Why as soon as we become devotees, why don't we just become pure souls and go back to Godhead? For the same reason, because Krishna wants to see the quality of our love. He wants us to develop the quality of our love, then love is developed through the process of sacrifice and if we didn't have to undergo the tests of lust and anger and envy and pride and greed and illusion and all these horrible things that are within us, that we have created ourselves to all of our previous births, we have created the condition of our consciousness but Krishna wants us to face all of these testing elements within our life and with faith and conviction and determination and with trust in the guidance of the great soils and faith in his words, he wants us to pursue to work, to strive, to sacrifice for him. And when he sees that quality in us, then by His mercy, he very gracefully awards love of God to us. You see, love of God is not something that you can acquire. It is already within you, but you'll never find it on your own. It is only when Krishna reveals it by his own sweet will that you can understand where it is. And he reveals it when he sees that you have qualified yourself through sincere devotion and sacrifice, through passing through so many tests, then you have showed your love for him.

Why Krishna Allows Maya to Test His Devotees Very Severely?

"Krishna Sends Help" / The Jeweled Bhakti Garland — Part 8 / SB 4.24.28

The Lord sends help to the serious / The thief whose hands weren’t burned / The six aspects of transforming the heart

#38 "Krishna Sends Help" / The Jeweled Bhakti Garland — Part 8

Prabhupada writes “of Lord Chaitanya’s associates.” Prabhupada writes it that “Swarup Damodar Goswami never came to Vrindavan. He is Lalita sakhi. And Gadhadar Pandit who is Radharani never came to Vrindavan. He wanted to come with Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanya, but Lord Chaitanya said no you have given your vow of kshetra-sanyas to serve Gopinath in Puri, you cannot come with me. So many of the top most, Ramananda Rai never came to Vrindavan. But their hearts were in Vrindavan. Wherever they went they manifested Vrindavan.” So Prabhupada was explaining and not only did he speak it but he lived it, that really being in Vrindavan is serving the holy dham which means serving the will of Radha and Krishna.

VRINDAVAN Is The State of Consciousness

By the chanting of the holy name, by the hearing of the Bhagvatam, by rendering devotional service, all of this pride is removed providing there is a motive if we performing these devotional activities. You must in your in your devotional activities you must assume the position of a humble servant and you must, when the if you desire the prestige and recognition, Krishna will give you that, but He is just giving you enough rope to hang yourself. Therefore, we must by hearing properly, by hearing sincerely, we are constantly reminded that our position is to only aspire for “das das das anu das”, our aspiration, our goal of life is to attain the lowliest servant mentality at the feet of the vaishnavas.

How to Deal with Pride While We are Progressing in Devotional Service?

Srila Prabhupada would sometimes say, it is in one purports in his books as well, that ”the real purpose of the Krishna consciousness is not simply to defeat people on argument, reason and logic. The real purpose of this Krishna Consciousness movement is to induce people to chant the holy names of Krishna, because it is the yuga-dharma. It is the means by which anyone; everyone could experience love of God.” Srila Prabhupada had that faith in the names of Krishna. And on the basis of that faith, he was able to alone, with no facility whatsoever, open 100’s of centres, distribute millions of books and touch the hearts of millions and millions of people; not only in his own life, but in generations to come.

Glories of Srila Dhananjaya Pandita and Srila Gadhadar Das Goswami

KI 31 - 2021 “Prayer For Radha's Mercy”

‘a brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino ‘rjuna’ Krishna says, ‘you can perform for many, many life times of sacrifices and austerity and ultimately attain the supreme heavenly planet of brahma loka, and you can enjoy there for billions of years but ultimately you will fall down as soon as your good karmas is exhausted and then when you are again in the body of an insect or some lower creature. what is it that you have gained through all that you have done? Nothing. Everything has come and gone, like a dream. And only thing you have to show for all your lifetimes and lifetimes and lifetimes and lifetimes is the time that has been wasted. All of the austerities and then enjoying the fruits of austerities and through the whole time your mind has simply been bewildered in forgetfulness of the real goal of life, which is to attain the mercy of Krishna, which is the only ways and means to eternity, knowledge and true bliss.

Beating the Empty Husk

The New You / SB 2.3.24

Personal Transformation / 5 Ingredients of Initiation / 5 Effects of Full Transformation / Punk to Devotee / Service is The Key

#41 The New You

Abhay - 10.10.21 Sunday Night @ NRR

Playing Mridanga: Kana
Playing Flute: Isha Ray

Govinda · Toronto 12hr Kirtan · 7.15.22

Amarendra Prabhu - Damodarastakam Prayers 10.14.22

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.
