When we come to see Kṛṣṇa and He glances on us and we see His beautiful form, then we are looking at the ultimate object of meditation. If we drive through Jaipur, we'll see many signboards, and everyone's trying to catch our attention to look at something. Maybe there's Coca-Cola, and they have a picture of some attractive-looking person drinking sugar water. They are not going to look so good in a few years, I guarantee you. And they are hoping that that will catch our attention and we'll say, "Okay, I would like to look like that." And everywhere we look, there's something for our eyes to fall upon.

So the perfection of the eyes is to come and see Kṛṣṇa in the temple, and then chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. And these two things together—coming and seeing Kṛṣṇa, worshiping Kṛṣṇa, ringing the bell, bowing down, offering flowers, and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa—these are like two tracks on a train track. And where does the train go? Straight back to Goloka Vṛndāvana.

So we are all on that train right now. Just look around—all the compartments are not even filled. We can put more people on this train! And the way the train goes, you load everybody on, and the way the train goes, you go see Kṛṣṇa, and then you chant, Hare Kṛṣṇa. And then the train takes you back home, back to God, and you forget about all the Coca-Cola signs in the world and all the clamor here in the material world. It’s Much Ado About Nothing. There's nothing really going on in the material world that is of interest to the soul whatsoever. It's a big fake out. So we have this opportunity together that's quite exhilarating. Don't you think? We could do this for days! Yes, we could do it for months!
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Material World: Much Ado About Nothing | HG Vaisesika Dasa | Kartik Immersion Retreat | 19 Oct 2025

We have come here to this most sacred place. We may or may not be able to appreciate it. We all have an appreciating capacity, and it can expand unlimitedly. So that's why we're doing this and we can pray for an ever-expanding, appreciating capacity for Kṛṣṇa Katha because that's something you can do, whether you are here, whether you are in London or the United States or on an airplane. You can go into the mode of hearing Kṛṣṇa Katha, and that is the beginning of all success in devotional service.
(excerpt from the talk)
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Pray to Get Ever Expanding Appreciation for Krishna Katha | HG Vaisesika Dasa | KIR | 21 Oct 2025

Deities are known for their intimate connection with their devotees, and the secret in life was given by one of my godbrothers, who used to live in Govardhan. He lived and passed in Govardhana. His name is Gopīparāṇdhana Prabhu. He had stayed where we were, right next to where we were this morning for breakfast. He lived just down the road from there, in a little house with his wife and child and a couple of cows. He was a great scholar, a linguistic scholar. He helped to translate many of Prabhupāda’s books, including the 10th, 11th, and 12th Cantos. Also, he was the great expert who was able to bring the Bṛhat Bhāgavatamṛta to light in a perfect way, praised by the greatest scholar of Gaudiya Vaishnavism at the time in the academic world Joseph T. O’Connell who said, "Nobody else in the world could have done that." That was the great Gopīparāṇdhana Prabhu.

And he said once, something that I’ve always kept with me and that anyone can live by for great success in life, and I would like to tell you.He said, "It’s not what you know that counts, it’s who you know and what you are." So we learned this lesson from Śrīla Kavirāja Gosvāmī, from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, to find the pure devotees and follow in their footsteps. Even if we feel unqualified, even if we are unqualified, we become qualified. Kalpante ye 'nu tān iha—in this world, from whatever position we’re in now, even Sūta Gosvāmī says in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (SB 1.2.25):

bhejire munayo ’thāgre
bhagavantam adhokṣajam
sattvaṁ viśuddhaṁ kṣemāya
kalpante ye ’nu tān iha

Which means that previously, all the great saints worshipped the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is beyond the three modes of material nature. Anyone who follows in their footsteps and tries to emulate what they have done according to their capacity becomes eligible for the same result that they attained. So we come here begging for the mercy of Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī, thinking of how he carried wood in his hands for the Lord. And we can remember that he’s considered the most celebrated of all Vaiṣṇavas in our sampradāya, as he set the stage for Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to come and teach the emotional love for Kṛṣṇa, which had not been taught ever before.
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It's Who You Know and What You Are That Counts | HG Vaisesika Dasa | Govinda Kund | 21 Oct 2025

There is a section in the Third Canto of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, in which Vidura asked some questions to Uddhava. And Uddhava, before he can answer, has to pull himself away from the spiritual world. He is standing on this earth, but he has to pull himself away consciously from the spiritual world to be able to answer Vidura. This is something that the ācāryas note: that when one becomes perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, although we may be walking on this earthly planet, still, our consciousness is fully engaged in Kṛṣṇa's pastimes in the spiritual world.

So this was Uddhava, who is very, very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa, who carried the message for Kṛṣṇa, who discovered the greatest devotees and commemorated it by his prayers that he wrote glorifying the gopīs of Vṛndāvana. And here we are, Uddhava Kuṇḍa. We can also pray that somehow or other, we can get the dust of the feet of the great devotees.

When we were driving in the rickshaw, somehow we took a shortcut. We drove across a dusty road, and I could hear that Sudhīr Mādhava was joking in the front seat about how we were getting a rajo-'bhiṣekam. Do you know what that is? It's a dust bath. And that's my final point: what is most recommended for advancement in devotional service?

rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti
na cejyayā nirvapaṇād gṛhād vā

This comes from the story in Fifth Canto with Mahārāja Rahūgaṇa and Jaḍa Bharata (SB 5.12.12), who says that you can't make advancement in this world by simply performing severe austerities. Some Yogīs, they sit in cold water up to their neck, or they sit around hot fire in the summertime, or they decide not to eat for long periods of time—whatever austerity somebody takes up, he said, "This is not how you make spiritual advancement." He says, "Until you get the rajo-'bhiṣeka, the dust bath from the feet of a pure devotee, that's when you make advancement."

On a very practical level, this means to take up some service in the guru-pranāli-paramparā, become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant. This is the method by which we can go back home, back to Godhead, following the mood of Śrī Uddhava: that let me be insignificant in service, not be insignificant, but to feel insignificant, and then become significant by taking the dust from the feet of the great devotees, meaning that I absorb myself in their mood and method for practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness and spreading it all over the world.
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Lessons From The Life of Sri Uddhava | HG Vaisesika Dasa | Kartik Immersion Retreat | 21 Oct 2025

How could we enter into Vrindāvan? How could we have a relationship with Kṛṣṇa? Revive our original relationship with Kṛṣṇa? The way that Yaśodā and all the residents of Vṛndāvan did. Isn't that what everybody here wants to know? Isn't this why you came to Brahmāṇḍa Ghāṭ today? This was what Rāmānanda Rāya said, and Lord Caitanya accepted. He said:

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām
sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir
ye prāyaśo ’jita jito ’py asi tais tri-lokyām (SB 10.14.3)

Brahmā said, "Throw away as far as you can throw it, any idea of figuring out Kṛṣṇa with your intellect. Make no attempt by your intellect to try to understand Kṛṣṇa, because if you could understand Kṛṣṇa by your intellect, he wouldn't be Kṛṣṇa. He would  be some ordinary person.

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

He recommended something that all of you are doing. Do you want to know what he recommended that you're already doing and what you're doing right now? He recommended dedicating one's life to hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Why did you come on this Yātrā? You just wanted to hear about Kṛṣṇa. Admit it.  I want you to admit it. All you wanted to do was hear about Kṛṣṇa, right?

So he said, "Jīvanti" means "just live for this." If all you do is live, stay alive somehow or other, so that you can hear about Kṛṣṇa in the next class, your life is perfect. All you need is a little khicaḍī and some ācār and maybe a pāpaḍam, but definitely some lime or lemon. Lime is better. That's all you want, so you can stay alive, a little something to feed the fire in the belly. Then all you want is a little place to lie down. It has to be clean. Maybe a mat, a straw mat. Is that good enough? A little straw mat, maybe six and a half feet? Is that good enough? 

Okay, so all you need is a little khicaḍī, some ācār, maybe pāpaḍam, lime, and a mat to lie down on, so that you can stay alive. You wake up and you think, "Okay, I'm still alive, right?" And then you say, "What do I do now?" Nothing else to do but hear about Kṛṣṇa. So Brahmā said, "Make this your life," or he said, "If it is your life, that's the perfect life.
(excerpt from the talk)
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Perfection of Life is to Hear About Krishna | HG Vaisesika Dasa | KIR | 23 Oct 2025

Doesn't matter how much yoga you practice. Doesn't matter how detached you are, how mindful you are of the world; you may even achieve the point of equanimity. Has anybody here achieved complete equanimity, even when the monkey jumps on your head? No problem! So, even if you've achieved that state, it won't help you unless you have Acyuta-bhāva; you have to have that awakening that comes from Madana-Mohan.

It stimulates the heart. It could come from the scent of the Tulasī leaf mixed with saffron. It could come from that one last Kīrtan, and we've seen it before. One young devotee came to the New York Ratha-yātrā. Complete equilibrium in life, because he grew up in a devotee family, and in one Kīrtan, the devotees were jumping up off the ground, and then he started jumping off the ground. After that, he said, "I'm in all the way." Changed. His heart changed. We know another devotee who came to Jagannāth Purī, and he saw the lotus eyes of Toṭā Gopināth, and he said, "That's it. I'm convinced. I'm in." Kṛṣṇa touches our heart.

naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitaṁ na śobhate jñānam  (SB 1.5.12)

Nothing else is enough in this world, through any process, except for bhakti, represented by Madana-Mohan. And that's what this temple is. It's what we should build in our heart. A monument in the heart that says nothing else but Kṛṣṇa only: the worshiping of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. No other demigod, no other movie star, no other sports guy—unless you see them in relationship to Kṛṣṇa.

When we have that experience of "I'm attracted to Kṛṣṇa, and all I want is Kṛṣṇa," it doesn't matter externally how entangled we are. Once that decision is there within the heart, due to this transformation from Madana-Mohan, then we're going back to Godhead.
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Build a Monument of Exclusive Love for Krishna in Your Heart | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 24 Oct 2025

Welcome to the Fan The Spark channel where you will find encouragement and support for expanding your book distribution, sadhana, and understanding of sastra.

New tracks tagged #KARTIKIMMERSIONRETREAT