is it any difficulty? So, we have to by constant practice and detachment, keep our mind fixed on Krishna. Constant practice and detachment means that Krishna sees that we are genuinely, honestly and sincerely trying. This is the essence. You cannot control your mind ever. you are a Jeevatma and your mind is being empowered by the all-devouring force of Maya. You cannot control your mind. But you know the story of the sparrow?

How To Control The Mind?

If we hear and if serve such great souls then the Lord becomes please with us and ultimately such a state of pure love cannot be attained by any endeavour but it is received by the causeless mercy of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, through Gurudev. That is our only hope. Bhakti means how to attract the Lord through our sincere, eager desire to serve. It is this type of humility to simply want to serve that attracts the Lord. Krishna is Laxminath, He is the husband of the goddess of fortune. He does not need any of our learned abilities to quote scriptures, He does not need our money, He does not need our influential position in society. But Krishna is longing to taste the sweetness of our humble devotion. Therefore, we must put as the supreme principle of our life, humility and an ambitious desire to serve the servants of the Lord; this is what Krishna consciousness means.

Only Humility With Service Attitude Can Attract Krishna

Sharad Purnima 8.7.20

you have to struggle, you have to work, you have to push, you have to surrender, you have to do it with good intelligence. But the way you are pushing, the way you are surrendering will have longevity, you will be able to continue this way with enthusiasm. And as far as accepting guidance, if you are sincere, you will seek out guidance. If you are insincere, you will say, “Oh my guru is not here, who will I turn to?” But the fact is there are so many wonderful vaishanvas who understand the philosophy and who can help you. And if you are sincere, you will turn to them and you will accept guidance. If you are sincere, when you are reading the books or hearing the tapes of the great acaryas or the great devotees of the lord, you will receive so much guidance through them, practically all your questions will be answered.  What to speak of all the devotees who are present, who have so much experience?

If We Are Insincere, We Can Justify Anything

So, really what saint Valentine’s day is all about for a religious person is giving up everything, being willing to undergo even torture and death in the service of the Lord. That’s what Valentine’s day represents to a vaisnava or to a devotee. But to a materialistic person Saint Valentine’s Day means following in the footsteps of the lusty birds. Hare Krishna! We see the birds mating and we think this is romance. This is something wonderful. Let me do it too, let me be like the birds. That is Valentine’s day. Human beings trying to follow in the footsteps of the birds! Hare Krishna. But at the same time, Rupa Goswami explains that ‘just as a young boy loves a young girl, in the same way if we can repose our affection in Krishna, we will achieve the ultimate perfection of life. That same propensity for love and affection if we offer it to Krishna, it is the ultimate perfection of life. That love of the heart, its nature is to be offered to Krishna.

The Origin, Concept And Spirit of Valentine's Day

Radhanath Swami is a Vaishnava sanyassi (a monk in a Krishna-bhakti lineage) and teacher of the devotional path of Bhakti-yoga. He is author of The Journey Home, a memoir of his search for spiritual truth. His teachings draw from the sacred texts of India such as The Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and Ramayana, and aim to reveal the practical application of the sacred traditions, while focusing on the shared essence which unites apparently disparate religious or spiritual paths.
Born Richard Slavin, on December 7, 1950, in his teens he came to confront a deep sense of alienation from suburban Chicago life and the civil injustices of mid-century America. At the age of nineteen, while on a summer trip to Europe, his internal struggles culminated in a commitment to search for God wherever it might lead him. Meditating on the Isle of Crete, he felt a supernatural calling and the next morning set off alone to find spiritual India. The Journey Home documents his odyssey as a penniless hitch-hiker though Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally India. There he lived as a wandering ascetic, first amongst the forest dwelling Himalayan yogis and later amongst a wide variety of gurus and spiritual practitioners throughout India and Nepal. Ultimately, he was led to the holy town of Vrindavan, where he found his path amongst the Bhakti-yogis.
In Vrindavan he found the teacher he was searching for in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and representative of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, (the Krishna-bhakti tradition stemming from the 16th century mystic avatar Sri Chaitanya). In choosing Bhaktivedanta Swami, as his guru, Radhanath Swami felt compelled to shear his matted locks and reenter Western society with a mission to share the sacred wisdom he had received. This return exemplifies the form of devotional yoga which is at the heart of Radhanath Swami’s teachings, a spiritual practice expressed as tangible action meant to bring about personal fulfillment and benefit the world.
At the the age of 31 he took the monastic vows of a Vaishnava sanyassin and became known as Radhanath Swami.
Today Radhanath Swami travels regularly throughout India, Europe and North America, sharing the teachings of Bhakti-yoga. He resides much of the year at the Radha Gopinath Ashram in Chowpatty, Mumbai. For the past twenty-five years he has guided the community’s development and has directed a number of acclaimed social action projects including Midday Meals, which daily serves more than 260,000 plates of sanctified vegetarian food to the children of the slums of Mumbai. He has also worked to establish missionary hospitals and eye camps, eco-friendly farms, schools and ashrams, an orphanage, and a number of emergency relief programs throughout India.


How To Control The Mind?

Radhanath Swami

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