The Jeweled Bhakti Garland Part 4 / Talking with Krishna / SB 3.25.35

Krishna is in His deity form / Srila Prabhupada’s exchanges with Krishna / Gauridas Pandit’s worship of Mahaprabhu’s deity form / Other ways to interact with the deities

#33 Talking with Krishna / The Jeweled Bhakti Garland — Part 4

This is very important to understand that when a man is about to die, in such a short time as seven days, it’s our conditioned human nature to become fearful. How is it and why is it that Parikshit Maharaj had no fear? Because he had faith. Faith is the gift of the Supreme Lord that can destroy all fear and all suffering of this world. What was Maharaj Parikshit’s faith? He had faith that the words of the great vaishnavas would give him eternal life. He had faith that simply from hearing as a humble servant from Sukhadeva Goswami that he would be given eternal life at Krishna’s lotus feet. That was his faith.

Faith Can Destroy All Fear and Suffering

Amala Harinam - 08.15.21 Sunday Night @NRR

Param Prabhu - Sandhya Arati On Radhastami - 14.9.21

Janmashtami Special Class by HH Radhanath Swami on 30th Aug 2021

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?

So, Lord Chaitanya he really showed Vaishnavas etiquette and one of the most classic examples is Ramachandra Puri, he had offended his own guru, he was an envious person. Because of his offense to his spiritual master, his love in life was to critise others. Maya is so strong. According to the particular modes of nature, people take pleasure in such amazingly variegated ways.  His pleasure in life was to condemn and critise and he was criticizing all the devotees and then he went on propaganda attack against Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. But because he was his guru’s god brother and he was a Brahman and he was a sanyasi, Lord Chaitanya respected him. It’s actually amazing. He said, “You eat too much.” So, lord Chaitanya said, “Cut down all my Prasad, he is saying I eat too much, just a handful of rice is what I need.” Hare Krishna! Devotees were tortured by this. But still he showed honor and respect, etiquette. Why in such graphic situation? Because it is not a detail, it is essential.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Teaching Us Vaishnava Etiquette

Saranagati Dham Dasi ~ Festival of the  Holy Name {Day 1 } ~ 11.26.21

Srila Prabhupada would quotes, dina-hina jata chilo, hari-name uddharilo, tara sakshi jagai madhai that even the most hardened cruel demons like Jagahay and Madhai can be transformed by the power of God's names. Nityananda prabhu, he saw that potential in their hearts and they became saints. In the same way Srila Prabhupada when he traveled around the world 12 times, he saw that potential in everyone's hearts and so many people became transformed. And in the same way through our sadhana, our spiritual practice and through our prayer and practice, we should cultivate seeing that potential in everyone and in each other. I am so grateful to my Guru Maharaj Srila Prabhupada for inspiring such a wonderful family as all of you and we should never forget this ‘that we are a family. We should each and every one of us take serious responsibility to speak and behave properly, in such a way that it will inspire true devotion and true happiness in each other and it will create a happier, more united family.’

Serving Means to Create Happy & United Family

Shubam Shyam 30.9.21

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Shubham · ISKCON Baltimore SNK · 5.29.22

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.
