From: Cleanse The Temple Of Your Heart | ISV | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 20 May 2023

https://youtu.be/0ie_LSauz_8?si=2QLYbxPJ0muji5d8

Time where answer starts in video: 1 hr 6 mins

In an old house, have you ever seen a shower that has two handles? One's for hot, one's for cold. Actually, even if it has the one lever, you still have to find where it is. You have to go back and forth.
So there's this adjustment that goes on to try to find the right temperature, and at every age there is some sense of how to present Kṛṣṇa consciousness in a certain way. Look at Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. The difference between Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, and then Prabhupāda, and the milieu at that time. What was the zeitgeist that they were dealing with in order to—and the backdrop that is—in which they were presenting Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, at his time, the British were fully in control of India still. And during the time of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, it was a time when there was upheaval, revolution, and coming into Śrīla Prabhupāda’s—our Śrīla Prabhupāda’s—time, there's, you know, full-on Gandhism and things like that. The mentality of people was different at various times. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s teachings are a lot more universal. He has more of a universal presentation. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura was very laser-focused on overcoming certain types of philosophy that were prevalent at the time.

And Śrīla Prabhupāda, when he came to America, he was thinking about how to position himself in the West. He writes in a purport that men and women grow up together in this culture. In India, not so much. I mean, nowadays it's different. If you go to Bombay or Delhi, it's like Western. But even in the time of Prabhupāda, it was very different. There was a lot more separation between men and women. And here he comes as a sannyāsī to America. So then he says, what should I do?

And he preserved the sense of natural habitat for people. He had boys and girls, men and women, together in the kīrtans, doing this and that and preaching. And he writes about that in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta—that he's getting criticized by people from India, his Godbrothers and so forth, saying like, what kind of sannyāsī are you? In fact, Prabhupāda was performing marriage ceremonies. That's unheard of. No sannyāsī in the history of the sannyāsa tradition that we know of doing marriage ceremonies.

So he writes about it in the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā [18.5], where Kṛṣṇa says, "yajña-dāna-tapaḥ"—not to give these things up just out of a sense of, like, I'm renounced. They're all to be engaged. So Prabhupāda says, ‘just like I’m a sannyāsī, but I'm engaging people in the marriage ceremony’. So how is that? It’s because of what Kṛṣṇa says right here—don’t give up these processes that are good for everybody, but use them in relationship to helping people advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

You'll notice, for instance, in the second canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [SB 2.2.35]. Prabhupāda writes in his purport about the Supersoul within the heart—Paramātmā, we call it, right?

So he calls—what does he call the Paramātmā there? Super Spirit. He called it Super Spirit. And you'll notice, when Rādhikā Rāman Prabhu was here, he pointed out various phrases that Prabhupāda would use, like "devotional service." It’s very pointed towards—it’s not just meditation, it’s actually a cultivation. He was finding his way throughout all his writings to present in such a way that the audience he was teaching to could be receptive to it. So he would take various words and present them in a certain way.

Now, there’s always an adjustment that devotees take to, and as an example, we had this program we started, and we were doing it at Hānsā Priyā’s house for a long time. We called it Kṛṣṇa Life. We had people over. We put it out on Meetup.com. And we didn’t know who was coming. There were people who weren’t that interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, didn’t know what it was—they were just interested in yoga, meditation, and so forth. At least that’s what we thought. So we were very reticent about presenting directly, and we were holding back on everything—sort of roundabout explanations.

And then all of a sudden, the people who were coming—some of them, especially who were coming on a regular basis—became more insistent, like, tell us the real thing. What are you holding back from us? In fact, two of them ended up finding the temple and were like, we know where your temple is. We got some beads now, you know?

And so, any person who is out in any field that is, you know, teaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, has to turn the knobs and find—where is that sweet spot? Where is it? We can’t ultimately shy away, because if you just bridge all the time and say this, that—then when are they actually going to cross the bridge and get to the other side, right?

What we’ve noticed, like in Bhakti Community—every week we have a video. We don’t know who’s there. Some people can be brand new and usually are, and some people have been around for a few years. So then we have one about Deity worship. And when we first put it up, we were thinking, like, what's going to happen now? So in the video, there's pictures of the Deities in Māyāpur being bathed with honey and yogurt—like that. And we're sitting there watching the video, watching everyone's faces, like, what are they going to do now?

And we were so surprised that afterwards, in the conversation, they were going, ‘that was amazing. Like, I’ve never seen that before’. There was kind of an opening in their hearts for the fact that Kṛṣṇa was a person. And we became joyful, that wow, you know, we can actually cross the bridge and get to the other side.

Now, there are people that, you know, may cut it too sharply, and they’ll come into an audience and they give such a straightforward presentation based on a principle, which is that—straightforward or die. And then the audience becomes possibly put off—they don’t come back the next time. Of course, they may also find the needle in the haystack by doing that.

In the purport. 1.4.1, Prabhupāda says, “In a meeting of learned men, when there are congratulations or addresses for the speaker, the qualifications of the congratulator should be as follows: he must be a leader of the house and an elderly man. He must be vastly learned also. Śaunaka Ṛṣi had all these qualifications, and thus he stood up to congratulate Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī when he expressed his desire to present Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam exactly as he heard it from Śukadeva Gosvāmī and also realized it personally.”

Here’s your answer—personal realization does not mean that one should, out of vanity, attempt to show one’s own learning by trying to surpass the previous ācārya. He must have full confidence in the previous ācārya, and at the same time, he must realize the subject matter so nicely that he can present the matter for the particular circumstances in a suitable manner.

In italics, Prabhupāda did this when he was first writing up to the first few cantos. He put italicized sentences for emphasis. “The original purpose of the text must be maintained. No obscure meaning should be screwed out of it. Yet it should be presented in an interesting manner for the understanding of the audience. This is called realization.”

So it’s an art. It’s kind of a science, but more of an art. So you have to know what you’re doing. You know, if you’ve been around a while, like if you’re distributing books, right? And you go up to people, you fine-tune your presentation. Pretty soon you find it. Here’s my zone where I can present and people will really appreciate it, and it’s still straightforward.

And others who become more expert and they have more effulgence—they may just go straightforward, “Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is Hare Kṛṣṇa, and this is Hare Kṛṣṇa, and that’s Hare Kṛṣṇa, and please hand over your whole life. Just come with us.” And then they come home, and they’re like, “I came with him because he said come with me, and he’s effulgent.”

So it’s an art. And some people, you know, they’re maestros, and they’re like, “Wow, how did you do that?” It’s like, “I don’t know, I just did it.” So that’s the answer to that conundrum. That’s universal. Every preacher is always thinking, like, is that too much? Too little?

You’re in a room full of devotees—you know, Amarendra Prabhu, I was just with him because I stayed at Ādi Gadādhara’s house—a whole bunch of really exalted devotees out here in Atlanta. It’s an amazing place. And so I’m staying at Ādi Gadādhara Prabhu’s place, and Amarendra Prabhu and his wife Swastikā, they live in the same house. And so he was telling me about—he was talking on a Janmāṣṭamī, and then some brand new guests came. And like, he’s an expert preacher. But then, like, what do you do?

The temple president said, “Just preach to the devotees. Don’t worry about any new people.” But then new people are coming, and it’s like, yeah, but how do I present to them at the same time? That’s hard. Your brain has to expand. It has to have more neurons within it—it’s like, to handle all that—to be able to present like that.

That’s the art of preaching. And it’s what is so celebrated about somebody who can do that.

So Prabhupāda did it. He went everywhere, and he maintained this balance. Some people said, “You’re so conservative.” Prabhupāda would say, “Oh, you don’t know. I’m the most liberal person on the planet, just in the way I’m presenting.” And Prabhupāda knew what the essential parts were. For instance, with all these rituals and stuff—his weddings were about five minutes. You can read them in the database—it’s five minutes. Exchange garlands, make a vow, OK, you’re married. Good luck. And as far as yajñas go, Satsvarūpa Mahārāja told about how he was performing one of these fire ceremonies for Prabhupāda, and he was really stressed out, like, how should I say it? What should I do? Which version should I do? Because so many ideas—everyone has about, “No, don't do that,” “You need a cat in the basket over here,”—so all these things. And then he went to Prabhupāda and said, “Prabhupāda, I'm really confused. What should I do? Should it be like this, like that? Prabhupāda said two words. He leaned over and he said, “Short cut.” Because that's not the important thing there.

And he did it too, with the installation of Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma in 1975. He wrote in his purport afterward: “The main installation was my American and European disciples having kīrtana. I didn't need all these brāhmaṇas coming in here and throwing stuff all over the room,” he said. “But if I didn't have them come, nobody would have accepted that this was a bona fide temple. Because you got to throw stuff over your shoulder and like, hit somebody to make sure the whole place is purified,” right?

So not to belittle all the rituals there and one should follow what Kṛṣṇa says in the śāstra and the Pañcarātra. But I'm just saying, one has to remember the essence. And that was Prabhupāda's expertise: keeping the main thing the main thing. So the main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing. And then when you preach, it can be effective as well as.

From : 2020 05 17 Applied Bhagavad gita - Caitanya-caritamrta - Preface - HG Vaisesika Dasa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlh8OsZfDso&t=48m

Time where answer starts in video: 48 minutes

Sambandh means relationship. It means that we have a relationship with Kṛṣṇa in five different varieties. There is śānta-rasa, which means this kind of passive appreciation. Actually Caitanya Mahāprabhu really started with dāsya-rasa wherein there's an impetus to serve the Lord and do service for Him. Then there's the relationship of being a friend. There are varieties of friends that Kṛṣṇa has. Like Arjuna is a city friend and then there are friends in Vṛndāvana. Some of the friends are more intimate with Kṛṣṇa. The more intimate friends Kṛṣṇa has are the ones who wrestle with Him and they think that they're equal or even better than Kṛṣṇa.

And then there's parental affection, headed by mother Yaśodā. The best of all the devotees in parental rasa are mother Yaśodā and Mahārāja Nanda. And those who are attracted by this and have this proclivity towards this rasa, when fully developed, they follow in the footsteps of devotees like Nanda and Yaśodā in their mood of worshipping Kṛṣṇa. They see Him as a dependent child. Mother Yaśodā is always running after Kṛṣṇa when He leaves in the morning to make sure He got His lunch. Just like you see in this world. You know how your mother treated you and was always nurturing and so forth. You can have that relationship with Kṛṣṇa.

And then there's the relationship of a lover that contains all the other rasa, and it's the most engrossing. The ujjvala-rasa is the topmost rasa, most effulgent in qualities, and that is a rasa that some devotees are attracted to. And no matter what rasa one is, what relationship one has with Kṛṣṇa, it's perfect. They're all perfect. There's none that are lacking. In each one of them, the devotee feels like this is the best. And also, at the same time, appreciates the others and glorifies the others and also recognizes which ones are more perfect and most perfect.

And Sambandh-jñāna means starting off with understanding what Kṛṣṇa taught Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gītā, which is that Arjuna, you're not your body. You're a spiritual soul. Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta starts off answering the question of Rūpa Gosvāmī, “Who am I?” That's where you start in Sambandh-jñāna. Who am I, where did I come from? And then He tells him:

jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’

 kṛṣṇera ‘taṭasthā-śakti’ ‘bhedābheda-prakāśa’

 (CC Madhya 20.108)

He tells him that you are an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, and that you're also part of the energy of the Lord. This is Sambandha—knowing your relationship, what category of energy you're in. Kṛṣṇera taṭasthā-śakti, taṭasthā-śakti of Kṛṣṇa. Bhedābheda-prakāśa. And so you know you're a part of Kṛṣṇa. Then like “Who am I?”:

keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya

 śatāṁśa-sadṛśātmakaḥ

 jīvaḥ sūkṣma-svarūpo ’yaṁ

 saṅkhyātīto hi cit-kaṇaḥ

 (CC Madhya 19.140)

You're smaller than 1/10,000 the size of the tip of a hair. You're cit-kaṇaḥ, you're a particle of eternal consciousness. And then He describes the Lord as three energies. He goes on to say:

viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā proktā

 kṣetra-jñākhyā tathā parā

 avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā

 tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate

 (CC Madhya 8.153)

There are three major categories of energy, and your relationship Kṛṣṇa says is taṭasthā—that you can either be engaged and get caught by the material sense gratification and māyā, or you can transfer yourself to the spiritual world. So, these are the preliminary teachings of Sambandh-jñāna.

I started with the more advanced understanding that we actually have an eternal personal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, and we're meant to awaken that. And simultaneously it also means to understand asaṅgo hy ayaṁ puruṣaḥ. You don't have any relationship with the material world, really. You're a foreigner here. This is not your place. Does that make you feel better? I mean, if you think that this place is messed up—what's going on?—it's because we don't belong here. This is not our thing. We don't like this kind of sideways dealings all the time. Everything, you know, is getting turned over on its head. We want to live in an eternal atmosphere. That's śuddha-sattva—that's pure goodness, not rajas or tamas. Like sand in sweet rice. And now not just a little sand—somebody put a whole handful. So no happiness here. That's Sambandh-jñāna.

So you have to hear that regularly. To understand:

paras tasmāt tu bhāvo ’nyo

 ’vyakto ’vyaktāt sanātanaḥ

 yaḥ sa sarveṣu bhūteṣu

 naśyatsu na vinaśyati

 (BG 8.20)

You should know, when this material world gets destroyed, the spiritual world isn't touched.

I was driving past the Comfort Inn with my godbrother the other day, and I was just thinking like, “Yeah, Comfort Inn.” If they put “Discomfort Inn,” no one's gonna want to stay there. Bad branding. Discomfort Inn. Kṛṣṇa deems the material world duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). It's a Discomfort Inn. Welcome. You want to stay here? I don't think so. That's Sambandh-jñāna.

And then He says, there's another world that you're part of, that doesn't get destroyed. It doesn't get COVID-19. So, you know, that's Sambandh-jñāna. You have to keep hearing about it because māyā is very, very convincing, and will try to convince you, “Greg, you stay here, make money, you know, be happy, get a beautiful girl.” But it all turns sour eventually.

The material world is not our place. We don't like it. We'd like the spiritual world. We like Kṛṣṇa, and He's our friend. So that's Sambandh-jñāna. You have to hear that. And then when you hear that, you really lean into chanting. As a matter of fact, I recommend reading a little Bhagavad-gītā before you do your rounds. Because it will supercharge your rounds—to get that kind of Sambandh-jñāna before you chant.

From : 2013-10-05 ISV Developing a Non Critical Attitude - HG Vaisesika Prabhu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu_bDiLKae4&t=1410s

Time where answer starts in video: 23 mins

prabhu kahe, — “yāṅra mukhe śuni eka-bāra kṛṣṇa-nāma, sei pūjya, — śreṣṭha sabākāra” [CC Madhya 15.106]. Prabhu, the Lord says. If one time I hear from the mouth of a person Hare Kṛṣṇa, then this person is worshipable. He is the best amongst men anywhere. Rūpa Gosvāmī says in 5th verse of Nectar of Instruction, kṛṣṇeti yasya giri taṁ manasādriyeta. If the person is uttering Hare Kṛṣṇa, then in your mind you should offer respect to such a person. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Devahūti says:

aho bata śva-paco ’to garīyān

 yaj-jihvāgre vartate nāma tubhyam

 tepus tapas te juhuvuḥ sasnur āryā

 brahmānūcur nāma gṛṇanti ye te

 [SB 3.33.7]

How wonderful, she says, that if a person on the tip of their tongue says Hare Kṛṣṇa. They don't have to do it all the time. It is considered that they have done all kinds of austerities, gone to holy places and attained all brāhmaṇical qualification because they have said Hare Kṛṣṇa. Sei pūjya. This person becomes worshipable. Someone who is uttering this innocently, or even derisively:

tvaṁ anādarād api manaṅg udiritaṁ

 nikhilogra-tāpa-pāṭalim vilumpasi

 (Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrī Nāmaṣṭakam, verse 2)

Their sinful reactions will be obliterated. They will be saved. We have an example of Ajāmila, who just by uttering the name of Nārāyaṇa, was brought back to Godhead. The holy name will save you. The Holy Name is everything.

From: Redirect Your Natural Affection to Kṛṣṇa | | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | ISV | 15 Sep 2024

https://youtu.be/BkHaf3Mj3tY?si=dBnMg7_8U3bCnxSL

Time where answer starts in video: 46 mins

Don’t try to preach to your siblings, Mom or Dad or your cousins. Unless they approach you very sincerely. Then also be careful. There is sibling rivalry. It's naturally built in. They want to show each other. I went back to school to get a degree at SF state university. My mother predicted that my brother who had gone to UC Berkeley, but quit midway, will go back and finish before I did. And sure enough that’s what happened. He finished his degree before I did. He could not stand to see me reach the crossline before him. 

Parents tell you what to do, not the other way. Most parents, siblings have the sense, ‘keep it to yourself’. That’s one of the best things you can do. Recently, a devotee had gone on a ‘study abroad’ program with students who had no idea of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They all had to live in a common place. First, she was really nervous about it, and would go into the balcony to chant her rounds. But soon her friends picked up on it. They would ask her, ‘ did you finish your rounds’ and,’ you can’t eat here. This is not what you eat’. That’s what happens when you go on practising Kṛṣṇa consciousness and don’t stop for the sake of someone else. If you don’t try to pontificate and tell everyone how it is, you don’t get a backlash. At some point they will come and ask you. Sometimes, it happens late in life, when something changes for people, and they recognize that you are a gentle enough soul, and you have been gentle enough to not push it on them, then they often come asking you for it. But wait till that time.

From: Book Distribution Taught Me All I Needed to Know | SB 7.9.46 | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | ISV | 11 May 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SSwGsPOu-w&t=26s

Time where answer starts in video: 20 mins

Oṁ ajñāna means that I come into this world without any knowledge. Timirāndhasya means I am in the darkness of ignorance. Jñānāñjana-śalākayā. There's a way in which someone has gone to a medical doctor and they've cured my blindness. Somebody who is blind and then they can see for the first time, or someone hears for the first time. You can see that suddenly their countenances change and they are amazed that sounds or vision is coming in. So, there's a sense in this prayer that I couldn't see, I couldn't hear, I didn't know anything and then I went to the doctor and he did a little operation and suddenly I can see and hear and understand the purpose of life. Cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ. Therefore, he says, ‘I offer my respects to this person.’ How much gratitude do we have? I can still remember times when I went to the many doctors, and each said,’ we don't know what's wrong. We can't fix it.’ Or they misdiagnosed it. Then finally I met some old guy who was about to retire, and he said, ‘I know what it is, and I can fix it.’ I said, ‘no you can't; nobody else could’. He said, ‘I know this’, and then it was fixed. I always remember that person. What to speak of somebody saves us from the darkness of material nature. In the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī talks about the vartma-pradarśaka-guru. Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura in his exalted writings offers his obeisances first to Cintāmaṇi, who was his girlfriend, who said, ‘hey wake up. Why don't you become a devotee? You're so devoted to this love affair we're having. If you just transfer that to Kṛṣṇa you'd actually be happy.’ Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura thanked her for changing his life. So, even as a Paramahaṁsa, he's offering his respects to his girlfriend saying thanks for bringing him to this point.

Then of course there are those who are giving ongoing help. There's a way in which even as we practice devotional service we need to rectify ourselves at various intervals. Maybe every five minutes. To have someone who's sincerely practicing devotional service, and who has realization that we can go and say, ‘what do I do now’. And the person can reassure us, give us some track to be on, help us understand something that we misunderstand, and then we're clear again to go on. These kinds of guides who are giving us instruction are so important to remember and to offer our respects to. Then there's the guru who we follow and then we receive the Mantra from. Who for us represents the sampradāya. Of course, even the śikṣā gurus represent the sampradāya, but there's a dīkṣā guru, where we see the epitome of following the guru and when we can give our heart there and take shelter, we offer our respects in that way. This is very important because in empiric investigation when we're trying to use our senses to understand the environment we use the double blind study, we use controlled experiments. So, controlled study means you have to have something to control. You control for this control for that to some degree because we're consciousness and we're looking at matter which is inert to some degree we can control it although imperfectly. There's a Heisenberg effect when you look at something as soon as you start studying it changes its stature a little bit. It's hard to nail down anything. We can control matter evidenced by the ways in which we develop technologies through which we are able to mess things up in the world quite a bit [sarcasm]. For example, you can create a little box that you can carry around and distract yourself all day long. But when it comes to investigating consciousness, you can't measure it. There's no tool that you use in physics that by which you measure consciousness. Similarly, the ways in which we can understand the Supreme is different. It's a different kind of experiment. We open ourselves through humility to what is being passed down to us and it's based on the premise that the Supreme wants to reveal Himself to us. If the infinite wants to reveal Himself to the infinitesimal that's His prerogative but we have to be open to it. So, these prayers we say before we go into discussion, we're saying I am entering this not as a controller, I am open to receive. As they say in Japan, ‘Itadakimas’. It means ‘to receive’. Life of a devotee is Itadakimas. Let me receive grace, let me be in a humble position of service to receive. That’s the idea behind saying the Guru Praṇāṁ.

From: Association With Devotees Is The Key To Perfection In Life | SB 1.18.13 | ISV | 16 Apr 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjaTXPwRlSE

Time where answer starts in video: 12 mins

If we give food to hungry people, does it solve their problems? Does it solve the hunger problem when we feed the people? How do you serve poor people? If we give them money, does it solve their problem? If I give a job to someone who has no hope in life, does it make them happy?

 Actually you know food is coming naturally. There are birds in my backyard and my father gave me a bird feeder before he passed away. So, I kept it in the garage for a long time and I figured maybe I'll fill it up. So, I put Niger seeds in there because I like finches. So, they came and had a party when they figured out where the bird feeder was. Then I went away to Vṛndāvan for five weeks and when I came back they didn't notice that the feeder was gone. They weren't sitting around moping and thinking, ‘where'd that guy go? He was feeding us and now he's gone. What a cruel person.’ All around I discovered that the trees also have little seeds in them and the finches kept their little party going. When I put up my water fountain they come and they have a little pool party there too. Then they go eat some more in the trees. Everybody's suffering in the material world but those finches have no want of food from me.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Nārada Muni says, ‘tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā [SB 1.5.18]. The kinds of things that we get as material facility comes to us kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā. It's very deep gambhīra. How it is that some people get something and other people get less? Some people get more, some people get less. Of course even people that get more material facilities aren't necessarily happy. Sometimes they're less happy, as you pointed out. Sometimes poor people are happier because they have hope that someday they will get some material facility. There are numerous studies of celebrities who have gotten everything and then become morose and dysfunctional. They can't keep a solid relationship. They try jumping from one relationship to the another because their conception of life is that if I have material facility I'll be happy and once they get full material facility and they gorge themselves on it they're still not happy. So, they figure maybe it's over here or it's over there. This is the problem as Nārada Muni says. Therefore he says the way to help people is to give them spiritual knowledge and an environment through which they can develop themselves to come above the modes of material nature. There's no problem in the world that can be solved on a material level. If I give food to somebody and I walk away, they're going to be in the same situation they were when I fed them an hour ago.

In Kolkata there was a situation where the government had made housing for the homeless people on the street. This was around 1972 and then 90% of the homeless people sublet their apartments and they went back and lived on the street because they were used to it. When Prabhupāda saw this situation he said, ‘just see. This is their inclination which is our svabhāva, it's our nature because we've accumulated various modes and therefore we want to live in a certain way. We're compelled to live that way. Now, he looked at the Americans who were walking with him and said, ‘you're in Kolkata but you live like Americans because that's your karma. If you go to Iceland, you will still live like an American.’ So, the problem isn't that people lack food or a job but the problem is people lack alignment with their nature as servants of Kṛṣṇa.

So, the way to help people actually is to give them association with the bhāgavat. Bhāgavat means the transcendental sound vibration of Kṛṣṇa's name. Of course we can feed people, but we give them prasādam. That comes along with association. And best of all association is with those who are already either fully above the modes of material nature or who are in progress of making advancement to rise above the modes of material nature because of their association with devotees. And who no longer have optimism about organizing their lives in such a way that they can be happy in the material world. Nārada Muni confirms and he's our ācārya and teacher, that don't try for material happiness through adjustment of your environment but do try to make spiritual advancement and that is a universal principle. So, this verse holds that the most valuable thing that you can get is to have spiritual association.

So, the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness creates such environments. Not just in the temple atmosphere, but we also distribute knowledge so that people can develop themselves at home. It's better to actually teach a person how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and there are many that have. There are examples given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. For instance, Mṛgāri was a hunter who grew up in a family in which his father, who was also a hunter, taught him that he should not kill them all the way, just half kill them. Can you imagine such a poor little animal like deer and the father thinks it's a good idea to half kill them and that he enjoys watching them writhe in pain. Mṛgāri grew up in that environment that was the mode of nature that he grew up in because we carry over from our past lives and therefore he learned the same occupation hunting with a bow and also half killing animals. Nārada Muni, while walking in the forest noticed the animals writhing in pain. Then he came to Mṛgāri. Nārada Muni befriended Mṛgāri and taught him the process of how to become transcendental to modes of nature. Mṛgāri then had an epiphany, and asked, ‘what should I do? What should my first step be?’. Nārada Muni told him to break the bow. Nārada Muni also assured him that he will not be bereft of material facilities.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī talks about how philanthropy ends up being counter productive. When we do something to help someone, we give them means to be more entangled in the material world. So, there is a very defined way in which one actually helps people and that is Bhāgavata-saṅgī.

From: Kṛṣṇa Katha - H.G Vaisesika Dasa | 2021-03-26 | ISKCON of Silicon Valley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBgW_VEbYuA&t=7546s

Time where answer starts in video: 2 hrs 5 mins

Instead of saying how can I have more faith in Kṛṣṇa, ask this question, how can Kṛṣṇa have more faith in me? It's a relationship. So why is it that Kṛṣṇa has to prove Himself to us constantly? Why not just say; Okay, I'm going to be the one that proves myself to Kṛṣṇa. And if you just do that, and change the role, then you'll be happy immediately. And you'll go about your day thinking “I'm going to show Kṛṣṇa that I'm worth His time and His glance”. Don't try to see Kṛṣṇa, but try to work in such a way that Kṛṣṇa will want to see you. And if you just flip that one switch then you'll be happy. And Kṛṣṇa will reveal Himself in ways that you won't even want to speak about because no one's going to believe you. You just keep it to yourself and just keep feeding that energy that you get from Kṛṣṇa revealing Himself to you in amazing ways. Just keep it in your own heart and say, “Kṛṣṇa, I know, you're there for me. And I want to prove myself to you because, for so long, I've been the runt of the litter.” I'm that little puppy that nobody wants. They come by and go, “not that one”. I got left out of the litter because I'm just a little runt spiritually. And I'm the mercy case.

You take this perspective that I'm going to serve Kṛṣṇa. And that's all there is to it. And everything else will be revealed from that point.

From: 2022 07 17 Ypsilanti - Post Initiation Ceremony Talks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQJo1uUF7mM&t=806s

Time where answer starts in video: 48 mins

When one feels overwhelmed by the feeling that I am not doing enough it's important to take stock of what you already have and what you're already doing now. Fortunately there's much of that described in the śāstra. For instance in the 11th chapter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Did you know when Kṛṣṇa is talking to Śrī Uddhava, He mentions the 8 million 400 000 species of life and He said that out of all of them the humans are the best [SB 11.7.22]. He said, ‘I like them the best’. So, cheer up. Kṛṣṇa likes you. If you're a human, you can be like, ‘hey I am human. Kṛṣṇa likes me! You can start there.

Then consider the fact that the basics that you're doing, Kṛṣṇa says in the Gītā [BG 7.3],

 manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

 kaścid yatati siddhaye

 yatatām api siddhānāṁ

 kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

It's very very rare that anybody takes to spiritual practice at all. ‘They are preoccupied with other things’, He said. ‘And of those who do, very few actually have a clear idea of Bhagavān; of worshiping Me as the Supreme’. Most people have very amorphous ideas of spiritual practice. So, if you've come to that point, you are in rarified company and territory. If you take stock of that, it really helps. Also consider the fact that what you've done in this one lifetime already to come to this point and the service that you're maintaining, maintaining your vows, doing your rounds, it's enough if you just do that and just survive.

In fact, there's a section of the Bhāgavatam that I go to and I remember frequently because I feel overwhelmed also. There are so many things to consider and often think, ‘I am not doing enough. I have to catch up.’

In the verse SB 10.14.8 — tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam — the speaker of the verse Brahmā says that if you live your life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and accept everything as Kṛṣṇa’s mercy whatever comes, then you'll inherit the kingdom of God just by having that attitude. Then the great Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam commentator Śrīdhara Svāmī from days of yore, says that what's the duty of the son of a very wealthy man? What's the singular duty? Stay alive. All you have to do is stay alive. If you're an heir then your duty is to stay alive because and survive your father.

We're all sons of the Supreme and if you just stay in this mood that I am a humble servant of the Lord even if you're the one who's left out of the roll call. No one really notices you but you're always there doing your duty, even at the most basic level he says if you stay alive like that you'll inherit the kingdom of God.

So, when you feel overwhelmed and you think like not enough day left at the end of all my duties and things that I wanted to do and maybe I am not doing enough, just remember what the Bee Gees said all those years ago. Staying alive. They were quoting that verse. Just remember to stay alive somehow or other. And we can do that.

Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura said, ‘don't try to be a great devotee, just try to be a good devotee. No heroics needed. If you just maintain the very basic things, it's far and above what anybody else is doing anywhere in the universe. Kṛṣṇa already likes you as a human, what to speak of if you're a devotee.

From: Srimad Bhagavatam 10.15.25 - Replacing Material Energy to Spiritual Energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVrXrSsfaeY

Time where answer starts in video: 36 mins

Your sevā will save you. Sevā is not ordinary. If we get any kind of sevā, it's coming from Kṛṣṇa, and we should hold on to it like a rope because that rope will pull us back to Godhead, and no matter what else happens in your life, whatever kind of phases you go through in your life, if you hold on to your sevā, then you'll be saved. Kṛṣṇa will pull you back to Godhead by that rope.

 And the direct order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is a manifestation of His internal potency, and it is by that particular potency that one comes to see the Lord face to face [SB 2.9.34]. That's a verbatim statement from Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport in the Second Canto, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So, when we get a direct order from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or the order comes through the representative of the Lord, and we take that, we have the rope that will pull us back to Godhead so we can see the Lord face to face.

By serving the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, with great vigor and using all our senses. There can be trouble in the youthful years because the senses are very strong and there's a way in which they can override the intelligence and convince one that, I really will live forever. I am invincible and so on. I was thinking how my book distribution service was so engaging. It has all kinds of excitement because you go out and face all kinds of circumstances and all kinds of people that have the oddest kinds of excuses and interesting stories and so forth. And it's always a challenge. And then, of course, there's the feeling of accomplishment and competition and so forth.

It's a real activity, and so are all the other services we do in devotional service. And engaging all our senses in those services gives us a way to move through the different phases of our life with some real engagement. You have to have some real engagement. It can't just be theoretical, because ultimately we have to have engagement for the senses. So, with service also you can always become more expert. Can anyone say they've perfected their service and you can't do any more? That's the point at which you'd probably quit and go do something else if you think like that.

Akiñcana Kṛṣṇa Prabhu, who I have been learning mṛdaṅga from, told me that his mṛdaṅga teacher told him that, once you think you're done, you're done. With mṛdaṅga, or with anything else, you have to always remain hungry and humble, and think, how can I make it better? How can I increase it? So, what I'm saying is, it's important to have engagement for the senses and service. It gives the senses something to do that is transcendental and which gives taste also. Śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ puṇya-tīrtha-niṣevaṇāt [SB 1.2.16]. When you work hard to serve the mahātmas, then they give you some mercy, and they give you a little ruci to hear and chant, and then the two things complement each other. Work hard in your service and take advantage of whatever taste you have to hear and chant as much as possible. Those two things go well together.

From: Srimad Bhagavatam 10.15.25 - Replacing Material Energy to Spiritual Energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVrXrSsfaeY

Time where answer starts in video: 36 mins

Not everyone will appreciate it. There has to be some kind of sukṛti in the heart to appreciate Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā. Sometimes we show a book to someone and they already have that kind of inclination, and so they'll immediately say, ‘Oh yes, I've been looking for this or so.’ And other people, they have no idea what you're talking about, and so they can't appreciate it right away. But, saṅkīrtan, the samyak kīrtan, we're not trying for each person, we're not expecting each person to be on the same level, but we have to become expert at finding out the ways and means to engage everyone as fully and appropriately as possible. īśvare tad-adhīneṣu bāliśeṣu dviṣatsu ca prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā yaḥ karoti sa madhyamaḥ [SB 11.2.46]. The preacher has to categorize people and see some people are innocent and for the innocent, he gives as much mercy as possible. For the devotees, he makes appropriate kinds of friendships. Gives his love to the Supreme Lord, and for those who are envious, he neglects them for their own good because. If he tries to engage them, more vehemently, they simply resist and maybe become even more offensive and so forth.

And, it's regarding the idea about Prabhupāda's books and the specific language and how they appeal to various kinds of people in different cultures. My experience is that, it's not just an isolated incident that somebody gets a book somewhere. Of course it can be someone might get a book somewhere and then begin reading it and and get inspired by it, or not, as the case may be, but the point is that then they seek sādhu-saṅga. And the sādhu-saṅga has to be there also, so people can come and get a complete experience of what people are like who are reading and practicing what's in the book. I mean, that's the process described by the ācāryas. ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo [CC Madhya 23.14–15]. In the beginning there's faith and if a person doesn't have any faith, it's because they don't have any sukṛti, bhakti-unmukhī sukṛti. They haven't come in contact with anybody yet. Caitanya Mahāprabhu told Sanātana Gosvāmī that the living entities are like logs floating down an endless river, and they never stop until somehow or other they get good fortune. And one of those logs then comes up on the dry land.

And so, similarly, when we're preaching, we're looking to engage everyone in the proper way and if somebody doesn't yet have sukṛti, the devotee is looking for a way to give them an opportunity to start their devotional service. Prabhupāda tells a story of the brahmacārī going door to door begging alms for the temple and at one house, there the couple is having an argument. And they're in an agitated mood. So, when the brahmacārī comes to the door and asks for alms. When the brahmacārī came to the door the woman in the house said, give him some ashes, tell him to go away.

So the man took some ashes from the stove, threw it in the begging bowl, and said, ‘Now get out of here. There's your donation’. So the brahmacārī went back to the āśrama and went to the pūjārī and said, ‘take these ashes very carefully and use them to polish the Deities' paraphernalia.’ So, the pūjārī carefully every day took out some of the ashes and polished the paraphernalia. And then later the brahmacārī was wandering around doing bhikṣu and then he came to the door again. He forgot which neighborhood he was in, but then the same couple opened the door and they saw him and they fell at his feet and they said, ‘please forgive us. We beg for your mercy. We would like to take this path of devotional service’. And Prabhupāda says, ‘from one pinch of ashes, back home, back to Godhead.’ So there's a way that devotees are always thinking like that.

Devotees are always thinking like that. We have a principle; the penny principle. During our Christmas marathon a couple of years ago, there was a devotee named Bhakta Kumār. He was going door to door distributing Bhagavad-gītās. I had told everyone, “All the Gītās must go! Don’t hold back—get them out there as quickly as possible, to as many people as possible. Don’t worry about how much you get, just make sure they get the book.”

Now, we also follow a principle: if someone gives something in return, it qualifies them to read the book. Incidentally, don’t let me forget where I’m at in the story—but remember, Kṛṣṇa says in the Gītā not to preach to the faithless or the non-austere. And yet we meet all kinds of people who are neither austere nor devoted. That’s why we ask for a donation—because giving is a kind of austerity. We know it’s an austerity because when we ask, we see their faces and how hard they try to get out of it. But even a little donation shows some devotion.

So Bhakta Kumār approaches this one door. A man opens it, not interested in the Gītā. But Bhakta Kumār insists, “No, take it. Just give something.” The man says, “Well… how much?” Bhakta Kumār replies, “Just give a penny.”

So the man says okay and starts searching through his drawer for a single penny. His wife sees him and asks, “What are you looking for?” He says, “A penny.” She says, “What do you want a penny for?” He replies, “Some guy gave me a book and asked for a donation. He said I could give a penny, so I’m giving a penny.”

She says, “Let me see that book.” She flips through it and says, “This is worth way more than a penny. You’re not giving him a penny.” She makes him go back and give fifty dollars instead.

Bhakta Kumār comes running down the hallway, saying, “Guess what happened—I asked for a penny and got fifty dollars!”

So we call this the penny principle because it works in spiritual life. Kṛṣṇa says, sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya [BG 2.40] that even if it starts with a little sv-alpam, little tiny, tiny bit, it always grows into something more. If it starts, then it grows.

And that's the principle we're looking for when we go out to preach. Let's just get people started some way or another. I tell the devotees our goal isn't to sell the book. It's just to engage everyone as completely and as appropriately as possible, and to engage ourselves also. And, Kṛṣṇa helps. He helps the whole process. So, we do the best we can with what we have, and the best thing we have, are these books that Prabhupāda gave us. We noticed that they missed the mark with some people [they didn't take up bhakti right away] because they're not ready to hear it yet. But then there's a way in which it sits for five years, ten years, twenty years, and all of a sudden they go, ‘oh, no, I've missed twenty years’. And now I just started reading it. And, you know, we have to also give people as much support as possible. So when somebody gets a book, and they have that faith that starts to sprout in their heart, we have to have complete ways to fan the spark and also nourish their bhakti.

Most people's experience of what's in Prabhupāda's books and their faith in it comes from association with devotees. You ask about certain parts of Prabhupāda's books that might offend certain people in certain cultures. So, my experience has been that if they know the devotee who's connected to the book, if they read that part of the book, they relate it to the devotee and they'll come to the devotee and say ‘what about this?’. And then you explain it to them and they'll say, ‘alright I trust you.’ So, I can digest it because I trust you. I see that you're actually a product of the book. They see that.

So those things, it's a complete program. It's all those things have to be in place. To raise a child, you need all kinds of support from all different angles. And a whole village raises a child. Hillary Clinton wrote a book called It Takes a Village. It means that, to raise one child, it takes all kinds of support from all the relatives. So similarly, for one soul to come out of darkness, requires everyone working together to help him.

From: Stepping Out: Demystifying Death -1 | The Dual Purpose of Creation | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | 15 Jan 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhfD5B9UWTw&t=2542s

Time where answer starts in video: 40 mins

You could make it endless. There's lemon and there's lime. Then you could say lemon lime, but that's not enough. When I was a kid, there was strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. And I remember when Baskin Robbins came out. How many flavors were there? Thirty one flavors. Let's keep going back and try them all. But after we get through thirty one , that's not enough. So then you have to combine them. Why don't you combine key lime pie with peanut butter. And then throw in some butterscotch.So in that way, combinations and permutations can go on and on. 

But in logic, you know, you can say, why isn't a square a circle? That’s an absurd question. It doesn't really mean anything. And so, similarly, why is the material world not the spiritual world? Because it isn't. There are categories of energy. There's a reasonableness to the categories. There's spiritual entities that go with the spiritual world and there's a purpose for the material world which is to exhaust or at least give full opportunity for living entities to try and enjoy here, but it's a futile idea. But why isn't this the material world, the spiritual world, because it's not? 

From: Kṛṣṇa Knows Everything, You Don't | SB 2.10.9 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | Prabhupadadesh | 10 June 2025

https://youtu.be/oz7bV90ycaU?si=_jupW5nEKW82htrd

Time where answer starts in video: 32 mins

It's not abstract. Here is a specific example. In a prison there are prison guards and then there are the prisoners. The prison guards have their livelihood watching the prisoners. They're making sure they don't get out and they might bring their food and hand it to them. But if there were no prisoners to take care of there wouldn't be a prison and they wouldn't be employed. So, there's this symbiotic relationship in that way that they're employed to oversee the workings of our senses to help us enact our karmas and so forth. That's why people who do astrology try to figure out which demigod is going to harass us next or whatever kind of stretch we're going to have you know based on who's in the cell block that day.

From: How to Be a Happy Human | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 13 Aug 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k0ETQL-2c4&t=3509s

Time where answer starts in video: 58 minutes

Well, you just go on with your service. It's inevitable that at some point or another you'll be misunderstood in this world — it's kind of natural. And I know it could be hurtful, because when your intention is sincere and somebody misunderstands it, then it can feel really hurtful.

 So it's a good reminder, when we talk to people, that we never try to assume what their intentions are — because that's the real pain point in everyone's heart: the feeling that "they did it for the wrong reason" or something like that. But on another side, when your intention is sincere, then you can't be harmed by anybody else because you have integrity. And when you do something and it's misunderstood, Kṛṣṇa knows why you did it. And that's something you can always take shelter of and remember — that Kṛṣṇa knows what my heart is.

I'll give you an example. Akrūra was asked to go to Vṛndāvan and pick up Kṛṣṇa on a chariot and bring Him back to Mathurā. Do you know why he was supposed to do that? Because Kaṁsa had a plan — he wanted to kill Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. So that's not a very good job, right?

Meanwhile, he's a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, and he was on the chariot going there to Vṛndāvan, and all the while he was offering prayers. And in one of his prayers he says, "This doesn’t really look good externally, because after all I’m on a dastardly mission — going there to pick up Kṛṣṇa and bring Him back to Mathurā. And what am I doing that for? I’m a devotee!" He said, "But my intention is just to see Kṛṣṇa, because He's going to put His hand on my head and give me blessings, and I’ll be able to bow down to Him." That’s all he was thinking about. He said, "It may look bad externally."

So external features or interactions don’t affect us as much when we know we’re good for it. And oftentimes people will then realize later — when you go on with your service — that you actually did have a high-minded intention. And they may even recant if you wait long enough. Strange things like that happen.

From: Stepping Out: Demystifying Death -2 | Journey Beyond Death | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | 22 Jan 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FirZtnS4fTw&t=9s

Time where answer starts in video: 1 hr 7 min

Have you ever seen somebody who had an arrogant attitude or was fully invested in materialistic activities change and become a devotee? Just say yes. It's happened a lot of times. So, that's how you should see people; as for their potential. No matter where they are now. There are all kinds of stories. One was Haridās Prabhu, who was a a professional thief. When he saw a picture of Prabhupada, he saw an expensive watch on his wrist. Someone had given Prabhupāda, but he never kept these things very long. Sometimes people give like an expensive watch and a couple days later somebody else would be wearing it because Prabhupāda didn't hang on to stuff. But the thief saw that Prabhupāda was wearing a watch and he thought I'll go join that group and somehow I'm going to steal that watch. He sat in enough classes trying to act like he fit in and then he said ‘I'm just going to be a devotee’, and he surrendered. 

yaṁ krodha-kāma-sahaja-praṇayādi-bhīti-

vātsalya-moha-guru-gaurava-sevya-bhāvaiḥ

sañcintya tasya sadṛśīṁ tanum āpur ete

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi 

[Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā 5.55]

Brahmā says people approach Kṛṣṇa out of lust, anger and natural friendly love. All different types of ways and they become purified. So, humility means that actually I should look at myself. Make it your religion to examine your own faults. Don't worry about the other ones. They'll get rectified in due course of time. Best thing is to offer them compassion and an opportunity to become purified. They don't mean it. They're nice living entities. They'd rather be pure devotees but they forgot so we're supposed to remind him. Recently I was talking to a doctor. The doctor had talked to a patient and the patient was not in his right mind and he became ornery towards the doctor even though the doctor's trying to help him became ornery. We noted in the doctor that he wasn't disturbed because it's happened to him millions of times. He approached a patient and the patient became ornery. Here's the guy trying to save you and you are screaming, ‘get out of here’. Is the doctor disturbed? No. Because the doctor knows that he's not in his right mind. So, devotees see others like that. They're not in their right mind. So, those who are inimical, the śāstra says you don't have to mix up with them immediately but you should definitely maintain sadācāra, says Jīva Gosvāmī. You should have the mentality that they should be saved somehow. Somehow we have to figure out how to help them.

From: Stepping Out: Demystifying Death -4: Fully Depend on Kṛṣṇa | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | 12 Feb 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUE1Id-HflU

Time where answer starts in video: 1 hr 10 mins

It's like software. All your senses have software behind them. It's not the nose that smells, it's the software interface where you're able to enjoy a certain scent. That's called tan-mātra. So, there are forces in the universe that can be harnessed. That's how Kṛṣṇa explains in the 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That's how yogis develop mystic powers. It's explained in there if you all want to try it. So there's a mediational process through which you focus your attention solely on a certain element or actually the software behind the element and by doing that and becoming absorbed in it you connect with it and you're able to utilize it. So, yogis have these various powers that they can exhibit. Even recently when the British were in India there were yogis around who could do these fantastical kinds of feats such as being buried in a box under the ground. They are left there for a week and then come dug up and the box is opened. It was double sealed if somebody thought somebody's cheating here. Then they come out and the yogi's there because he has harnessed a certain power in the universe through his yogic process through which you didn't have to breathe for a while. The prāṇa was internalized. I don't know how to do it actually so I'm not going to get into the details. It just happens. There's a technology behind it. So, Brahmā, he's a highly empowered being and he uses the software that's already there to energize the various parts of the universe. They are like seeds. How does a seed work? It's a miracle. How do you get a tree from such a small seed? Krsna says bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ (Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 7.10). If you want to know where I am, look in the seed. If you want to look at power, look at a seed and just admire. It's a good engineering feat. So, Brahmā is throwing seeds out in the form of mantras that are extended from the kind of powers vested in him.

From: Be Fixed In The Process of Bhakti, Consistency is King | SB 4.8.59-60 HG Vaisesika Dasa | 21 Jun 25

https://youtu.be/5935A5_iAHQ?si=b7-dcqHg5fCVhvTU

Time where answer starts in video: 1 hr. 

Find something you can follow steadily. Get in a program, where you can be consistent over time. Consistency is king in devotional practice. And once you have achieved consistency at a certain level of practice (whether it is in attending temple or performing a home program), then move to the next level of practice. That’s Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s advice in Caitanya Siksamṛta. If you try to run up the ladder too fast, you will fall. If you are too timid, and you don’t put your foot on the rung, you will not move forward. Once you are confident on the rung, then move forward. Don't make a livelihood by not being advanced. Genuinely advance and be humble. Appreciate the fact that you have unlimited steps you can take and move up. That's the excitement of life in devotional service. 

Soaking in sadhu sanga, May 26 2023

https://youtu.be/WLN_oq-FYOs?si=Y_D84oZ2llNH4axU

Time where answer starts in video: 49 mins

The main principle is exposure. The more we expose ourselves to the sound vibration of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the more we become purified. And that means that you have to be innovative at different times. You may have different techniques for doing that. Some of the ways that I do it is that I stay studying the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Right now, I'm taking the Bhaktivedanta [degree]. I am almost done with it. And how do I do it? I squeeze it in wherever I can. Because I'm studying for bhaktivedanta [degree], which right now I'm in its sixth canto through the 12th, I have to study for all the tests and I have to study to write the papers and things like that. So, that keeps me in the game. Keep my head in the game. 

The other is that I read a certain number of pages every day. I take this vow that I'll complete this many pages every day and to that end I created for myself a system. I counted all the pages in the Srimad-bhāgavatam and then I realized that if I commit myself to a certain number of pages every day that I'll be able to finish the Bhāgavatam at a predictable time. I can say when I'm going to finish the Bhagāvatam because I know how many pages I'm reading a day and then because it became I made a little spreadsheet that described how you can do that for every one of Prabhupāda’s books. Then I made it into an app. You can figure out how many pages I have to read every day. Like by reading eight pages a day you'll finish the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in five years. You can say what date you'll finish it on then you can have a festival at your house. Be in a process like that every day. ‘I got to do my pages’. That keeps you on track. That really helps. Another thing that I do that really helps me a lot is every kārtika I take off. I don't do anything else. We go to Govardhana hill. We have a room there. and we invite others who are interested in exclusively hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for five hours a day to come there and stay in the ashram and that's our main thing. We just hear. So, we have two and a half hours in the morning and two and a half hours at night and we'll read a full Canto or two cantos during that time and it's just exclusive hearing and dedicating a time during the day, time during the year. You set aside some time and keep on track and keep exposed to the Srimad-bhagavatam.

If you hear from speakers of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that you especially appreciate the way they're presenting and you can line those up on your smartphone. Just hear while you're doing other things. Like this morning when I was getting ready for the day I was listening to a couple of lectures. I was listening to Pabhupāda lecture first thing in the morning and then I was listening to another Godbrother who goes into great length at explaining what all the Sanskrit meanings are in particular verses and things like that. So you can get lined up and then be on that track to always be hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the car and so forth. So, there's a few ideas Prabhupada once said devotional services according to one's taste and everyone has a different way of doing things. It's not a stereotype. That's why I said the main principle is exposure. Whatever way you feel best getting exposure just try to get more exposure. You know how there's a little part of your smartphone that tells you how much screen time you used every week? You should make an app of how much Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam time we had and you can measure it by percentage. So, whatever way you do it if you heard a class you can log it in, if you read something or whatever you know that goes into your composite and at the end of the day end of the week it's like ‘your Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was up 13 this week’. No wonder I feel better right now. If you feel really depressed, then check your app. You're like ‘I was down 20 percent from last week’.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam solves all problems. Reading Prabhupāda’s purports is necessary to be sane. There's only insanity in the world nowadays. It's Kali-Yuga. The gloves are off. It's total ignorance fighting ignorance everywhere and unless you hear Prabhupāda’s purports every day you'll go insane I promise. So, you have to have a diet of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, hearing the verses and Prabhupāda’s purports. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam solves all problems.

https://youtu.be/x46hmBQ2d2E?si=ThbTNaqL6Bmcqf3W

Time where answer starts in video: 49 mins

First of all I know what you mean by physical. But Kṛṣṇa is not physical in another way. So description of how when Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana he's there manifest in his bhāva form. In fact you'll find in this chapter 13 Kṛṣṇa when he meets Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is explaining why he was away for so long. He says, ‘by the grace of Lord Nārāyaṇa I came back there every day and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī would think, ‘oh I'm just hallucinating’. He said, ‘no that wasn't a hallucination. I was coming there every day. That's what it means when Prabhupāda describes in the Kṛṣṇa Book that he was manifest there in his bhāva form.

Of course we're never separated from Kṛṣṇa. We hear the Upaniṣadic wisdom,

tad ejati tan naijati

 tad dūre tad v antike

 tad antar asya sarvasya

 tad u sarvasyāsya bāhyataḥ

 [Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Mantra 5]

Kṛṣṇa is far away but very near as well. The only time we're separated from Kṛṣṇa is by our own consciousness. So, because the devotees here were so intensely thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Really there was no separation from Kṛṣṇa. But the separation and the meeting as Gaur Govind Mahārāj explains in his book Embankments of Separation. They create this tension so that when the devotees are apparently away from Kṛṣṇa their desire to be with him is so intense that they experience this spiritual pleasure which is described by Kavirāj Goswāmī. Imagine being bitten by the most poisonous serpent combined at the same time with having nectar poured on you. Severe bite of the serpent with nectar being poured on your head at the same time. It sounds to the outside world like some kind of madness. That's what the highest level of ecstasy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness looks like.

And in practical terms, Kṛṣṇa explained that he wanted to divert any of the demoniac forces away from Vṛndāvana. If he went back there, it would draw attention to Vṛndāvana. He had killed most of the demons. He explained that to Śrīmat Rādhārāṇī at Kurukṣetra. He said there are a few more. Of course Dantavakra was the last one who showed up at the gates of Vṛndāvana and Kṛṣṇa immediately transferred himself there when he killed Dantavakra. He then entered Vṛndāvana again after that time.

Other ācāryas explain one of the reasons Kṛṣṇa apparently stayed away from Vṛndāvana for so long was to demonstrate the love of the gopīs. There's a sonnet by Shakespeare in which he talks about what true love means. It means it doesn't break under any circumstances. The realization of that comes in the pastime of Vṛndāvana when Kṛṣṇa is separated for over a hundred years and there's no fatigue, like, ‘okay well we don't love him anymore we give up’.

Now at Kurukṣetra when Kṛṣṇa meets the gopīs again he gives similar instructions that he gave to them through Uddhava in Vṛndāvana which were, ‘meditate on me’. I'm in every atom. I'm all-pervading. And the gopīs answered him sarcastically. This is also insider information from our ācārya because you find it in the Bhāgavatam. First of all Kṛṣṇa makes some excuse. He said well, according to Lord Nārāyaṇa because of the circumstances in the world we can only do what we're able to do. The gopīs say, "Yeah, but the thing is you are Nārāyaṇa." So, what are you talking about?

Kṛṣṇa then gives the verse:

mayi bhaktir hi bhūtānām

 amṛtatvāya kalpate

 diṣṭyā yad āsīn mat-sneho

 bhavatīnāṁ mad-āpanaḥ

 [SB 10.82.44]

He says, "But you've achieved such a level of devotional service never been seen before. But anyone who has this, they're so fortunate that they're beyond comparison to any other kind of practice and your life has become completely fortunate." He also indicates ‘anyone who also followed that same mood which is the basic tenet of Lord Caitanya's movement, which is to follow in the footsteps of the residents of Vṛndāvana’. Then the gopīs give this other iconic verse which is near the very end of chapter 82:

āhuś ca te nalina-nābha padāravindaṁ

 yogeśvarair hṛdi vicintyam agādha-bodhaiḥ

 saṁsāra-kūpa-patitottaraṇāvalambaṁ

 gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt sadā naḥ

 [SB 10.82.48]

They're saying, ‘well anyway we're just simple householders what do we know? All this knowledge is for yogis and you tell it to them.’ But externally if someone reads the Bhāgavatam they'll say, ‘oh yeah they're just having a conversation’. But Viśvanāth Cakravartī Ṭhākur says it’s sarcastic anger. Sarcastic back to Kṛṣṇa. ‘You already told us before that there's nobody like us anywhere and now you're telling us to be like the yogis, be like the jñānīs, everything's going to be fine. We're just attached householders.’

Poetically Viśvanāth Cakravartī Ṭhākur says that the instructions Kṛṣṇa is giving them in Kurukṣetra—they are saying, ‘it is like sunshine. It's burning us. We don't want sunshine. We want moonshine.’ And what does that mean? Kṛṣṇa has a moonlike face and we want the moon rays coming from your beautiful face. We don't care about meditation. We try to forget you Kṛṣṇa. We've tried so many times to forget you. We can't even forget you. And if we ever meditate on you, we swoon so much that we can't maintain any composure in our meditation. So we don't care about any of these things. We just want to see your lotus face. Forget meditation, forget philosophy.

And that's Vṛndāvana. And so Kṛṣṇa stayed away for many reasons. He always accomplishes many purposes from whatever he does. One of them was to exhibit to the world the greatness of Vṛndāvana. Everything points back to Vṛndāvana-dhāma. But we can't enter the dhāma without Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That's the greatest benediction and mystery of Kali-yuga.

kaliṁ sabhājayanty āryā

 guṇa-jñāḥ sāra-bhāginaḥ

 yatra saṅkīrtanenaiva

 sarva-svārtho ’bhilabhyate

 [SB 11.5.36]

The people who really know what's going, are reading the śāstra. They understand that Kali-yuga is the best age because although it's a dark age, but by worshiping Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in a saṅkīrtana movement you can enter into this level of understanding of Kṛṣṇa by the mercy of Śrī Caitanya.

Twelve Goal Setting Tips To Get Direction | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | Global Youth Retreat | 31 Dec 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLcU7UrXj74&t=2572s

TIme where answer starts in video: 40 mins

The way I approach it is to break it down in the smallest possible fragment that I can do. There's a science in Japan called ikiagi. There's a psychologist who wrote a book about it and he practices it with patience. So he tells a story. There was a woman that he was counseling and she was about 400 lb overweight and if he had told her you have to start running on treadmill or working out or something like that she just wouldn't have been able to do it at the time psychologically or physically so he told her cuz her problem was she sat and watched TV all day and ate. So, he said every time a commercial comes on then just stand up and then you can sit back down again and she thought that was a high hill for her to climb actually. So then she tried it and she stepped up every time a commercial came on the television and then when she was able to accomplish that he said now this week when you stand up just sort of walk in place during the commercial. She was really proud of herself that she was able to do that. After some time she came to the point of doing that and he got her step by step in these really tiny little vows that she would make to start walking around the block. You can kind of intuit the way the story is going to go. She had more and more momentum. So, what I do when it seems overwhelming is I break it down into something smaller and do what I can with what I have right then and if it's so small that it seems absurd that anybody could do that, that's a good place for it to be. In fact when I teach book distribution seminars one of the things people come for the part where I'm training inside the temple I say now we're all going to go out together and I started noticing that there would be 50 people there for the learning part and then when it was time to go out the door, I was asking, ‘where did everybody go?’ I found out that their mom called them and needed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So, they had to go home and it would take them all day to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for their mom and so what I started doing was saying, ‘we're not going out to distribute books’, and people look at me like, ‘no we are’ and I say ‘no I don't want you to distribute books. You can't do book distribution. We're just going out the door, that's all we're going to do and when we get to the place that we've assigned for ourselves all we're going to do is one thing and that is touch the pavement with our foot and once you do that you're done for the day’. Everybody knows this right that we do this. In fact there are communities that still send me pictures wherein they touch the pavement. The whole group was standing there with their feet on the pavement. I say anything you do after that that's extra not required, no performance necessary and I find that when you lower the bar. So, it's on the ground and people look at it and say, ‘well anybody could do that’. That's a good place for it to be and so in our lives when we're trying to move forward with something if we manage our expectations of ourselves and give ourselves a way just to step forward it can be so encouraging because then you feel, ‘okay I'm moving I might as well take another step too’. This is too easy. Give me a little more’. I noticed also that in the beginning sometimes those simple things after a while the devotees want more challenge. Prabhupāda wrote to Karandhar, when he told him about managing an organization that he said you should always create a fresh challenge so that the devotees will want to rise up and meet it. At ISKCON of Silicon Valley, for years we gradually developed goals at first they were so tiny that when we look back we think how was it even so small but we celebrated every event like I remember Malini Devi Dāsi, who's the co-sankirtan leader there, had distributed one book and she called me up. It was 9:00 at night. I was just going for a walk and she said I sold the book and we stood there for 5 minutes celebrating that she had sold the book and that's how it went. Now I mean the goal for ISKCON of Silicon Valley for the last couple months was to sell 78,000 Bhagavad Gitās in a few months. How did they get there? Just a little bit at a time. Little increases making a fresh challenge for the next level and then pretty soon you're at a much higher level. Birds fly in the sky as high as they're able but the sky is unlimited so when can you say I'm at my level? We do it so we can keep increasing our capacity and that capacity can always be increased. The quality, the way we do our devotional service, the way we interact with others, it can always be refined and that's what makes life interesting.

Act in a Way That Kṛishna Can Trust You | SB 1.2.21 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 05 Jul 2025

(379) Act in a Way That Kṛishna Can Trust You | SB 1.2.21 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 05 Jul 2025 - YouTube

Time where the answer starts in video: 37 mins

Trust Kṛṣṇa. His timing is impeccable. Dale Carnegie mentions in his book that imagine yourself in the worst possible scenario. Then ask yourself if you are still okay. We have an idea that I need something in a certain way, and when we lose it, and we come down from our sense of loss, we might look around and feel better than we were earlier.

ŚB and BG start with the end in mind. Get ready for death now. Kṛṣṇa says the material world is a lost cause. Manage your expectations. Expectations are the mother of disappointment.

Embrace that philosophy of Kṛṣṇa—that this world is a lost cause. You may even be more effective at work because you have a more realistic view of how to interact with this world. Doing our due diligence doesn't mean we become slovenly in our lifestyle or in the way that we deal with our resources. We do the best we can. We're methodical but dispassionate as we interact with everything we have in our life.

And remember Alexander the Great, who left us this beautiful imagery. Alexander, upon his death, had ordered that he be taken in his coffin with his hands outside the coffin and the best of doctors from his kingdom would carry the coffin. For all our wealth that we may accumulate—and mostly psychological because we look at a little spreadsheet and say, ‘Oh yeah, numbers up or numbers down.’ We suffer when it goes down. When it goes up, we feel a little spring in our step. We think, "Now I'm protected from any of the onslaughts of material nature." But the gold is all left behind. And finally, his hands are empty. We come into the world naked. Prabhupāda says we leave it naked.

So, if we can adopt some of that understanding and then also trust that Kṛṣṇa's timing is impeccable. What's more, He’s our well-wisher. And even if we don't have that implicit trust, at least try it on for size for a while and say, ‘I'm going to try to think like a transcendentalist in this situation. Even if I don't fully believe it, I'm going to say, okay, I'm going to act like I'm a transcendentalist.’ And you don't have to act like that, but you do try to embrace these perspectives because they're the perspectives Kṛṣṇa gives us in śāstra, and say, ‘Thank you, Kṛṣṇa. I can see You're giving me more opportunity to serve You, and this is how You've arranged it.’ So that can be helpful.

Gurū Mā: I know from myself that it's an attitude change. If we think Kṛṣṇa is only reciprocating with us when we're getting what we ask for, or when we're given nice things or feel like we're really taken care of... I realize that Kṛṣṇa is reciprocating with me even when I don't think I am getting what I want, when things become more difficult. And so, it's kind of just an attitude change.

And oftentimes in the midst of whatever it is you're going through, you can't see what Kṛṣṇa's plan is. And then you go through it and you can see, ‘Oh, Kṛṣṇa really took care of me. It's really good I didn't get what I wanted.’ So, I've had that experience. Of course, we have so many stories—just the prayers of Queen Kuntī and the Pāṇḍavas—when they went through so much, everything taken away from them. They still had Kṛṣṇa, and they knew they still had Kṛṣṇa. That's how He was reciprocating with them. He's always reciprocating with us.

Act in a Way That Kṛishna Can Trust You | SB 1.2.21 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 05 Jul 2025

(379) Act in a Way That Kṛishna Can Trust You | SB 1.2.21 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 05 Jul 2025 - YouTube

Time where the answer starts in video: 49 mins

Kṛṣṇa gives ways in which we can appreciate him and see our relationship with him right now. We need not worry about that which we don't comprehend yet. And it's okay to act according to the position you're in right now. Kṛṣṇa tells that to Uddhava in 11th canto of Bhagavatam. Sve sve ’dhikāre yā niṣṭhā sa guṇaḥ parikīrtitaḥ viparyayas tu doṣaḥ syād ubhayor eṣa niścayaḥ [SB 11.21.2] which means that it's a fixed principle that you should always act from the position that you're in right now. And as an example in the Bhagavad Gita, Kṛṣṇa talks puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca [BG 7.9]. He says I'm the fragrance of the earth. If you smell the fragrance of the earth and isn't it delightful the first rain and you smell that and if you think ‘oh Kṛṣṇa is so kind like he gave this fragrance’. Puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca tejaś cāsmi vibhāvasau jīvanaṁ sarva-bhūteṣu tapaś cāsmi tapasviṣu [BG 7.9]. He's the life of all living beings. You can feel your own vitality that you're alive, and you can appreciate that you're alive and then think ‘okay that's Kṛṣṇa. He's keeping me alive’. Or personal qualities of Kṛṣṇa that we can appreciate right now. In the eight chapter of Gita, Kṛṣṇa talks about remembering him. Tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu mām anusmara yudhya ca mayy arpita-mano-buddhir mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ [BG 8.7]. He says if you remember me throughout your lifetime. You practice this. Abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena cetasā nānya-gāminā paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ yāti pārthānucintayan [BG 8.8]. He says then at the time you leave this world you will remember me. So, what is the way to meditate on him? There is a list. What is the list? Kaviṁ purāṇam anuśāsitāram aṇor aṇīyāṁsam anusmared yaḥ sarvasya dhātāram acintya-rūpam āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt [BG 8.8]. I'm the one who knows everything and that also means he knows you and if you think of it well who really knows me in this world. Nobody knows me and then Kṛṣṇa says ‘I know you and I'm there for you all the time’. If you meditate on him, that's your relationship now and it's such an overwhelmingly positive experience to know that somebody knows you as you are beyond the mask that you wear. Because it's hard to tell anybody else in this world. I'm not really like this. I'm like something else. It's embarrassing. But Kṛṣṇa already knows me. So, it's like developing your relationship with what Kṛṣṇa offers us right now. ‘Here it's okay, everything's fine, I'm right here, right now in the smell of the earth, taste of water and I know you’. So, if you go into any aspect of Kṛṣṇa you'll feel satisfied and yes it does deepen from there eternally. The relationships we have in the material world may come and go or they may ebb and flow.  So, wherever you are now is fine because it's yes, it'll increase, but there's not a point at which it becomes static. You don't need to speculate. You just have to be engaged. And if you're engaged and you're happy because Kṛṣṇa is reciprocating in your heart, happy is happy. Just be happy and be engaged in devotional service.

Guru Maharaj; 09/20/2023 VDA Disciple Whatsapp Group

It does pain the heart when we accidentally harm another living being. So, it is natural for you to feel regretful about this. Regarding your confusion about what to do, here is some guidance. 

The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that in the material world, we live at the cost of others: jivo jivasya jivanam. This is the rule. What's more, even those who practice non-violence naturally kill other living beings. If you wear cotton clothes, for instance, it's likely that many gerbils, who congregate in cotton fields, were killed when the cotton was collected. The Vedas say that by drinking water, by cooking, by walking, by breathing, etc., we unwittingly kill living beings. Therefore, say the Vedas, we should perform yajña, activities that counteract the bad results of our inevitable killing. As you will read in the following purport from SB 9.16.23, the recommended yajna in this age is saṅkīrtana. 

Srila Prabhupadā writes: "As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (3.9), yajñārthāt karmaṇo ’nyatra loko ’yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ: 'Work done as a sacrifice for Viṣṇu has to be performed; otherwise work binds one to this material world.' Karma-bandhanaḥ refers to the repeated acceptance of one material body after another. The whole problem of life is this repetition of birth and death. Therefore one is advised to work to perform yajña meant for satisfying Lord Viṣṇu. Although Lord Paraśurāma was an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he had to account for sinful activities. Anyone in this material world, however careful he may be, must commit some sinful activities, even though he does not want to. For example, one may trample many small ants and other insects while walking on the street and kill many living beings unknowingly. Therefore the Vedic principle of pañca-yajña, five kinds of recommended sacrifice, is compulsory. In this Age of Kali, however, there is a great concession given to people in general. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ: we may worship Lord Caitanya, the hidden incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇam: although He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, He always chants Hare Kṛṣṇa and preaches Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One is recommended to worship this incarnation by chanting, the saṅkīrtana-yajña. The performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña is a special concession for human society to save people from being affected by known or unknown sinful activities. We are surrounded by unlimited sins, and therefore it is compulsory that one take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra."

Guru Maharaj; 09/29/2023 VDA Disciple Whatsapp Group

In his instructions to Sri Uddhava at SB 11.19.17, Kṛṣṇa recommends that we study the nature of the material world to see that it is temporary. From this observation, we can cultivate a sense of detachment. 

"From the four types of evidence — Vedic knowledge, direct experience, traditional wisdom and logical induction — one can understand the temporary, insubstantial situation of the material world, by which one becomes detached from the duality of this world."

In the SB 7.15.22, Nārada tells Vasudeva: "By making plans with determination, one should give up lusty desires for sense gratification. Similarly, by giving up envy one should conquer anger, by discussing the disadvantages of accumulating wealth one should give up greed, and by discussing the truth one should give up fear."

It's most important, however, to develop affection for Kṛṣṇa's devotees. By serving in the association of devotees, our hearts soften and we become naturally attracted to, and then attached to seeing Kṛṣṇa and serving Him. SB 3.25.25: "In the association of pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the heart. By cultivating such knowledge one gradually becomes advanced on the path of liberation, and thereafter he is freed, and his attraction becomes fixed. Then real devotion and devotional service begin."

Absorbed in such service: sweeping the temple floor, dancing before the Deity, serving prasadam, hearing Kṛṣṇa Katha in an assembly of devotees, our material desires diminish. SB 3.25.33: "Bhakti, devotional service, dissolves the subtle body of the living entity without separate effort, just as fire in the stomach digests all that we eat."

2014-03-08 Reading Caitanya caritamrta Adi 5.36 to 5.54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSLgED_A33k&t=7535s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 2 hr 5 mins. 

It is not insignificant because the impersonalist are doing it at the expense of the personal form of God. It is not as if they are saying that there is an impersonal and personal form of God. They are saying that there is no personal form of God. That's when acaryas take an exception because that's when people are misled into atheism and materialism. That's the only recourse for one who has no clear conception who God is. Because unless you have spiritual variety and activities within spiritual variety you necessarily have to engage in material varieties and then you're lost in the material world. So, Śaṅkarācārya has purposefully misinterpreted the shastras in such a way. It is like covered atheism. In that way it will mislead people. 

māyāvādam asac-chāstraṁ pracchannaṁ bauddham ucyate mayaiva vihitaṁ devi kalau brāhmaṇa-mūrtinā [Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa (25.7)]. Lord Śiva informed goddess Durgā, the superintendent of the material world, ‘In the Age of Kali I take the form of a brāhmaṇa and explain the Vedas through false scriptures in an atheistic way, similar to Buddhist philosophy.’ That's cause for alarm amongst the acaryas. They specifically give clear explanations to refute all the details of these misinterpretations by the various philosophers who exclude the personality of godhead from their interpretations of the vedas. There are these six philosophies of India which you'll find also threads of those available in the world. They were like different departments in a university explaining the same thing but then through the corruption in the age of kali they became deviant to the original explanation. Vyāsadeva in his vedanta sutra has therefore refuted by logic and scriptural authority the various deviations of these various darshans like the karma mimamsa and the Patañjali's yoga sutra and the Vaiśeṣika, philosophy of Kannada. It's important to hear and understand all these things, especially the one’s Prabhupāda painstakingly presented in his books. And also for representing Kṛṣṇa consciousness to others. You may be surprised how much it will not only just fortify you in your enthusiasm to present the supreme personality of godhead to others. The acaryas have gone to great lengths to refute these things and that there are logical arguments even if you don't assimilate all of them has a strengthening effect on your own consciousness and therefore Kaviraj Goswami said siddhānta baliyā citte nā kara alasa ihā ha-ite kṛṣṇe lāge sudṛḍha mānasa [CC Ādi 2.117]. Don’t be aloof or lazy when it comes to going through the siddhanta and hearing all these different points. As you hear them your mind will become strengthened. 

2014-03-08 Reading Caitanya caritamrta Adi 5.36 to 5.54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSLgED_A33k&t=7535s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 2 hr 15 mins. 

It's free will. Everyone has their choice and if they're gonna be free will, there has to be choice. So, if they want to have bewilderment, Kṛṣṇa's gotta execute and provide that bewilderment

for them. So, if they want other paths besides the direct path of bhakti, Kṛṣṇa will arrange for those and also empower people. In fact it is mentioned in the commentary in the sixth canto the Śrīmad–Bhāgavatam Viśvanāth Cakravartī Ṭhākur says that not all devotees in one lifetime or in this same lifetime come to the perfectional stage of chanting. They achieve it just after they leave the body and Kṛṣṇa arranges for that because he doesn't want to bewilder or discourage people who have taken to other indirect paths as their desire and so forth. At the same time Kṛṣṇa achieves many purposes or achieves many ends by performing one activity. So, there may be many other things going on at the same time. As He's giving an alternative path He's also giving the remedy in the form of the teachings of the ācāryas and so many other ways so that people can come to the perfect stage.

There's a lot going on at the same time. Anyone who's been a manager knows that solutions are not just black and white there are many shades of gray and nowadays because of computers there are millions of different shades of colors and so forth. When you're dealing with living entities who are all independent and have free will they have minute independence. They have their own preferences and predilections because of previous lives and so forth. Imagine if you just deal with a small family with two kids and they have different ideas about what they want to do during the day and during their life. How hard that is to manage one living entity, two living entities, three…families of seven. Kṛṣṇa is managing unlimited living entities so they're all going in different directions. They all want different things. So, now he has to make all these arrangements and only he can do that. Nityo ’nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13]. He is supplying the living entities not just food but also according to all their desires. Whatever myriad desires they have He's fulfilling them simultaneously and all they all intersect with others and the karma is also perfectly executed. You can't fathom those kinds of things. Managers know that there are certain ways that you have to sometimes present one thing in order to get a different result. Politicians know this too. There's all kinds of ways that throughout history there have been campaigns meant to bring about an ultimate result that began with obfuscation of the complete truth to start with.

2014-03-08 Reading Caitanya caritamrta Adi 5.36 to 5.54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSLgED_A33k&t=7535s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 2 hr 22 mins. 

It is the criticism of a person who takes a mathematics class and then they walk to the other wing of the building one day during lunch break and they walk by the trigonometry class, where they are drawing arrows on the board and the person says, ‘that's stupid. They don't even know anything about mathematics. Just arrows and circles. It's crazy. So, similarly for somebody with a preliminary understanding of what is religion, the sophistication of the philosophy of the vedas which we're hearing about the detail that the ācāryas go into and which the śāstra presents and there are explanations can be mind boggling. There's a thesis, antithesis and synthesis and all these things are are going on in such a way that we can ultimately come to to the truth which for our sake is condensed, especially in this age, into the bhagavad-gītā and bhāgavatam. Kṛṣṇa says, vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham [BG 15.15]. ‘I am the goal of all these things’. Then it comes down to just chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Of course that's fine. You can just do that, if you can just do that it's fine also but who's just chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. There's also according to Ṭhākur Haridās, an importance in having along with one's initiation into the chanting of the holy name one should have sambandha-jñān. There's the dīkṣā and then there's the śikṣā and that is both necessary. It looks like you say which is more important: planting the seed or watering the seed. They're equally important, the dīkṣā and śikṣā. Sometimes people say, ‘well you're in a śikṣā-paramparā therefore no need for dīkṣā. Just śikṣā all the time. But they don't understand the context. At the time of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta there were members of Nityānanda Prabhu's own family they were just saying all you need is dīkṣā, and it has to be in our family otherwise you're nothing. Therefore at that particular time in history they stress the śikṣā in order to counteract that and another time there may be necessity to point out, ‘no you have to have dīkṣā also’. So, not only various religious traditions that don't have perspective, also within our own tradition there are people even who consider themselves followers of Prabhupāda who don't take a perspective that allows them to present anything else but fanaticism. That's not helpful. What's helpful is getting you know the entire perspective, understanding why we're doing certain things and that requires hearing and understanding over time. Then one's inspired as Kṛṣṇadās Kavirāj Gosvāmī says to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa because one has a very clear and distinct understanding. You get a sudṛḍha-manaḥ [CC Ādi 2.117]. The mind is fixed. It says that there is nothing else but chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. If you think if the mind thinks there's something else to do it'll go do that but if if you're convinced by your intelligence there's nothing else to do but chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa it fulfills everything and Kṛṣṇa is everything and you've just heard these chapters. It all contributes to that sudṛḍha-manaḥ [CC Ādi 2.117] and one's able to perform devotional service in an unwavering way. It's a rare thing actually for somebody to come to this position of niṣṭhā, of no hesitation in their devotional practice, no doubts. They're free to simply perform devotional service. Tac chraddadhānā munayo jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā paśyanty ātmani cātmānaṁ bhaktyā śruta-gṛhītayā [SB 1.2.12]. It must be done thoughtfully, says Sūta Gosvāmī. It has to be done by thoughtful people and they have to be fortified with jñān and vairāgya which come from hearing the vedānta-śruti very carefully.

2014-03-08 Reading Caitanya caritamrta Adi 5.36 to 5.54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSLgED_A33k&t=7535s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 2 hr 29 mins. 

People, whatever age they may be, are never misled when they are sincere. Kṛṣṇa is looking out for every living entity. He is there within the heart and monitoring the situation. There is so much about ISKCON on the internet, but still devotees go over and still stick with it, but some get bewildered and get caught and say that they can't do it. It’s because they have a certain momentum from their previous life based on their previous practices. Living entities at all ages are being guided by Kṛṣṇa from within the heart. It's not just that they are vulnerable to everything. It's based on their psycho physiological nature and their spiritual credit which they have attained in their previous birth. It's not that everyone is simply exposed to all these things and there's no antidote and there's no remedy. That's completely available too. Also with bewilderment there is also a remedy, enlightenment is provided. That's completely available.  Sometimes people become misled very easily because of their state of heart. They want to be misled based on their predilection and other people aren't. Jīva is not left unprotected. If he wants Kṛṣṇa, he gets Him.

2014-06-28 LA SB 8.7.10 - HG Vaisesika Dasa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PynMsCewrc

Time where the answer starts in the video: 31 mins.

I don't know that there's a constant fight against science and scripture. There may be different approaches to getting one's information in the world. Science means to know how you come to know something. So the devotees accept the authority, a perfect eyewitness who can tell you what's going on from a superior source. They consider this śruti hearing from a perfect source to be the way to get knowledge. Science relies mostly on investigation using limited senses. So there's a way in which when we are dealing with situations in which we hear, for instance, that the Gaṅgā's water is pure. This is true. But at the same time if you go to the Gaṅgā and you see that there were some chemicals released from an industrial plant upstream, why be foolhardy and simply drink the water. Even sādhus they strain the water and so forth. They don't simply declare that oh it must be pure because the śāstra said it's pure. Prabhupāda does mention that devotees when they see bubbles, foam and mud they go into the water and they push it out of the way and they simply take their bath and they remain healthy. But if you have some other information that there's been some poison in the water. For instance the Yamunā lake was poisoned at one time by Kāliya. I mean Yamunā is always pure but at one time Kāliya went into the lake and he poisoned everything and then the devotees who came and drank from it died and Kṛṣṇa had to revive them. Discretion is the better part of valor. You have to discriminate and use your common sense as well.

How To Use Something Temporary To Gain The Eternal | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | 23 Mar 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OT0Yj21OAg&t=3608s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr.

Those who are truly simple-hearted are pure in heart; it means that Kṛṣṇa is there in their heart and Kṛṣṇa is directing their intelligence. So, simple does not mean that you're without intelligence nor are you without protection from Kṛṣṇa himself. This goes to the real goal of life which is to give up trying to aggrandize oneself or put oneself in a position of enjoyment. Prahlad Maharaj himself said that the moment you start thinking about how to please yourself, that's when you start suffering and feeling misery. But if you engage in devotional service then you'll naturally feel happy and aligned and for those who are feeling confused morose can at any time just engage in service to Kṛṣṇa. 

Twelve Goal Setting Tips To Get Direction | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | Global Youth Retreat | 31 Dec 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLcU7UrXj74&t=2572s

TIme where answer starts in video: 1 hr 10 mins

What I find is that when I fall off from a goal that it's always there waiting for me when I want to come back and I find also when I fail in doing it and then I'm able to come back to it again then I develop a little more insight into how how to stick with it or how to adjust it so that I can do it. Oftentimes we move forward in fits and starts. It's not always a neat process. Prabhupāda gave this little anecdote once. There was this Indian man who liked Prabhupāda and he had gone to Gauḍīya Maṭh for Janmāṣṭamī and they were criticizing Prabhupāda. Some of his Godbrothers made it their profession to criticize everything Prabhupāda did. A newspaper article had come out about how the devotees had gotten in some trouble in Japan and some of them were asked to leave and so during Janmāṣṭamī he brought it out to show the audience that see A. C. Bhaktivedānta Swami’s people are like black sheep he said and they got kicked out of Japan. So, this man was really disturbed and he came back to Prabhupāda and said, ‘this Godbrother was criticizing you to the audience on Janmāṣṭamī and he brought out this article about getting kicked out of Japan.’ One of the devotees there who was on the Japan project said, ‘but Prabhupāda, it's not true. We didn't really get kicked out’. Prabhupāda said that it is all right. He said, ‘once there was a man and he was talking to this other man and he said I've just lost 10,000 and the other man said to him well you're lucky because I didn't even have 10,000 to lose. So, Prabhupāda said, ‘he is criticizing that we got kicked out of Japan. At least we were there to get kicked out.’ So, what if you get knocked off your thing? At least you made a stand and if you keep making a stand you'll find that as Prabhupāda writes in The Light of the Bhāgavat [Text 43]. There's a beautiful purport there where he says failure may not be detrimental. It may become the pillar to success and in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says there's never any failure for somebody who's sincere. For somebody who actually sincerely tries you can never fail. So, if you're trying to advance in devotional service and you're trying to organize your life in such a way that all the pieces work so you can represent the sampradāya and be there even the failures Kṛṣṇa will find ways. They're like fodder, compost. All the stuff you throw away if you put it in a box. So, all the times we fail, it's compost. You put it in a box and a nutrient rich experience comes out, which you can use in other places. Otherwise we just give into fatalism that I can't do anything. But you can. And there are step by step ways to do it and Kṛṣṇa helps you.

2013-08-05 LA SB 7.11.17 Accepting Occupational Duties

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEfkN1W8sr4&t=2708s

TIme where answer starts in video: 40 mins

Not only do we have to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa but we also have to carefully avoid the 10 offenses against the holy name. One may go on chanting for millions of years but if he or she is not careful about avoiding the offenses to the holy name then one's progress will be curtailed. So, this is one of the prime causes for failing in devotional service. There are also six items mentioned by Rūpa Gosvāmī, which were meant to observe, to catalog and to follow. Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ jana-saṅgaś ca laulyaṁ ca ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati [Nectar of Instruction verse 2]. Bhakti is destroyed by these six things. Atyāhāraḥ which means over-collecting, over-eating. Prayāsa which means over-endeavor which comes from over-collecting. You have to live a simple life and if you don't then you'll have to work really hard to maintain what you have. All the material desires that you have. And then you don't have any time for bhakti. When you don't take time for bhakti you get affected by the three modes of material nature. Prajalpa, the tongue is our rudder and as we use our tongue we'll go in that direction. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ [Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 17.136]. You can't understand Kṛṣṇa through your blunt material senses but if you engage your tongue strictly in His service then He'll reveal Himself. But if you speak prajalpa, which means you use the tongue to gossip, especially if you vilify devotees, then you're going down fast because Kṛṣṇa says in the Ninth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the devotees are My heart and I am in their heart and He doesn't tolerate the blasphemy of devotees, so we should very carefully avoid criticizing devotees and/or hearing criticism. We should also take only Kṛṣṇa prasādam.

Niyamāgrahaḥ means accepting the rules and regulations only for the sake of following them without knowing why we're doing it. Just taking by momentum the process and not becoming vitally concerned with how it's making us advance. Or neglecting the rules and regulations which is the anatomy of a fall-down. When I begin to think that because I'm liberated. I am liberated because I'm in ISKCON or I'm liberated because I'm initiated. I'm liberated because I just finished my 16 rounds or any other reason. Therefore I can do what… you can fill in the blank. I can skip this, I can do that. This is how Māyā sneaks in. So, I have to rededicate myself every day because I'm not the same person. The person I was at night I'm not the same person when I wake up in the morning. Everything gets jumbled up.

So, one practical thing is to line up all your devotional items at night before you go to sleep. Clean your house, clean your room, make sure everything's spotless. My father, before we'd go on vacation every Easter to Mexico, he'd make the family clean the whole house spotless. And I always said as a kid, ‘why do we have to clean the house? We're not going to be here?’ He said, ‘wait till you get back. You'll appreciate it.’ I remember coming back after eight or nine days and thinking about who cleaned the house and what smart, nice person cleaned the house. So, clean your room. Put everything in order and I recommend also take all the śāstra that you're going to read the next day and put it in a stack. Say you've got your Gītā, you've got your Bhāgavatam, put it, line it up and then take your bead bag, nicely fold it up. Put it on top and then have everything lined up for the morning. So, when you wake up you're your best friend from the night before. If you have a strong morning program, you cover the basics and you're conscious, you're aware, you're present for your practice and you can get one tiny mustard seed of inspiration from your japa. It can change your whole life. One good japa session can take you back to Godhead. One mantra, where you actually lean in. I saw somebody on the airplane the other day had a book called ‘Lean In’ and I thought that's good for devotional service. Lean into it. Lean in and take the japa session. Don't go away without getting at least one mustard seed of inspiration. Otherwise niyamāgrahaḥ. You're just doing it for doing it. Be there, get it, and you always win with basics, with the fundamentals.

I was walking near my house. There's this Washington Park that I walk by and sometimes they are practicing baseball. So, I always like to watch to see what the coach is saying because I love coaching and the idea of how coaches organize teams and get their team ready for the game. So I heard the coach yelling at his team, ‘muscle memory gentlemen, muscle memory’. That really stuck in my mind. The muscle memory means if you do something over and over again you get accustomed to it and you do it consciously then you become unconsciously competent and it becomes part of your being. Māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate [BG 14.26]. By constantly performing devotional service and not falling down one rises above the three modes of material nature and comes to the level of Brahman.

The other thing he said to his team, ‘baseball 101 not 102’ and he was saying take the basics and learn the basics perfectly. Don't try to move on to all kinds of higher subjects, get something from the Bhagavad-gītā. Who knows the Bhagavad-gītā? Not many people read the Bhagavad-gītā. Not many people who have the Bhagavad-gītā read it. We ask, ‘did you enter into it, did you get one śloka out of it, did you live by it, did you find one śloka that said be satisfied?’ This is the austerity of the mind. Satisfaction. Have you practiced that—to be actually satisfied? Did you practice being equipoised, that you're not disturbed by happiness or distress? Practice these basics and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa as if there's no tomorrow—there probably isn't. Steve Jobs used to say that ‘you should live every day as if it was your last day because one day you'll be right’ and we should chant like that also and feel like that if we take the basics every morning.

The other part of the basics is that you have to read Prabhupāda’s books. Prabhupāda personally told me this in a darśan in 1973 in San Francisco. We were a saṅkīrtana party and San Francisco was doing big and our temple president was explaining to Śrīla Prabhupāda how big we were doing and Prabhupāda looked at us and he said, ‘you must also read my books’. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta he says ‘if my students don't read all my books every single one of them’, and he lists them, ‘they will go back to eating and sleeping and fall back down into material life’. If every morning you read 40 pages of the Bhāgavatam—take two hours to read Bhāgavatam—and Nectar of Devotion, you have to know what the science of devotional service is, you'll be fortified by association with Prabhupāda. You can associate with him through the pages of his books, but you have to have it because if you don't, Kali-yuga is so pernicious and there's so much distraction it'll enter in and gradually it'll eat away at the practice of devotional service and then the fall-down.

So vigilance, and Prabhupāda says one must be careful. I started looking at this—what does it mean to be careful? Another point is that you must not think ‘I am liberated’. Don't think you're liberated and Prabhupāda says this: if one thinks ‘I am liberated therefore I can associate with attractive women unrestrictedly’ you'll fall down. Don't think like that. The specific qualification of a pure devotee is thinking ‘I could fall down at any minute’. And Prahlāda Mahārāja in his prayers to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva says that ‘I'm not afraid of Your sharp pinching teeth or Your high wedge-like ears or Your roaring which is scaring away everyone in the universe and making the demigods back up. What I'm afraid of is Your Viṣṇu-māyā because if I make a wrong step I can fall back down again into that cycle and who knows when I'll come back out again’. Such an impending fear must be there in the heart of the devotee—to take shelter over and over again of the basics of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

What basics? Prabhupāda gave us so much. If you just take, if I just take the basic supplements that Prabhupāda gave us—the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa very carefully, making that the centerpiece of my entire practice, and the reading of his books, especially Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—then we become very strong. Once a devotee came and complained to Prabhupāda and said, ‘but Prabhupāda, Māyā is so strong’, and Prabhupāda said, ‘Māyā is not so strong, you're so weak’. And then he said, if you keep a proper diet, exercise, a good outlook in life and so forth you won't fall sick—you'll be fortified. So similarly he said if you keep a very strong spiritual regimen then you won't also fall victim to Māyā.

So what to do? Individually we have to become strong. And in paramedic school they teach ‘a dead paramedic can't save anyone’. I know that because SatiDev Prabhu is a paramedic and he told me the first day when they went in to learn about how to save other people on the street and wherever else they had fallen, they said ‘a dead paramedic can't save anyone’. So first you have to make sure you're saved. And when you're on the airplane and they make the announcement in the case of a crash landing they say the airbags are going to come down—put yours on first before you attend to your child.

So this is a letter Prabhupāda wrote Jayananda Prabhu. I don't know what Jayananda Prabhu asked, but Prabhupāda wrote back and said it's the same old thing: Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, be very careful, but go back to fundamentals. They're actually the most exciting part of any discipline. That mṛdaṅga—if you take tere keṭa which is simple mṛdaṅga practice beat and you do it six hours a day then miraculously you'll be able to do other things. So we should be careful, we should take the basics, and don't think that I'm liberated. And then we should also form associations with devotees in a very intimate way so that everyone has an opportunity to hear and chant. That's the crying need of the day. We may build so many buildings but unless there's hearing and chanting going on within those buildings, they'll crumble. And people, Prabhupāda said, they'll see the deity worship sooner or later as a great burden. ‘My spiritual master has hung a great weight around my neck and now I have to carry that’, because they don't see the deity anymore—they just see a stone. Unless somebody, unless we hear and chant and organize our family at home and whatever neighborhood I live in around this principle of hearing and chanting—this is the genesis of all advancement in devotional service. And we have to remember that it's not based on how much money we make or how many other marks we can make. The main point is that we have to keep the vibration pure and we have to keep the vibration going.

Like Urja-svāta Prabhu used to say—he was one of the champions of the early bhakta movement where they made hundreds of bhaktas—and he used to say the secret is you got to lift up the kīrtan. If the kīrtan’s lifted up in the temple then everyone becomes happy. So if the kīrtans are going in… There is a devotee in Japan, Naganātana Prabhu, he told me his history coming to devotional service. He said, ‘I was suffering so much and coming to Kṛṣṇa consciousness was an arduous decision because I had my family and it was really hard to break away.’ And he said, ‘but the kīrtans—at the time Gurukṛpā was there, Guru Swāmī—and they were having these gigantic nāgar saṅkīrtans that would make your hair stand on end. The devotees were so enthusiastic and they were so devoted to the chanting of the holy name.’ And he said, ‘those kīrtans saved my life. They saved my devotional life. They changed me. They made me come to devotional service and take it up seriously.’ One of the basic points: the kīrtan has to be lifted up. We should plan ahead how to make the kīrtan ecstatic and expose everyone to that system. 

We always win with the basics.

2013-04-03 ISV Ending Spiritual Poverty

https://youtu.be/bPkDkdEc8Ww?si=yGtrG2fx1O0QyM03

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1hr 20 min

Kṛṣṇa is a person. He does have senses and he is with us all the time. In other words it's not that Kṛṣṇa is not fully manifest all the time. He is. It's just because I can't see him because of my own ignorance. I don't recognize my relationship with him. Kṛṣṇa says in the Gita that when that ignorance is cleared away, then my relationship is revived. It's like when the sun lights up everything in the daytime I can see clearly. So, Kṛṣṇa is there but because of my ignorance I can't see him and when I adjust my approach in life towards him and towards others and my relationship with the world, it changes. Then gradually he reveals himself to the devotees. 

ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi

na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ

sevonmukhe hi jihvādau

svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ 

[CC Madhya 17.136]

When one changes the way one uses one's senses, especially starting with the tongue and one uses the tongue in the service of Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa reveals himself to the devotee. How does he reveal himself to the devotee? In various ways. We heard in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, how first of all, Kṛṣṇadas Kaviraj Goswami offers his obeisances to his spiritual Masters. 

vande gurūn īśa-bhaktān

īśam īśāvatārakān

tat-prakāśāṁś ca tac-chaktīḥ

Kṛṣṇa-caitanya-saṁjñakam 

[CC Adi 1.34]

He says vande gurun and he says that I offer my obeisances to my guru. Uddhava says in his prayers to Lord Kṛṣṇa that no one can offer or have enough gratitude and offer enough appreciation to you because you appear internally as the chaitya guru to guide me and externally you appear as the spiritual master or spiritual Masters to guide me. Once when the devotees were going to the beach to swim and they came back and they were feeling a little guilty and they told Prabhupāda, ‘we feel a little guilty we're going to the beach. How can this be Kṛṣṇa consciousness’. Prabhupāda said Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad Gita that he is the light of the sun and the moon. Kṛṣṇa is the ocean. How could you be in Maya? How could you not think of Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa's there with us all the time. He's never inattentive to us. He's our digestion. Kṛṣṇa says in the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, ahaṁ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā [BG 15.14], that I'm the digestion force. We can feel gratitude that Kṛṣṇa is digesting the food. 

Then he says that 

kaviṁ purāṇam anuśāsitāram

aṇor aṇīyāṁsam anusmared yaḥ

sarvasya dhātāram acintya-rūpam

āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt 

[BG 8.9]

Kavim; he's the original philosopher. He is the wisest of all and he's the oldest. Anuśāsitāram - 

He is the supreme controller. Aṇor aṇīyāṁsam anusmared yaḥ. He is larger than the largest and smaller than the smallest. Sarvasya dhātāram. He's the maintainer of everything. In the surrender process it is very important that devotees consider Kṛṣṇa their protector. They don't take protection from anywhere else. And also maintenance. They consider Kṛṣṇa is the only one maintaining me and they test that. We take risks in devotional service and as we take risks and we surrender in the surrender process, we start to feel Kṛṣṇa's presence that he's actually maintaining and protecting me in all ways. Prabhupāda describes in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta how there's a competition between Kṛṣṇa and the devotee. The devotee who's surrendering to Kṛṣṇa is thinking of more and more ways to surrender and more and more ways to serve Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa is thinking more and more ways to serve his devotee and to support his devotee in wonderful ways and this becomes a very intimate relationship and in the beginning one may experience Kṛṣṇa's presence so indirectly but as the relationship grows the devotee can see Kṛṣṇa everywhere and within everything and becomes fully dependent on Kṛṣṇa and is never separated from him and at any minute. 

Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena

santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti

yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

[Brahma-saṁhitā 5.38]

When a person actually has this full love then Kṛṣṇa can't hide himself. Those who love Kṛṣṇa so intensely, they actually practically control Kṛṣṇa because of the intensity of their love so much so that he's practically forced to reveal himself to these devotees.

In the beginning we hear Kṛṣṇa, before we see Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupāda mentions in one of the purports in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that one who chants Hare Kṛṣṇa without offenses, begins to hear the mahamantra as a unique sound like nothing he or she have heard before. This is the beginning of hearing Kṛṣṇa. We will experience Kṛṣṇa in our sincerity to chant. Its self effulgent knowledge, not something foreign to us. Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema 'sādhya' kabhu naya [CC Madhya 22.107]. Original love for Kṛṣṇa is there in the heart. As the mist of ignorance is cleared we experience the relationship in many different ways. 

2020 11 18 Srila Prabhupada the Pre eminent Siksa Guru   

https://youtu.be/bLh3rVww72o?si=bpRWtUCF2ST1SOG_

Time where the answer starts in the video: 36 mins. 

There are numerous ways to do that. A part of being connected to the parampara really means to be open to following the acharya and to working cooperatively. It requires that sense of sincerity and then we tune in through Srila Prabhupāda's books. They are encyclopedic and he says many things. People often get the impression that Prabhupāda is like this, he is like that. Read through the whole thing and get the full spectrum of the way Prabhupāda thinks and his moods and so forth. Then of course we hear from devotees who fortunately are still walking the earth who sat with Prabhupāda, who heard him say things about certain topics. When we want to know something we ask somebody who was there. Call Srutākirti, and ask, ‘what did Prabhupāda say about this?’. In a comprehensive way we're meant to try to triangulate and understand what is the intention of the acarya and and if we cooperate with that understanding (and that's our mood you know cooperate under the acarya) then we can get great traction in our own spiritual lives and in spreading of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

2020 06 17 Sri Caitanya Caritamrita Adi Lila 1.92

https://youtu.be/a0xayKr_fUQ?si=VJz4kmjn2VwDMPNs

Time where the answer starts in the video: 54 mins

Absolute truth is the complete whole and that from whom everything else emanates and He's the cause of all causes. That's what the absolute truth means. What does it mean when Kṛṣṇa says there's no truth superior to me? It means that everything is Kṛṣṇa and everything is within Kṛṣṇa and therefore there is nothing beyond Kṛṣṇa and there's no truth superior to him. In other words the ultimate is the transcendental body of Kṛṣṇa the transcendental personality of Kṛṣṇa. That's the ultimate truth and there's not something else. For instance, some commentators on the Bhagavad-gita like Dr. Radha Kṛṣṇa wrote in his commentary that when Kṛṣṇa says man-mana bhava mad-bhakto think of me. He doesn't mean think of me, he means think of the impersonal brahman within Kṛṣṇa. So, people think that there's something beyond Kṛṣṇa. So, Jiva Goswami refutes this idea by proving that Kṛṣṇa is multi-dimensional. He's in all places at all times. As Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gita that this is his mystic opulence that he also maintains his individual personality even though he expands Himself into everything else He still has His personal form.

2020 06 17 Sri Caitanya Caritamrita Adi Lila 1.92

https://youtu.be/a0xayKr_fUQ?si=VJz4kmjn2VwDMPNs

Time where the answer starts in the video: 58 min

One way to understand is that it's like a child who wants to pick up a heavyweight and his father's standing behind him. So, then the child goes to pick up, let's say a barbell, and he can't lift it. He doesn't have the capacity to do that but his father's standing behind him and when the child goes to pick up the barbell then the father actually grabs it and lifts it up and the child's thinking, ‘oh I'm so strong I lifted this up.’ But it's actually the father's strength.

na hi kaścit kṣaṇam api 

jātu tiṣṭhaty akarma-kṛt 

kāryate hy avaśaḥ karma 

sarvaḥ prakṛti-jair guṇaiḥ 

[BG 3.5]

We're always active and we have desire and ambition and so forth. But we're not independent and fulfilling that. So, through the three modes of material nature those who have material desires, the Supersoul arranges for whatever desires the living entity has to be fulfilled.

asau guṇamayair bhāvair 

bhūta-sūkṣmendriyātmabhiḥ 

sva-nirmiteṣu nirviṣṭo 

bhuṅkte bhūteṣu tad-guṇān 

[SB 1.2.33]

There's a way in which Bhāgavatam describes how this Supersoul is there within the heart and fulfills the desires of the living entities according to their desire and also what they deserve. The living entity is ultimately responsible, says the Bhagavad-gītā. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa describes how he gives two verses.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni 

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ 

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā 

kartāham iti manyate 

[BG 3.27]

The living entity who thinks that he's the doer is very foolish. He doesn't understand that he's being facilitated. And then Kṛṣṇa says

tattva-vit tu mahā-bāho 

guṇa-karma-vibhāgayoḥ 

guṇā guṇeṣu vartanta 

iti matvā na sajjate 

[BG 3.28]

If someone understands how these things are working he becomes a knower of the truth. He sees how everything he's doing is being facilitated by higher powers. You are correct that he has volition. Otherwise the Vedas wouldn't have any meaning. The Vedas are saying that to the living entity that you should come out of this illusion that you're in. And therefore the soul can do that with some assistance from the Śāstra and from the pure devotee to come out of entanglement in the material nature as he has the volition to do that. Especially when there's some intervention. In the Gītā Kṛṣṇa says ultimately I'm not responsible.

nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ 

na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ 

ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ 

tena muhyanti jantavaḥ 

[BG 5.15]

I don't create the sinful reactions of the living entities. The living entity does that for himself because of his interaction with material nature. So, the living entity is an agent for change ultimately and he can come out of the material nature with the assistance of Śāstra and the pure devotee and then become free from the modes of material nature and while he's in it, it's his mess, it's his karma. It's not God’s. It's the living entity entangled in it. But it's from time immemorial. So, it's really hard to really understand the origin of it because it's called anādi or beginningless and Prabhupāda describes it as being from time immemorial.

Whatsapp message - VDA disciple group, Oct 16 2025 

Definitely don’t whisper. Voice experts say whispering strains the voice even more. Until your voice heals you should be very careful. You can use your beads and say the mantrā in your mind.

The Later Pastimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu-3 | Govardhan Readings#3 | 29 Sep 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSHRuZECJlw&t=2597s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 43 mins

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. 

One should approach writing thinking that I am writing for self purification, and not to become famous. 

Ten Principles to Develop Determination | HG Vaisesika Dasa | GEV | 30 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0HBdYNYrRY

Time where the answer starts in the video: 02 mins

Decisions are hard to make because we don't have enough information. Sometimes I'll be working on revising a paragraph and I'll come to a sentence and I just can't get it to fit. I can't get it to work one way or another. Fortunately, I've had good editors throughout my life and then they say to me, just remove the sentence and get on with your life. And what a relief that is. You just use the most invaluable tool ever invented by man, and that is the undo button or the delete. So, one way that we may have a hard time making a decision about something is we don't have enough information. So, if someone brings you a conundrum, a problem to solve, a decision to make, and you're not sure, it's likely that you don't have enough information. So ask for more. What does it mean? What are the implications? One way to do this is to make a list.

What are the pros and cons of this decision that I'm going to make? Benjamin Franklin, famous for his wit and his progressiveness in life and his ideas that he presented for many people to follow, said the simplest way is to draw a line down the middle of a paper and one side put pros, the other one put cons. And just list them all because then you're engaged in a more clear thought process. Things don't always come ready made. So get more information. Then list the pros and cons. Then set a deadline for making the decision because justice delayed is justice denied and a decision delayed is a decision not made. So once you set something on the calendar and you say by this date or by today or in 10 minutes I'm going to make the decision. Then there is forced efficiency which means that you have a sense of I have to act and that's important in making decision because if you got all the information you possibly could you listed the pros and cons then you set the time and you made the decision well you did the best you could and if happens to be mistaken you can always correct it later. And once you decide, commit to your choice. Don't equivocate and go back and forth. Just stick with it. That's about making a strong decision. And that's important for developing determination is you have to decide you're going to do something. Kṛṣṇa gives an offer. He says surrender to me. I'll protect you.

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ [Bg 18.66]

Don't worry. Don't hesitate. Don't give it another thought. And then you could possibly decide. Just say I've decided I'm going to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. So you have to make a firm commitment. Say I'm doing this. In initiation vows, people are astounded to watch that somebody's actually going to sit down and make a public proclamation that they're going to follow certain vows and that they're making a commitment. That's necessary. Make a commitment. People are also astounded by that. You mean you're really going to do this? What's the alternative? Just stay uncommitted and float. If you want to get anywhere in life, if you want to buy a house or a car or get a pet or not get a pet, you have to make a decision. And that's very important. So, commit to your choice.

You have to have an emotional why. Why am I doing this? That's what drives the world. And let me give you some examples of those who had an emotional why in a devotional context. And we call this attitude. You have to have an attitude. Attitude is the mindset you have that drives you in a certain direction. And in the nectar of instruction, Srila Prabhupāda writes in essence that when it comes to devotional service and advancement in devotional service, attitude is everything. (For details of the five attitudes, please refer to class titled ‘5 Attitudes that invite Bhakti | ISV | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 23 July 2022’, ‘https://youtu.be/idnIceB56kM?si=ZmrNnTN17PhGmCO2)

So, you got to have an attitude. It can't be nondescript or maybe I'm on a National Geographic vacation this lifetime. No, it's got to be an all powerful mood that leads to honing one's determination. So it becomes so powerful that it's called dṛḍha-vratāḥ that you make this solemn vow and it's your only goal in life is to go back home back to godhead. 

One more prerequisite for determination and that is to abandon mistaken unchangeability. That's an invented phrase. It's also called cognitive bias. In other words, I have a certain mindset and I'm determined to keep it. I won't change it. And the mindset that one might develop is as follows. That I am where I am. I'm stuck and there's really no way I can change it. I can't improve. If you've ever approached something in that mood and you said, "Well, it's not possible for me." Then the next thing that you would do is make a long list of excuses why you can't do it. So, there's an antidote to that and that is to assume that it can be done. And the vedanta sutra says that you have to assume that you can come to the highest position of spiritual life. Why do you have to assume that? Because the śāstra are talking to whom? They're talking to me, right? And what do they say? They say come to the highest position. Emancipate yourself from the material world, but more importantly develop kṛṣṇa-prema. Someone may say, "Yeah, but to do that I have to go past anartha-nivṛttiḥ. To do that, I have to come to ruchi. To do that, I have to come to āsakti." And who can do that? It's rarely achieved. Well, Srila Vyāsadeva says you have to assume that you can do it because the shastra said you can do it and unless you have that it's very hard to be determined because then you'll say well everybody else can do it but not me. Six Gosvamis can do it or there's only one pure devotee Prabhupāda, and everyone else has no possibility. So, mistaken unchangeability means I can't change. That's a mistake. Cognitive bias thinking I'm stuck the way I am. I can't improve. I can't make steps to improve myself.

Kṛṣṇa Katha - H.G Vaisesika Dasa | 2021-03-26 | ISKCON of Silicon Valley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBgW_VEbYuA

Time where the answer starts in the video: 2 hrs 05 mins

I have a suggestion. You can try this as homework. Just try flipping that and instead of saying ‘how can I have more faith in Kṛṣṇa’, ask this question ‘how can Kṛṣṇa have more faith in me. It's a relationship. So, why is it that Kṛṣṇa has to prove himself to us constantly. Why not just say ‘okay, I'm going to be the one who proves myself to Kṛṣṇa’. Then I'm for real. If you just do that and change the role then you'll be happy immediately and you'll go about your day thinking ‘I'm going to show Kṛṣṇa that I'm worth His time and His glance’. So don't try to see Kṛṣṇa but try to work in such a way that Kṛṣṇa will want to see you. If you just flip that one switch, then you'll be happy and Kṛṣṇa will reveal himself in ways that you won't even want to speak about because no one's going to believe you and you just keep it to yourself and just keep feeding that energy that you get from Kṛṣṇa revealing himself to you in amazing ways to the most intimate devotees you know or just keep it in your own heart and say, ‘Kṛṣṇa I know you're there for me and I want to prove myself to you because for so long I have been the runt of the litter. I'm that little puppy that nobody wants. They come by and go, ‘not that one’. I got left out of the litter because I'm just a little runt spiritually and I'm the mercy case. If you do that and you try to please Kṛṣṇa 

ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi

na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ

sevonmukhe hi jihvādau

svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ 

[CC Madhya 17.136]

You take this perspective that I'm going to serve Kṛṣṇa and that's all there is to it and everything else will be revealed from that point.

Put Down Your Mask | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 28 Sep 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kswytJr69R4

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1hr 22 mins

One of the main points of non-violent communication is that you don't assume that you know the person's intention. This really goes to the heart of aggravating people when you assume that you know why they said something that, what their intention was behind it. So one of the tenets of non-violent communication is really to state it as you are making your case to the person, ‘you may not have intended to do this. I know you didn't intend to do it or I'm not judging whether you intended to do it or not but this is how it made me feel. This was the effect that it had, even though I'm sure you didn't intend to do this. If you ask somebody a question you say willing or able. If you say, ‘are you able to do this’, they can say yes. But if they say, ‘are you willing to do it’, it starts getting a little contentious. Willing and able; these two ideas of what's your intention behind it. Another point I bring out from this verse is that what the purport [of BG 17.15] says, ‘One should not speak in such a way as to agitate the minds of others. Of course, when a teacher speaks, he can speak the truth for the instruction of his students, but such a teacher should not speak to those who are not his students if he will agitate their minds.’ This goes to this point I made earlier about discrimination. You have to see that there are different classes of people you're talking to. For the madhyama-adhikārī you have to be careful. If somebody didn't sign up for your program and you try to instruct them, they will be like, ‘what are you talking about I didn't sign up for this’. So, you have to see that it is appropriate to bring up to people. You may have to wait sometimes. There's times to speak and there's times to hold back and it's not like in the name of authenticity at every moment you have to say, ‘well I have to speak my truth. It's like that's just the way.

Kṛṣṇa is The Best Resource | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 15 Nov 2025

https://youtu.be/MiMptXo5aT4?si=JJ8NZTrOR4l-yT-A

Time where the answer starts in the video: 28 min

Prabhupāda gives an example of his own child, who was rambunctious and during a hot day when the fan was going on the table and Prabhupāda was having a discussion with a friend and his little son was causing a ruckus trying to climb up and touch the fan, and Prabhupāda as his father kept blocking him from coming up. And then his friend said, "Well, why don't you turn it down and then let him touch it and find out for himself?" And they did that and he wasn't injured or hurt, but he did get a sense for why he shouldn't climb up there himself. In the Shrimat Bhagwatam we find in chapter 87 of the 10th canto, the second verse. It says that the Lord has created the universe for two purposes because we are living beings as we're a special energy. We're amphibious. We can live in either place. [In the translation to SB 10.87.2] Śukadeva Gosvamī said: The Supreme Lord manifested the material intelligence, senses, mind and vital air of the living entities so that they could indulge their desires for sense gratification, take repeated births to engage in fruitive activities, become elevated in future lives and ultimately attain liberation. So, we have the opportunity to live in the material or spiritual environment and Kṛṣṇa gives facility for either one. His ultimate goal for the living entity is that the living entity be happy after all we're part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa and our nature is to be blissfully engaged in service to the Lord. So it's a kind of a didactic process. The material world it's meant to teach us and it's a very liberal kind of educational system which is the best kind because Kṛṣṇa wants us to make a choice by our free will. Realize that we have free will and not retreat from it because that's another tendency. There's a book called Escape from Freedom which makes compelling argument for the fact that people in general are afraid of freedom and once they get it they have this sense of insecurity. So, then they gravitate towards authoritarianism and other ways in which they could give up their free choice. They choose to give up their free will. And so there's that environment in the material world. Kṛṣṇa gives the opportunity for us to come to knowledge. He provides all knowledge from within the heart and externally through vyasadev and so forth. But he wants us to make our own choice. When I go out to distribute books, I always find it intriguing how free will works. And I'm more interested in presenting Kṛṣṇa consciousness to people, especially we have an object for them to take and decide upon (a book) by their own free will. It's a much more edifying experience when someone you present, I present and then they make their own choice rather than bamboozling them into taking it through psychological coercion. So Kṛṣṇa doesn't try to coerce us. He gives us knowledge and allows us to make a free choice. And in that lies the very purpose of the dichotomy which is when you (come to knowledge) and freely choose to serve Kṛṣṇa. It comes by your own volition, which we have, and we have to discover it and not be afraid of it and we have to use it to surrender to Kṛṣṇa and serve him and from that, there's this very deep relationship that is utterly completely fulfilling because ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā mayi te teṣu cāpy aham [BG 9.29]. Kṛṣṇa says when you decide that you you just want me by your own volition then I embrace you so completely and fully but you have to come to it ourselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiMptXo5aT4

Time where the answer starts in the video: 55 mins

Coming to such a feeling may require going through some experiences in this world that are trying. We become purified by fire-like experiences. It's like gold is purified by fire. So one of the elements and the didactic part of the material world is that we undergo loss, gain, suffering, sometimes apparent happiness and so forth. And if we are observant as we go through our lives about who is actually taking care of us, we can step by step come to a conclusion that it's all Kṛṣṇa taking care of us.

yasmin yato yarhi yena ca yasya yasmād

 yasmai yathā yad uta yas tv aparaḥ paro vā

 bhāvaḥ karoti vikaroti pṛthak svabhāvaḥ

 sañcoditas tad akhilaṁ bhavataḥ svarūpam [SB 7.9.20]

which is basically Prahlāda Mahārāja's way of saying that I've analyzed everything. I've seen through my father, through this whole experience I've been through with Hiraṇyakaśipu my father, that you're behind everything. I mean the way it came out, he could understand that everything is Kṛṣṇa. And so you have to live your life with an awareness of trying to find that.

I can give an anecdote from my own life which is just outliving my parents. It's a visceral experience having and losing parents. Even people who have bad relationships with their parents, if one of them passes, it's a very trying time because they're really tied into our identity in this world, and they raise us in a certain context, and that was because of momentum from a previous life that we're accustomed to fit into a particular family. So it's really part of our identity, and so losing a parent is very difficult.

However, because of my context of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, although I found it emotionally traumatizing in a way — in fact, when my mother died, I remember taking a walk around the neighborhood and already some news had spread that my mother had passed. So somebody was driving by as I was going for a walk, and they rolled down their window, and they asked me how I was. And I honestly said I felt like I got beat up. I felt like people had put a sack over my head and just beat me to a pulp. That's how I felt. And I was analyzing it: Why do I feel like that?

The conclusion I came to is that psychically my subtle body, my psychological body — there was an umbilical cord connected to my mother. Although it's cut at birth, the gross physical one, there's still the subtle one. Everything's tied into that. But as I continued to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what arose was a realization that my mother and my father were Kṛṣṇa's representatives. In one way I was thinking they were Kṛṣṇa. They're just Kṛṣṇa. They put a mask on somebody else and here's Kṛṣṇa, “but here's — that's your mama,” but that's actually Kṛṣṇa.

And one of the ways that I had that realization was I read in the Bhagavad-gītā where Prabhupāda said if you realize the love of your mother and then you think of that times 10 million, that's Kṛṣṇa. So then I thought, okay, that was my little taste of unconditional love from Kṛṣṇa coming through my mother.

And so in all instances in our life, as we continue the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout our life and cultivate that perspective, it becomes in-grown — the way we see the world, the way we interact with others and so forth — and the way we realize Kṛṣṇa's protection. We see oftentimes in retrospect. There's a video that I saw on, where else but YouTube, of this guy walking down the street. He was very stern and he's very matter-of-fact, and he keeps bumping people or pushing people out of the way, and they're like, “Hey, what?” And then you'll notice that he pushed somebody two seconds before they got hit by a car, or somebody else — there was an anvil probably falling from the sky, and you know, the other one was pushed through. What it seems like is you're getting slammed. But when you play out your life and you look at it in retrospect, you go like, “Oh, I see the protection.”

But that takes some cultivation to see Kṛṣṇa's hand in everything. And when we have that, we're seeing reality because Kṛṣṇa is protecting us at every minute. Even though the material world is endlessly mutable and whatever material situation we have now is going to change, that's part of His protection, to give us clarity. In the Bhagavad-gītā from the very beginning we just have to listen a little more carefully.

For instance, which part of the material universe is suffering — from Brahmaloka to Pātālaloka — did you not get? I'm like, “Yeah, yeah, right. Except for my neighborhood and my family and so forth, or my material body is going to do fine.” Not necessarily true. In fact, categorically untrue. And Kṛṣṇa gives us other categorical philosophical points to consider as we interact with the material world, and that's the idea of

vidyāṁ cāvidyāṁ ca yas

 tad vedobhayaṁ saha

 avidyayā mṛtyuṁ tīrtvā

 vidyayāmṛtam aśnute

 Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Mantra 11

You have to be observant. As you're cultivating spiritual knowledge, you're supposed to see how things are turning out ultimately, and that can lead you to a complete dependence on Kṛṣṇa because that's true and you'll come to realize in due course of time.

We never want to be glib about such answers because people really do suffer in this world. We all do. And when we're confronted with annihilation or the threat of being deprived of something, it really can seem dire and we may be overwhelmed.

Another example I'll give is a realization I had during the Loma Prieta earthquake here in California, Bay Area, circa 1989. We weren't so much affected except for if you watch the news, you figure the whole Bay Area is finished, and lots of people from other places called and said, “Are you okay?” It's like, “Yeah, a couple things fell off our shelves,” but freeways did break, the Bay Bridge did have a section that fell out of it and so forth.

But then I was thinking afterwards because there are so many rigid structures that we've built, and we expect them to stay there. We do build things with an idea of permanence, which is, from a geological point of view, not so wise. I mean, I was thinking after Loma Prieta earthquake where things caved in and everyone freaked out: if we lived in a teepee, we barely would have noticed. I mean, the water would have sloshed around, but a teepee is a little flexible.

If we're rigidly connected to the idea that I'm going to permanently stay here and that I'm this body, somehow or other by following the latest longevity advice we'll definitely live to 101 — because that's prominent now, right? Yeah, it's prominent — I'll be caught by surprise.

So Kṛṣṇa gives us the Gītā as a memo so we're not caught by surprise. You know, it's like: don’t invest everything in the material world. Jesus said it too. Don't build your foundation on sand. This is a sand foundation you have. It's not going to hold. Doesn't mean you become neurotic or antisocial. It just means you build that awareness into your consciousness as you go through life.

The Lord Reciprocates With Everyone | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | GYR | GEV | 25 Dec 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9P1EOSBUs4

Time where the answer starts in the video: 24 mins

I was a brahmacārī for 13 years and very happily engaged in brahmacarya life. I've now been a gṛhastha for 38 years and very happily so and I found lessons in both those to be profound. That's because each situation we go into in life when we're not fooling around. So, varṇāśrama means no fooling around. You're under authority. You do things for Kṛṣṇa, even if you don't do them perfectly. You're doing them to the best of your ability with what you have right now or who you are right now, what stage of life you're in right now and you take permission from Kṛṣṇa through authorities to enter into whatever stage of life you need to be in. That includes brahmacārī life. That includes gṛhastha āśrama. That includes vānaprastha and it includes complete renunciation. All these are acknowledgments by Kṛṣṇa that at particular phases in our life, and everyone's different, unique it's not stereotype, we need a way to live our life. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā [SB 1.2.10]. Jīvasya means you should have vitality and I felt it myself in brahmacārī āśrama. I felt great vitality because it was the specific time in my life when I needed to have that full permission just to be engaged in service all day long. My psychophysiological nature changed, and that happens, and I decided to enter into gṛhastha āśrama when I was 29. I did so under permission and with care. I didn't fool around and fall in love. No fooling around. And because of that in the gṛhastha āśrama I have not felt any impediment. Rather on the contrary I've found that I had a kind of shelter and authorized permission to live in a way that I've needed to over the last few decades. To be balanced. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. So, that I can inquire and that is inquiry about the absolute truth. If you're suited for a particular āśrama and you try to go for another āśrama out of a sense of I'm going to beat the system. Good luck and Kṛṣṇa doesn't even recommend it in the Bhāgavatam. He says to Uddhava sve sve ’dhikāre yā niṣṭhā sa guṇaḥ parikīrtitaḥ [SB 11.21.2]. You should act according to what you need, according to what you are and what makes you balanced in life so that you can go and inquire. Adhikārī. What's your adhikārī at a particular time. He says sa guṇaḥ parikīrtitaḥ. He says good for you for doing that. That's what he's actually saying to Uddhava. Then he said viparyayas tu doṣaḥ syād. The opposite is a fault. If you think that I'll artificially try to live in a way to show that I'm more spiritually advanced than I actually am and he says that's a doṣaḥ. It's a fault. It means you're not going to succeed in trying to be something you're not. 

Prabhupāda, in the Eighth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the section of Gajendra, describes how Gajendra was an elephant and he was a very powerful land animal and the crocodile was a water animal. When Gajendra got out of his element and was in the water and was attacked by a crocodile which he could have easily beaten on the land, but couldn't beat him in the water and he almost died. Prabhupāda uses that to describe how each one of us has to be in a natural condition of life for us to go on with vitality and inquire about the absolute truth.

So, any glorification of any āśrama means it's a glorification and appreciation by the person who's in that āśrama, who's suited to be in that āśrama. You can make the same statements about the gṛhastha āśrama, as Prabhupāda does. He says, first of all, that most of Mahāprabhu’s intimate associates, nitya-siddhas, were gṛhasthas. You don't find that in Śaṅkarācārya’s system. Unless you've taken sannyāsa, and given up the world then you are not qualified. You have no standing in spiritual life. But because bhakti is so complete and it includes what I said before, a way of interacting with the world in which you're never affected by it because you're doing everything for Kṛṣṇa, including raising children.

The Lord Reciprocates With Everyone | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | GYR | GEV | 25 Dec 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9P1EOSBUs4

Time where the answer starts in the video: 31 mins

Madana-mohana means that Kṛṣṇa helps us to transfer from material lust to prema, meaning to transfer away, and He is named in that way for a reason. Madana in the material world is Cupid, who affects everyone. He shoots his arrow, and that leads to consequences, for which one becomes more entangled in the material world.

Gopīnātha (prayojana) is the highest conception of that love, in which He is the Lord of the gopīs. That is the context of the highest form of consciousness, which is invoked by the process of bhakti, especially hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, when we hear:

bhaktiṁ parāṁ bhagavati pratilabhya kāmaṁ 

hṛd-rogam āśv apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ

 (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.33.39)

Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that when one is able to appreciate Gopīnātha, that is, the activities of Kṛṣṇa with the gopīs in Vṛndāvana, then it also says hṛd-rogam āśv apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ—very quickly one loses the desire for the material world and would not see anything else.

Then abhideya—Govinda. Govinda means that we have senses. Go means senses; it also means cow, and Govinda engages our senses. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ  tat-paratvena nirmalam (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 19.170). There is a way in which Govinda—He is also the Lord of our senses. So, when we engage in devotional service, we are practically using our senses, and Kṛṣṇa is there for us at every stage of life.

Madana-mohana attracts us away from the material world.

Govinda engages our senses.

Gopīnātha treats us to a glimpse into the highest level of love in the spiritual world.

ei tina ṭhākura gauḍīyāke kariyāchena ātmasāt  

e tinera caraṇa vandoṅ, tine mora nātha

(Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 1.19). 

These are the Lords of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas. So, we have a very clear path, and it is relishable at every step.

Selfless Service Unleashes an Ocean of Krishna's Mercy | SB 7.10.16 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 28 Oct 25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IuzR8LvNWo

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 2 mins

Set a stellar example. Give unconditional love. Give priority to your kids. The best investment anybody can make in a Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is in kids. And then as they're growing up, make sure they have an environment where they're with other kids who are doing devotional things. And as they come into their teenage years, the main mantra is they succeed when they see peers doing great in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So any environment you can make where their peers and also empower kids so they have upward mobility so they have services where they have a stake in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they have something they can do and organize as they come into their teen years especially so they feel like they own it. And those are principles that have worked in our community. We are noticing that kids when they're together with other kids, especially in their teens, they emulate what the others do. And if they're with young people that are doing great in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they aspire for that, too. We noticed a trend around the world where a lot of teenagers gather for doing kīrtana and if they're good at it then that in many places that's it. They say, ‘we do kīrtana, this is our thing, this is our brand.’ Just rebrand the whole thing and if you have a place where you can rebrand and just say, yeah kids are great at kīrtana, but also add ślokas, reading and japa and service and book distribution five things and say this is the new brand. They can take that brand as well as they can just the brand of just kīrtana. Why limit? Give them an opportunity to do all these services and those other kinds of services are so naturally inspiring to the soul.

vāsudeve bhagavati

 bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ

 janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ

 jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam

 [SB 1.2.7]

They come into full knowledge by having that facility. So, work hard to develop systems where young people can be with other young people and they can do all of the devotional activities which they're perfectly willing to do when they're led to that plethora of devotional activities.

The Path to Success is Marked by Many Comebacks | HG Vaisesika Dasa & HG Nirakula Dasi | 16 Jun 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9ClkeBEEZg

Time where the answer starts in the video: 27 mins

One lesson is that such occurrences are inevitable in the material world as described in the śāstra and Prabhupāda as mentioned many times. In the bamboo forest there's ways in which the wind moves the dry bamboo in such a way it causes friction and then a fire starts. And such flare-ups have been there since time immemorial. Even in earlier ages that weren't noted as ages of quarrel like Kali-yuga (specifically noted as a time when people are contentious).

For instance, when Hiraṇyakaśipu appeared, there was an alarm set off that there was some yogī who was doing such severe austerities that fire was coming out of his head and the nature of it, because it was a very intense tapasya, was disturbing the resonance of the gated community of the higher planets, who then sent Brahmā to take care of the situation. There Prabhupāda uses the word upheaval. There always is upheavals in the material world. He talks about how when he was on the Jaladūta it could be very calm and clear and then an hour later there'd be a huge storm that is life-threatening, and these kinds of geopolitical situations arise due to the nature of the material world.

Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā:

icchā-dveṣa-samutthena

dvandva-mohena bhārata

sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṁ

sarge yānti paran-tapa (BG 7.27)

that because people are affected by the lower modes of material nature, they have icchā, a desire to conquer the world and or at least conquer their side of the neighborhood or the playground. And they have dveṣa, an aversion for other people who seem different from them.

And this is the observation of Bhūmi in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or maybe it's in the Twelfth. Bhūmi, who is earth personified, is witnessing various rulers who come into the world and they claim portions of the earth and then they spill blood. They fight for it and spill blood for it. And then she says when they've conquered some land then they say that's not enough. I want the water too—meaning the ocean. And she says it's ludicrous because from her perspective they're only here for a few minutes. They come into the world frothing at the mouth trying to take over and control something that they're going to lose in a few minutes anyway.

From geological time, 75, 85, 90 years is just a flash—what to speak of an eternity. But it's caused by the churning of the lower modes of material nature that pits one person against another, sometimes friends against friends or family members against family members.

Even in a family, sometimes when the patriarch or matriarch passes from the family, there's infighting over a few dollars that were left behind. So it's quite natural. So, from a higher perspective of the Bhāgavatam, we can understand that these things are always going to go on.

We also know that when Prabhupāda was a young person, he was engaged in the Gandhian movement because there was a disgust amongst the populace with the occupation of the British in India who had stolen resources, interrupted commerce, and they were frankly engaged in thievery—what to speak of domination of the population. And Gandhī came to oust the British and Prabhupāda was part of that movement when he met Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura at Ultā Ḍāṅgā Junction Road. He came at the behest of one of his friends.

He said, “This is a different sādhū.” Prabhupāda had met enough sādhus in his life who had disappointed him. He thought it's just another one. His friend said, “No, this one's different.” And when he went there and he met Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, he was immediately impressed with his stature.

Prabhupāda had argued with him because Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī said, “You're young and educated. Why don't you please help spread Lord Caitanya's movement around the world?” Prabhupāda had argued that how will anyone listen to us when we're occupied by the British? First we have to fix that political problem.

Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī said, “First of all it's not fixable because there are laws of unintended consequences. You fix one thing and it causes another problem.”

yasmāt priyāpriya-viyoga-saṁyoga-janma-

 śokāgninā sakala-yoniṣu dahyamānaḥ

 duḥkhauṣadhaṁ tad api duḥkham atad-dhiyāhaṁ

 bhūman bhramāmi vada me tava dāsya-yogam  (SB 7.9.17)

Prahlāda Mahārāja said in his prayers to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva: duḥkhauṣadhaṁ. When you take medicine for duḥkha, whatever is bothering you about the world that we live in, tad api duḥkham atad-dhiyāhaṁ—the remedy becomes worse than the disease itself.

And often in political situations, because people have mixed motives anyway for whatever they do, it causes a worse problem or there is some unintended consequence that leads to more that has to be fixed, and it lends to an endless string of unfixable circumstances.

So Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī told him there's no time to waste in spreading Lord Caitanya's movement, and he also made the point that it supersedes trying to fix the various conflicts that are going on in the world at any given time.

Oftentimes we think, “Oh, it used to be peaceful.” For instance, it was peaceful in America, right? No, I was there. I'm almost 70. I remember kindergarten—President Kennedy getting shot. I remember going home and thinking, “I don't like this. I don't like this whole arrangement.” If the president can get shot, then what's the use of the various celebrations of this achievement, that achievement? If it all ends like that, what's the use of it?

That's why Kṛṣṇa consciousness appealed to me so much later in my life because it addresses the root of the problem. So how to think of it? That's the overarching way to think about what goes on in the world.

Of course, we have compassion because people are suffering, and the strife and conflict that arises because of human interaction is certainly distressing to devotees. And the panacea ultimately is to establish the standard of Kṛṣṇa consciousness so people can take advantage of it.

As Prabhupāda said in Chicago in 1975, he came there and there was a newspaper article on the front page from the Chicago Tribune. It said, “Crime—why and what to do.” It was a crime wave in Chicago, which is probably still going on. I mean, it comes in waves. It's a crime wave. And so, you fix it and it comes back. Why is it coming back?

Prabhupāda said, “Why? We can answer why.” It's because of this phenomenon of an impure heart—people who aren't Kṛṣṇa conscious. So, Prabhupāda had met with the police chief in Chicago and he asked him to give us a building there. And he said, “And then you give us a building and you give us the criminals, and we'll give them a program of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and we'll help to uplift them.”

Much of the penal system nowadays is punitive—go there to get punished. Some countries don't have that. But there's a way in which anybody can be reformed. So, one way to think about how to deal with it is from the root, and that is to help to establish the standard of Kṛṣṇa consciousness so people can take advantage of it.

That's the view of our ācāryas in general. In this age, people don't have any philosophy. So, if there is some system where people can come and reform themselves, help themselves, and help others—that is important.

The Antidote to The Epidemic of Cynicism | SB 7.9.22 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | ISV | 29 Nov 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWRo9Lxktuw

Time where the answer starts in the video: 58 mins

The best answer I heard to that was from a devotee named Devakīnandana Prabhu. He's from Singapore. He's the head counsel for ISKCON. He's an international attorney. He gave class in Māyāpur. Last time I was there, I sat in his class and I appreciated it very much and somebody asked this question. I think it was Śukadeva Swāmī. It was the time of Kumbha-melā. A lot of people go into the Kumbha, which is trying to be at the right place at the right time to get some material benediction. Prabhupāda generally went to the Kumbha to preach because he said that's where all the people are, let's feed prasādam and give and distribute tons of books. But most people are going there because like, ‘I'm going to catch some benediction on my head’. So, Śukadeva Swāmī asked how is it that devotees know well that we just take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. We don't need these remedials and he mentioned the Kumbha and then he mentioned astrology and he didn't mention the v-word [vāstu] and his answer was thoughtful and measured. He said, "Devotees know that they only need take shelter of Kṛṣṇa." He said, "But material life is niṣpīḍyamānam [SB 7.9.22]. It's a crushing process. It's so hard. It's like if you've ever hung from a bar, you know, after like 30 seconds, unless you really practice at it, you're like, I got to let go. But, you know, no, keep going. You got a minute on here. And and you know, your mind's going, how am I going to hold on? And that's how we feel in the material world because we're hanging on by a thread. Hanging by a thread or hanging from a bar over a big pit. At any time you know you can give up your grip and just fall off. So it feels it's onerous. It's padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ [SB 10.14.58]. Any next step you could trip and fall and anything could happen. So devotees although they know their ultimate goal and ultimate shelter is Kṛṣṇa, samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ [SB 10.14.58], they know all that," he said, "but at the same time due to this intense pressure of the crushing process they'd like to try to take a peek and see, ‘is there any relief in the meantime?’ So, let's look at astrology. It's like okay and what does astrology tell them? They say, 'You're going to have some ups. You're going to have some downs. Then they'll go up, then it'll go down.' Everybody has something mixed in because that's the way it goes in the material world. It's a rough ride. But if anything can cushion it to some degree, then devotees think let me do that."

So, his answer was so expert because he didn't get into it in such a cut-and-dry way where he just said like ‘these guys are in māyā’ and that ‘they're not really devotees’ or you know ‘we don't need that, it's nonsense’. Prabhupāda gave a similar answer when Pradyumna asked him about astrology. He said isn’t it in our siddhānta? Prabhupāda said ‘no, but if you know it's going to rain you take an umbrella.’ So, the way we can judge is; well first of all keep first things first. If whatever arrangement we're making here in the material world limits our chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa or it dissuades us from our services — I can't do it because… this, that — then as is explained by Rūpa Gosvāmī in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, this is mixed devotional service. What's pure devotional service? He gives the example of the prayer given before Lord Śiva and Pārvatī:

nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve

 na kutaścana bibhyati

 svargāpavarga-narakeṣv

 api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ

 [SB 6.17.28]

So, he says in this prayer, that a pure devotee just depends on Nārāyaṇa, has one-minded attention to his service and therefore heaven or hell is equal. It's tulya whether you go to hell or you go to heaven. Citraketu says this and he said this is the modus operandi of pure devotees. Accept whatever condition one's in. But if there's some slight adjustment you can make without distracting from service or thinking that I need to worship demigods in order to do devotional service, this is an errant idea. That I can't do something until I make a special arrangement. When people build temples or they get a house, if there's one place that may be better than another, then you can try for it. But don't waylay your devotional service in the meantime.

The first temple I moved into did not have a great vāstu. It was on Valencia Street in the Mission. When I told my parents, when I was 16, I was moving into the Mission District. They were aghast because the place was full of derelicts and drunks and sex shops and who knows what else there. And that's where you're going to live? What was our temple before we bought it? It was a funeral home. It used to have dead bodies in it. Prabhupāda purchased it or the devotees did. Jayānanda bought it. They brought in a bunch of cow dung and spread it on everything and they got to work and it turned out that particular center became very productive. Hundreds and hundreds of devotees were made there and millions of books were distributed and that was the top temple and book distribution in the world — San Francisco. Prabhupāda always kept mentioning in letters that I'm going to San Francisco first because they're distributing more books than anybody. He rubs it in for everybody. That's why I'm going to San Francisco.

So we could have said, "Wait till we find the vāstu-ready place." And he could have said, you know, "Wait till it's vāstu, then move in." But he didn't. So, we have to balance the whole thing. Yes, the umbrella. But if you got to run across a field without an umbrella to distribute a Bhāgavatam set, yeah, we'll go without the umbrella and get the Bhāgavatam set distributed.

And there's also in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, which Lord Caitanya practically dictated to Sanātana Gosvāmī. So, there's a section about when and where to take initiation from a guru. You'll go for seven pages with all kinds of śāstric details about where and when you can take initiation from a guru to make it auspicious. And at the very end, and I wish I had skipped to the end, he says, "But if the guru decides he or she will give you an initiation in the middle of a rice field when you weren't expecting it, you take it because that's all auspicious."

So there's a balance to these things. Yes, it's there in śāstra and yes it's a good idea but don't wait necessarily. Stay in the transcendental vibration and keep your preaching going and remember heaven or hell — we go on. There's a great shelter in staying in the process of chanting and giving Kṛṣṇa consciousness to other people.

The Lord Reciprocates With Everyone | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | GYR | GEV | 25 Dec 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9P1EOSBUs4

Time where the answer starts in the video: 41 mins

First of all Kṛṣṇa mentions that in the Bhagavad-gītā. He specifically comments on it in the eighth chapter in the verse

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu

 mām anusmara yudhya ca

 mayy arpita-mano-buddhir

 mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ [BG 8.7]

Kṛṣṇa starts by saying “therefore” because it's such an important development to be able to remember Kṛṣṇa and especially at time of death.

prayāṇa-kāle manasācalena [BG 8.10]

You have to have this spiritual strength to be able to remember Kṛṣṇa at time of death. It’s the sole purpose. He says therefore tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu. You should always remember Me in all circumstances and He says you should remember Me and fight, and Śrīla Prabhupāda gives a very practical purport where he says this is good for those who are working in the world and who are asking this very question. How do I remember Kṛṣṇa as I'm working? And Prabhupāda says chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and that means at least if you're engaged in good japa then you'll have the opportunity to be in your work even when you have to be fully absorbed and present for doing your work. And at the very least, even if you're not specifically thinking of Kṛṣṇa while you're working—which is also possible, as you can see Kṛṣṇa in everything—you might see the person who's running the meeting is so expert and you think, ‘Oh, that's coming from Kṛṣṇa because He's the intelligence of that person.’ Or there might be some anomaly involved and you'll think, ‘Oh, that's due to the effect of the modes of material nature.’

There are glasses from Google or Meta and you look through them and it gives you a digital reading—‘This is this. That is that.’ When you chant good japa, and as Kṛṣṇa says

vāsudeve bhagavati

 bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ

 janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ

 jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam [SB 1.2.7]

You chant and I'll throw in [such glasses] for free. I'll throw in for free knowledge and detachment, and you get these spiritual glasses and you're looking through them. You're in the meeting, somebody says something, and then there's a readout that comes across your Meta glasses and says that was the mode of passion tinged with ignorance. And you think of Bhagavad-gītā as you're engaging. And then after, when you're driving home and you're listening to a lecture and you're reflecting on your day, it'll process everything through that contrast that you see between spiritual and material.

anyad evāhuḥ sambhavād

 anyad āhur asambhavāt [Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Verse 13]

You'll think, ‘Oh, those people want something nice but they're licking the outside of the bottle. They're not actually getting it.’ I went to a program at Salesforce before we came here and I was talking to an executive there afterwards, and he really wanted to taste something. And he was talking about the ways that he was trying to do good for the world, which is nice—tried to give money during the pandemic to get oxygen tanks—but there's not a conception of Madana-mohana. You can see that big corporation—it's the biggest building in San Francisco—and there's some tinge of spiritual ideas. There's monks' pictures on the wall and things like that in that corporation because the founder has some spiritual bent. But they're not getting it. You'll think of that, you know—remember this, the benefit of Madana-mohana.

Final point about your question about āśrama. The main point when we're cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness, especially chanting to the point where we actually like it—to a point that we don't want to stop chanting and we're looking forward to chanting—we're developing some taste. Or, another level, we feel we know with our intelligence this is the right thing to do. That's a very elevated position even before I have taste. Don't try for taste. Just chant, be dutiful, let Kṛṣṇa give you something if He feels like it, and just think, I don't deserve anything. But if you get that, then you'll see you've got everything.

Even if you have one molecule of sense of duty to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, you'll look at the whole corporate world and everything in the whole material world as being insignificant. As is in that poem, the Kevala-nāmāṣṭakam—the person saying from his perspective that I see even Brahmā, Indra, everything—they're lower than an ant. It's all in the material world because the Holy Name is so exalted.

So, Prabhupāda’s solution is, as usual, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and if we attend to that then everything else will work itself out. And if you feel like you have a lot of problems—chant. If you feel like you don't fit in somewhere—chant. When you feel like you don't have enough of something—chant. If you feel like you have more problems than anybody else in the world—chant. If you don't like the way your hair looks—chant. When you're happy—chant.

There is a beautiful verse given to us by Sūta Gosvāmī. It's very simple but it's very practical, and we have a highly effective process through which we can rise above the base connection we have with the material world and purify it and come to the position of Vaiṣṇavas, of actually loving Kṛṣṇa, wanting to be with Him.

An Environment of Individual, Spontaneous & Voluntary Service | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | 19 June 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGh1e61u0fE

Time where the answer starts in the video: 31 mins

The pain of the material world is described by Kapila Dev in the Third Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as a dreamlike state. He says that in a dream you may see your head being cut off and then you suffer because that's a very gruesome scene. Even though it is illusory, suffering is real. If somebody's sleeping and they're having that dream, it's horrifying for them to go through that and therefore they suffer in that illusion. When one wakes up from a dream then there's a sense of relief because that was a dreamlike state. Not a dreamlike state—it was a dream—and I was suffering because of my perception of something that was temporary and I wasn't affected the way I thought I was being affected.

If one is aware that the material world is here today and gone tomorrow as Kṛṣṇa talks about in the Bhagavad-gītā:

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya

 śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ

 āgamāpāyino ’nityās

 tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

 (Bhagavad-gītā 2.14)

If you have this, even on a very superficial level. I can say when the pandemic first started we had immediately started a podcast because we were preparing for it for a while. Then when the lockdown happened we said now's a good time. I remember the first few sessions when people weren't sure if the whole population of the world was going to live or die, I gave a really simple message. One of the first ones we talked about was “this too shall pass,” which is really the message of mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya. People really appreciated it. They wanted some relief and it came from that very simple statement that “this too shall pass.”

Those who cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, although it's true they're subjected to the same kinds of changes that take place for everybody because we are souls living in a changing environment that we're incompatible with. We're permanent and we're very subtle but matter is always changing. In fact the whole material world is called bhava, which means that which is becoming something else right before your eyes.

When we have the perspective that “this too shall pass,” we're able to not suffer. Suffer actually means that when something happens to you, you hold on to it. If you look at the etymology of the word, it means what you're holding on to. Yes the same things happen and it looks like there's inconvenience for devotees and for non-devotees. The inconvenience is caused by the incompatibility we have with the material world.

But if you have a perspective that this is the normal way the material world works, that it's always changing, it's never the same and you also have a sense of yourself which is above the material fray. In other words we're witnesses of what's going on in the world, then you don't suffer in the same way as when you consider that everything about your life in this world is a permanent reality and you like to keep it that way. That causes the greatest kind of consternation—which is almost euphemistic to say consternation. It's not a strong enough word.

However those who have the vision of eternity, that we're just passing through, even on that level those who are enlightened to that degree who think that I'm just temporarily here—you can take it a step further with the verse in the Tenth Canto, Fourteenth Chapter, Verse 8:

tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo

 bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam

 hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te

 jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk

 (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.8)

It’s a verse spoken by Lord Brahmā and he said that if you're able to see the world as a cosmic schoolhouse and that everything that happens to you is meant to teach you something, to bring you to a higher level of consciousness, that's a different experience of the world than if you think that I'm supposed to get comfortable here.

A lot of the indoctrination we get from, for instance advertising, is that you should be able to find a niche where you could be happy. Has anybody ever noticed that there's kind of a propaganda that you can be happy here in the material world? Like Coca-Cola. I don't know what they're advertising now but they had an ad for a long time that said “pour out a bottle of happiness.” That's deliberate. There's a sense that you can be happy doing this. It's sugar water really. A little bit of flavor. Then there's a few other chemicals in it but that's definitely not a bottle of happiness. But there's an orientation that somebody might have that the material world's a happy place.

saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-

 trāṇāya kāruṇya-ghanāghanatvam

 (Śrī Gurvāṣṭakam, Verse 1)

That's saying the material world is actually kind of a disaster area. There's a fire going on here burning everything to the ground. First of all the premise that people are happy who are materialistically oriented isn't really true because people everywhere have the same kinds of inconveniences from the material nature and you might suffer more when your expectation is that one of these days I'm going to get comfortable here in the material world.

But let's say you get on the train. Prabhupāda gave this example. You're just about to sit down. You don't have a reserved seat. The last seat was there and you're going for it but somebody sits in it before you and you have three hours to go. He said you get in a fight. I've seen that happen. A sweltering night in South India when I was waiting for a train and people actually got in a fight on the train stand because they were annoyed with one another. But Prabhupāda said if you just tolerate and say like “hey it's only three hours,” then it's not really a disturbing event for you.

In the whole material world if you have that vision of eternity that I'm just passing through, what's more whatever happens to me in this world teaches me a lesson if I'm able to ask the question what’s the lesson behind this? That's the essence of the verse tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo.

Now as far as you know the appearance of people enjoying the material world. Prabhupāda talks about when Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva is fighting Hiraṇyakaśipu. There's an interesting section where Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva lets Hiraṇyakaśipu go. Have you ever seen a cat catch a mouse? Does it just sit down and devour it or does it play around with it for a while? Prabhupāda explains how Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva—he's part cat—so he lets Hiraṇyakaśipu go.

There are a couple things that happened. One was that the demigods who were observing the whole thing got frightened because they knew that Hiraṇyakaśipu could see that they were rooting for the enemy and now if Nṛsiṁhadeva was not going to be able to defeat their captor and their oppressor then they would be more oppressed after that. So they were afraid and then everyone thought oh he's more powerful than they thought. Hiraṇyakaśipu has gotten free now.

So Prabhupāda explains that sometimes when we observe materialistic people we think “oh they seem to be yucking it up and having fun and they're okay,” and maybe for a little while. But he said it's only material nature just letting them have a sense of this freedom in the material world but they'll be recaptured again. We're all already in the grip of material nature.

So there's an illusory sense that I can be happy in the world but actually when devotees have the perspective of what the real purpose of the world is and they also have a sense of not expecting much from the material nature because it's a very uncomfortable place by nature. It's called duḥkhālayam (Bhagavad-gītā 8.15). It means it's a place where suffering is meted out across the board.

In fact those who have some sense of being comfortable in the material world—let's say somebody gets wealthy—it's well known that wealthy people suffer greatly because once you get wealth or fame you still feel empty. I saw online a while back a whole collection of famous rich people who are saying there's nothing here. I remember George Harrison and the Beatles. They were so young and they got so famous and rich so fast and then they just said there's nothing here.

The famous comedian Jim Carrey. His statement was, “I hope everyone has the experience of getting rich and famous so they can see there's nothing in it.” There's no happiness in it and there really isn't because the soul can't be satisfied by any arrangement in the material world.

So devotees know that and even though they go through the same kinds of things externally as everybody else they feel okay. They can tolerate it and they can process whatever happens to them by understanding what reality is and that this too shall pass and then actually Kṛṣṇa's there to protect them.

And as you get older and you see things come and go—like when both my parents are gone—I always wondered what it would feel like when my parents left the world and how I'd be able to tolerate it even though I've been practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness for so many years I wasn't sure. But after they passed one after another a year apart I got to find out for myself. Although it's seemingly a very emotional experience, it took me a while to adjust to that and then I was with my mother when she left. It was very life-changing.

I could see after they left that it was an arrangement by Kṛṣṇa for me to have parents in the first place. I mean who else is going to arrange that? After they left I had a sense that they were only masks of Kṛṣṇa in this world taking care of me.

So when you have the experiences as you go through life and you process them through your experience of Kṛṣṇa's teachings and so forth then you start to develop this vision of eternity. It just becomes part of you in the way you live. It's not philosophical, it's not just theoretical, it actually becomes the way you live and the way you think and the way you process everything.

So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is holistic and if you live your life in it you'll have that experience. But there's one thing guaranteed—you can never be happy in the material world. We want love and the real deep love, eternal love is with Kṛṣṇa.

First car I ever bought, I read up on how to buy a car and some of the good advice I read first was “don't love the car, the car won't love you back” and that goes for the whole material world. But Kṛṣṇa will love you back and that's what we want. If you learn to love Kṛṣṇa amazingly in all our imperfection, he'll love us back and he'll give us all support. That's all He does—constantly.

Initiation Vows Make The Universe Rumble | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | 13 Mar 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl4kBCGXyXM

Time where the answer starts in the video: 29 mins

Well there's a way in which, when you go to a doctor, the doctor may tell you you take two of these or three of these [tablets]. I generally don't ask why? If I know that the doctor is certified and if I go to someplace and ask where did you do your education. They said I took a YouTube

course and don't worry it's cool because my brother also taught me a lot. You might question what are you giving me anyway. But if you go to a doctor who's been through the rigors of medical school and has the diploma on his or her wall. When you go you don't necessarily ask

why do I take two why not three or you don't speculate and say well maybe I'll take twice as much or half as much. You consult the doctor and if you don't think that you got a good diagnosis and a good prescription then you can always get a second opinion. Taking initiation means you've done your due diligence means that you've found that the idea of axiomatic truth

is sound because it's necessary in any discipline or any philosophical system you have to have a place where you say okay I trust the source. After that when you get a prescription in the medicine then the point is you have to take it. Get one of those little boxes that make sure that it has Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday and then you put them all in ahead of time and then you make sure you take them every day and if you notice that you forgot to take one on Monday and it's already Wednesday you go back and you make sure well medicine I don't but with the chanting it's measured in that way so so you don't miss the prescription and it's very similar. If you don't like 16 rounds as a prescription you can always go and try to get a second opinion and maybe some other spiritual doctor would say oh just chant in your mind or chant four. But we very specifically trust our doctor especially because of his example. Śrīla Prabhupāda, who we have prominently sitting on this seat called the Vyāsa-āsana, which is a seat prevalent in any one of the institutions that bring this teaching of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu to show that there is an authority present who brought the message down through what's called disciplic succession that there is a line of doctors who are all certified and each one of them have considered the dosage very carefully and then prescribed it and so we have that prescription and that's the mood in which we take 16 rounds a day and some have had asked Prabhupada well why only 16 rounds and he said well you can also chant 16,000 rounds if you have the taste for it and the time but the minimum is 16 rounds a day

and that's important because with any kind of medicine you would like to know what the minimum is for you to gradually have the good effects of the medicine so that's the number 16. Of course you can chant more if you wish at different intervals but it's good to stay steady at 16 rounds.

Organize Your Life To Remember Kṛṣṇa Favorably | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | ISV Yatra | 13 Jan 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKavhmDHOTw

Time where the answer starts in the video: 39 mins

Yes, ten percent is a very powerful investment. If one can give ten percent, one will be successful—based on the example of the Pracetās. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that they lived for one hundred thousand years, and they gave ten thousand years for intense practice. Because of that, they attained complete success. Prabhupāda then makes a very practical point: anyone can afford to give ten percent of their human life to the practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and by doing so, one can similarly become successful. There is further instruction given by Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā about leaving one’s body, which is explained in the Eighth Chapter, where Kṛṣṇa specifically advises:

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ

tyajaty ante kalevaram

taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya

sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ [BG 8.6]

Whatever you remember when you leave your body, that's what you'll attain in your next life. It is the same theme as we're talking about. I can talk a little bit about the mechanics of that in a second. Then he says

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu

mām anusmara yudhya ca

mayy arpita-mano-buddhir

mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ [BG 8.7]

The Story Behind Rath-Yatra | HG Vaisesika Dasa | New Jersey | 16 Jun 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4oTE7QEqpw

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 17 mins

One way I find to intensify the process of bhakti is to go door-to-door to distribute transcendental literature. It doesn't get any more intense than that because when you go door to distribute Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there's a natural intensity because you don't know who's going to open the door. Just the idea of walking out the door and getting out of your comfort zone and meeting people is rather intense. It's a good intensity though and if you go and you knock on somebody's door then you are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare because who's going to open the door? And that's the main way you can intensify your own practice of devotional service is to give it to other people. But especially door-to-door is good because you don't get to see who's behind the door until they open it. We were in Denver recently and we went door-to-door with a group of devotees and it was really fun. You can't have any more fun than that really. It's impossible.

One of the devotees is a doctor and he's very good-looking. He's wealthy. He's a doctor. And we stopped at one door and I watched him knock on the door. The person opened the door. They took one look at him. Remember, he's a handsome, rich doctor. And they slammed the door on him. And I said, "I bet you've never had that happen to you in your whole life”. and he was telling me later, “that's the best thing that ever happened to me. I feel great”. And so if you want to have a little excitement in your life and not be bored, find a saṅkīrtana party that's going out and just feel what it feels like to go outside the temple or your house and meet people who don't know anything about Kṛṣṇa consciousness and just try to make friends with them.

I was just in Bulgaria. We went to Bulgaria and I don't know anything about Bulgaria, but I do know that people are the same everywhere. And we went to book distribution in Bulgaria and I had the faint same feeling before we went out on the streets to distribute books that I do everywhere. And that is I wonder what's going to happen. And then plus I had seven people following me to see how to distribute books. And I was praying to Kṛṣṇa, “don't fail me now.” I came all the way to Bulgaria and that was intense and it made me really pray to Kṛṣṇa. So it's a really intense way to increase your practice of devotional service; to organize in such a way that you can all go out together. Everybody go out to places where you can be together and distribute Kṛṣṇa consciousness and make friends with people. When you give mercy on to other people who weren't expecting it, the next day when you chant your japa you'll notice Lord Nityānanda gives you special mercy to chant and you'll be able to hear the name and you'll be able to cry out.

Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam 2.4.20 to 2.5.6 | ISV | H G Vaisesika Dasa | Oct 29 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsg09Py-Knc

Time where the answer starts in the video: 44 mins

Saṁvit means the knowledge potency of the Lord, through which anyone can know anything.

It's coming from Kṛṣṇa and that's what we've been hearing about and sandhinī potency means

how anything is maintained and takes shape. Like anything in this material world has maintenance. We're sitting on the floor. How's that happening? We're on a planet that's hurtling through space but we are somehow being maintained. So, that potency is in the spiritual world through which all different aspects for Kṛṣṇa’s enjoyment are maintained and that potency specifically comes from Lord Balarāma. Then hlādinī śakti is the Lord's pleasure potency through which He enjoys and that comes from Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī who's the arbiter of the hlādinī śakti. Those three śaktis by the way when perverted in this material world become the three qualities goodness, passion and ignorance which cause hlāda-tāpa-traya. Jīva Gosvāmī says they inflict misery on us instead of giving pleasure. Hlādinī śakti which is the ultimate bestower of happiness in the spiritual world here in this material world causes ultimate misery or the utmost misery. So, there's this conversity that takes place through the perversion of the energy. Alice went into a rabbit hole and everything was reversed down there. So we went down the rabbit hole sometime and everything's opposite.

Develop Good Habits by Reading Bhagavad-gītā | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | ISV | 8 Dec 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmlLoxEFmI

Time where the answer starts in the video: 47 mins

Devotional service in the mode of passion is marked by being a separatist. When you're doing your service you think I'm doing this to be better than everybody else. That comes from Kapila dev as Devahūti wanted to know the same thing. How do you understand that it's devotional service but it's tinged with passion. It can be devotional service tinged by ignorance, by passion by goodness and then there's transcendental devotional service that has its symptom.

Develop Good Habits by Reading Bhagavad-gītā | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | ISV | 8 Dec 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmlLoxEFmI

Time where the answer starts in the video: 48 mins

Kṛṣṇa could understand that Sudāmā was attached to being poverty-stricken and not touching anything in the world so He induced him to have more to show him that he could live in opulence and still not be attached to it because it's about how much he's attached to Kṛṣṇa. The balance for anyone comes in observing that am I using it in Kṛṣṇa’s service? Do I need it for service? It's one of the guiding principles for moving through this world because we have to make a lot of decisions. There's a way in which if we don't have a philosophy when we make decisions then we'll feel bewildered. Anything you want to do, if you want to adjust your health you have to have a philosophy and you can't just watch every YouTube either because there are different philosophies. If you want to deal with your finances you have to have a philosophy and stick to it. Otherwise you're going to buy high and sell low. In Kṛṣṇa consciousness you also have to have a philosophy. It is a guiding philosophy and that decision making process and the philosophy behind Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the basis of it is seeing that everything is paraphernalia in the universe. We don't reject anything but we see everything as something to engage in Kṛṣṇa's service. For instance, if you want to buy a house and you have several locations you're looking at, sticking to the philosophy, the best way to decide would be where would be most beneficial for my service and where would I be able to serve Kṛṣṇa the best. I know people who buy houses specifically so they can use them in Kṛṣṇa's service. I've seen a lot of cases around here because there are cheaper places to live, however some people make a choice and they say, ‘I'm going there for service therefore I'll pay whatever it takes.’ So, if you keep asking that question, that helps to balance our relationship with material nature. It may have to be readjusted at some point. Say there's certain things at certain times in your life you might not need. There are various stages of life. That's one of the ways varṇāśrama addresses what our needs are at particular stages of life. You are given opportunity at certain times to collect and keep things and learn how to use them and you're given opportunity at other times in your life when it's more natural to learn how to give them up and live without them again. Both of them are equally valid because it's all about engaging in Kṛṣṇa's service.

Develop Good Habits by Reading Bhagavad-gītā | HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa | ISV | 8 Dec 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmlLoxEFmI

Time where the answer starts in the video: 55 mins

I find that the morning time before I go out into the world and do my duties whatever day of the week, is the time in which I prepare myself for the rest of the day and whatever is going to come to me. There's the practice of japa which is a kind of self-observation. Svādhyāya. It's mentioned by Kṛṣṇa in that section on austerities of speech. One should regularly recite the Vedās and part of that practice is to observe its effect on you and contemplate what you're hearing. So, japa is a time when you can deliberately look inwardly and notice how your mind is working and notice that you're separate from your body and then you can take deep shelter of the idea that you're a servant of God and you can utter His name and pray for service. If you can arrange a time to do that in a place, do it very deliberately even for five minutes and you can have an experience, even if it's seemingly insignificant. As you might say five minutes? Yogīs used to sit for 10,000 years. Well we don't have that much time. Now five minutes is a lot in our day. If you can do five minutes and you can have this sense of the verse I quoted tonight [BG 5.24] yo ’ntaḥ-sukho ’ntar-ārāmas. The happiness that's within. Just the fact that you exist and you also can notice the emotions that come up. One of the emotions is, you got to get going, you can't sit here. You can be a witness to that as Kṛṣṇa calls it in the BG, kṣetra-jñaṁ [BG 13.3]. You could be the one who knows your body, not the one who is your body. That's the problem that we have on Mondays and Fridays. We've touched rajo-guṇa so much that it seems impossible to not associate with the mind and body. That's what rajo-guṇa does to you. Scrambles your brain. You have to unscramble your brain and you have to take time to do that. A comparison I've given previously is about shopping when you're hungry. Did anybody ever tell you not to shop when you're hungry? Because it's crazy. You think, ‘oh that wouldn't happen to me.’ But if you're hungry and you go shopping you start pulling out all kinds of stuff, ‘what about that, yeah I heard about that too’. It's not even stuff you eat but it's a natural tendency when you're hungry to take things you don't need. When we're in rajo-guṇa, we're hungry for all the objects of the world and we get overwhelmed by them because there's too many of them. So, if we can have that experience just for a moment even, the longer the better in the morning time before we go out. It's like you had a nice meal then you go shopping. Then you're common sensical. ‘Don't you need that? No not today, not this week, maybe not ever’. That's the experience of yo ’ntaḥ-sukho ’ntar-ārāmas tathāntar-jyotir eva yaḥ sa yogī brahma-nirvāṇaṁ

[BG 5.24]. There is a sense of Nirvāṇa, which means that fire of rajas is snuffed out. You don't have it anymore. So that's what our teacher taught us and that is a regular tenet of the practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness; to take time in the morning. You got to have a good morning program otherwise you're going to go out and fill up your cart with all the stuff you don't need.

The Price of Advancing in Devotional Service: Eagerness to Hear Krishna Katha | Kovvur | 28 Dec 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35dmvccjJiY&t=2661s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 44 mins

We don’t necessarily disapprove of Bābājī-ism. In fact, Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja was Vaiṣṇava Sārvabhauma. He is considered the leader of all the Vaiṣṇavas, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura took śikṣā from him as being the leader. Gaura Kiśora dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja—he was also intensely chanting—and Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura took initiation from him. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda even gave a bābājī initiation. I was there for it. It was in 1975 in Chicago when my godbrother Udalmi had found out he had a diagnosis that he was going to die, which later on turned out to be wrong. But Prabhupāda gave him bābājī initiation and said that you stay in one room and you just chant and don’t ask for anything. Don’t even ask for food. If people bring it, fine. If not, just keep chanting.

So it’s not that we’re averse to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa or to bābājīs. There are statements by Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and Prabhupāda that don’t mix with bābājīs because there was a hint of contamination in many of the bābājīs—for instance, prematurely giving people who are not qualified their siddha-deha, suggesting what it might be, or not having concordance with our previous ācāryas in many different ways. So there was still some smārta idea about having to be born in a particular family in order to take to devotional service, which was very pervasive. So I just wanted to say the present premise is not exactly that we don’t believe in bābājī-ism.

Well, Prabhupāda told a few devotees that if you dedicate fifty years to preaching, I give you my blessings—you can sit down in Māyāpur and chant. So put at least fifty years of vigorous preaching. He said, “Do as I have done.” And oftentimes when devotees were having some difficulty, Prabhupāda would tell them to come and sit down and just chant for some time. But there’s a natural synergy between what you’re doing—preaching to others—and doing your own bhajana, because first of all, when you preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness to others, it pleases Kṛṣṇa more than any other kind of service. He says it in the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is that those who teach the Bhagavad-gītā to others are most dear to Me.

What’s more, when you teach other people Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you can see several things. One is you’ll see people sometimes have a natural reluctance for it, and then you’ll notice it in yourself: “Oh yeah, I recognize—I’m just like that.” Or you’ll see somebody’s great enthusiasm to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. For instance, once we were in North Carolina and we were going door to door. I had a group of seven with me who went to the door, and the person was physically impaired. There was a big fight he had inside the door with his caretaker, but somehow or other he prevailed. And not only did he buy a book—much against the wishes of the caretaker—but he also gave a donation. And then finally I asked him to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and the caretaker became so annoyed she just walked off. And I said the words of the mantra two at a time, and it was a strain for him to pronounce them, but he did. And when I turned around, the door closed. The seven devotees there had tears in their eyes. And I said, “What is this?” And they said, “We wish we had that person’s enthusiasm to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. If I had one ounce of enthusiasm to chant the way that person did, then my rounds would be on a much different level.”

So you see Prabhupāda’s mixture of teaching us how to go out and teach Kṛṣṇa consciousness to others, and then take it for ourselves, is a perfectly balanced formula that is highly, highly successful. And we did notice that several people went off-road during Prabhupāda’s times—notably in the Sanskrit department. Eight out of ten left Kṛṣṇa consciousness because they thought they knew more. Once they learned Sanskrit, they thought, “What’s this? Prabhupāda translated this word this way,” and they became critical. Also, there was always somebody during the Māyāpur–Vṛndāvana festival who would go off-road and say, “I’m just going to go down to Rādhā-kuṇḍa and chant,” and generally they—I mean not generally—absolutely none of them lasted.

So better to be humble, live in the association of devotees, and follow the path that Prabhupāda gave us, and you’re not going to miss anything. That’s one of the main points: everything is there, complete in the process itself. Even just chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says Kṛṣṇa came and got me by the hand personally. So don’t be surprised if you’re sitting in New York City and Kṛṣṇa comes and gets you and says, “Let’s go,” because you’re dedicating your life to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

The Price of Advancing in Devotional Service: Eagerness to Hear Krishna Katha | Kovvur | 28 Dec 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35dmvccjJiY&t=2661s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 51 mins

Yes, we can apply that to some degree. It’s called daivī varṇāśrama. However, because we are very purposeful in performing varṇāśrama-dharma, 

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ

viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ

notpādayed yadi ratiṁ

śrama eva hi kevalam [ Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.8]

Bhāgavatam says yes to varṇāśrama-dharma, but if it doesn’t lead to a taste for hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṇa, then it’s absolutely, positively, 100% useless.

So it has to be kept in the proper context of how to perform varṇāśrama. It just means how to organize people so they can keep it together to be Kṛṣṇa conscious in the course of their lives and in doing their work. So yes, it’s possible, but the focus has to be there on the goal.

The Price of Advancing in Devotional Service: Eagerness to Hear Krishna Katha | Kovvur | 28 Dec 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35dmvccjJiY&t=2661s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 52 mins

As given in the Bhāgavatam, sat means somebody who is truthful, someone who is sincere. We should take as much association as possible with those who are as advanced as possible.

kṛṣṇeti yasya giri taṁ manasādriyeta

dīkṣāsti cet praṇatibhiś ca bhajantam īśam

śuśrūṣayā bhajana-vijñam ananyam anya-

nindādi-śūnya-hṛdam īpsita-saṅga-labdhyā [Nectar of Instruction, verse 5]

Saṅga-labdhyā. You should try to gain the association of those who are nindā-śūnya — they are not concerned at all with criticizing others. They are not envious of other people. They are only engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service. So those uttama-adhikārīs are very desirable.

But, sat, any devotee who is sincere and who is following in the footsteps of other devotees — such association is also desirable for us. The main thing is to always be prepared to have proper association with devotees.

We should offer respect to anybody who can say “Hare Kṛṣṇa,” even if they seem to be from the general population. Mahāprabhu says, “I take that person as an outstanding person who can chant even say Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

Then He says, if somebody has taken dīkṣā, you should take the time to go and offer them obeisances because they have taken dīkṣā.

And then after that, Prabhupāda says, if you find someone who has been in the process for a long time, who is very steady, who is empowered to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and who also knows śāstra — those are the three verifiable criteria that Śrīla Prabhupāda gives in his purport to that verse — then you should seek their association. Try to get more of that.

The Price of Advancing in Devotional Service: Eagerness to Hear Krishna Katha | Kovvur | 28 Dec 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35dmvccjJiY&t=2661s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 56 mins

Well, both things should go on—that is, preaching and one’s bhajana.

As I have told you many times, when I met Śrīla Prabhupāda with a group of saṅkīrtana devotees, the first thing Prabhupāda told us, after hearing our book distribution scores, was:

“You must also read my books. I have not written them just for selling. I have written them for you to become pure devotees and go back to Godhead.” He never discouraged us from preaching. In fact, it was just the opposite. He wanted us to increase our preaching more and more. But he also indicated that he wanted us to increase our hearing and chanting as well.

So the two things go very well together, as I mentioned before.

Move From a Vicious to a Virtuous Cycle | BG 4.10 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | WISE Davis | 22 Jan 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVUZWsmUY_Q

Time where the answer starts in the video: 25 mins

Here are a few comments that come from Śrīdhara Svāmī—the great Bhāgavata commentator from antiquity—on the verse 'bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syat.' He gives a comment about why knowledge alone cannot remove fear.

He says, "If fear comes from ignorance (this is the question someone might pose), shouldn't knowledge alone remove it?" He points out that the Bhāgavata’s answer is that māyā is not merely ignorance; it is a personal, active potency (duratyayā). Therefore, intellectual correction is insufficient. He explains why "ahaṁ brahmāsmi" can reduce suffering temporarily, but without positive shelter, fear returns. Fear ends not when identity is negated, but when identity is anchored in Kṛṣṇa. So, besides understanding one’s constitutional position—which is essential,

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke

jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ

manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi

prakṛti-sthāni karṣati [BG 15.7]

That verse came to mind as you mentioned how we struggle with the mind.

We are parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa; we are always connected to Him. But then, we struggle with the six senses and the mind. When one gets knowledge of ahaṁ brahmāsmi and the information of one’s relationship with Kṛṣṇa, and a process through which one can repair that relationship. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes this in the purport from the Bhagavad-gītā:

ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo 

'tha bhajana-kriyā tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ 

syāt tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ [Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya 23.14-15]

In the beginning, there must be an awakening of faith (ādau). That generally comes by association with devotees who plant the seed of faith in the heart, because there is a natural way in which we pick up the qualities of those with whom we associate. Pure devotees—those fully dedicated to Kṛṣṇa—carry a certain potency within their heart, as described by Yudhiṣṭhira to Vidura:

bhavad-vidhā bhāgavatās

tīrtha-bhūtāḥ svayaṁ vibho

tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni

svāntaḥ-sthena gadābhṛtā [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.13.10]

He told Vidura, "You are a walking tīrtha because you carry the Supreme Personality of Godhead within your heart." The meaning of that—since everyone carries the Supreme Personality of Godhead within their heart—is that the devotee has love for Kṛṣṇa within his heart. Therefore, coming in contact with such a person, one is able to perceive the goal of life. Even if not intellectually, one feels it: "This person is trustworthy. I can surrender here because the person has no material motive."

That is an observation many people had upon meeting Prabhupāda. People have said many times, remembering their connection with him, "He saw right through me. I felt at that time that he saw my soul," or, "He wasn't judging me; he was only giving me mercy and compassion." That can only come from somebody who has love for Kṛṣṇa within their heart.

When one comes in contact with devotees who are, according to Yudhiṣṭhira in this verse, tīrtha, is an analogy. It means a narrowing of a river. In fact, it's the terminology people use — “the narrows” — or there’s a strait also. That means that the river, although normally impassable, comes to a narrowing. So, it’s so narrow that you can step over it. And when we meet those who have love for Kṛṣṇa, then there’s an opportunity to step over that fear because we trust the person.

Krishna Katha | H.G. Vaisesika Dasa | 2025-06-22 | ISV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR2OrofGkeg

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1hr 7 mins

A simple formula for making decisions in the material world is to ask: “What will be best for continuing my service?”

Service, as you know better than me, is called sevā, and your sevā will save you. If you hold on to your sevā throughout your life, it is like holding a rope that pulls you through all the complex situations of life — like the example you gave about where to live.

There are many ways you could calculate. You might say, “Okay, I’m going to make more money over here, but it’s going to be a long drive to the temple.” Now draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper and say, “Okay, here I’ll have more money. What will happen because of that?”

On the other side, if you live closer to the temple, you could think, “Every mile I am closer to the temple, it’s more likely that I will go more often, get more association, and engage more in service.” Then you weigh it back and forth. Think about it very carefully:

If I live closer, I can show up for my service — washing pots, sweeping the floor, making garlands — because I am nearby.

If I live far away, I probably won’t make it as much, but I’ll earn a little more — or maybe a lot more — money.

So you weigh it back and forth and ask, “What is best for my sevā?”

If you keep asking that question — What is best for my sevā? — whenever you make a decision, you will never make a mistake. Kṛṣṇa will notice your intention, and you will be perfectly aligned as you move through your life

Krishna Katha | H.G. Vaisesika Dasa | 2025-06-22 | ISV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR2OrofGkeg

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1hr 10 mins

Kṛṣṇa explains in the Bhagavad-gītā:

brahmaṇy ādhāya karmāṇi

saṅgaṁ tyaktvā karoti yaḥ

lipyate na sa pāpena

padma-patram ivāmbhasā (BG 5.10)

When your wishes are to serve Kṛṣṇa, then they are spiritual wishes. And when you wish to serve yourself, then they are material wishes. In all cases, Kṛṣṇa will help you fulfill your desires. But when you desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, you will get more service to Him — and you feel satisfied.

Take the example of Hiraṇyakaśipu. You’re familiar with him, right? What was his great desire? To be immortal. And later in his life, we see that he also wanted to dominate the world and control others. He interfered with everyone’s lives. He would not allow the Gandharvas to dance or sing. He stopped the Siddhas from flying. He prevented the brāhmaṇas from lighting sacrificial fires. He really was extremely controlling.

Before granting his benedictions, Brahmā warned him. In essence, he indicated: “You should not ask for things you will not be able to maintain happily.” Even while fulfilling Hiraṇyakaśipu’s desires out of obligation, Brahmā hinted that such material acquisitions would become a burden.

When desires are material — when we try to take things for ourselves — fulfilling them can become troublesome. We can recognize material wishes because they are centered solely on ourselves.

However, there is another consideration. Suppose you desire something that appears material, but your intention is to use it in Kṛṣṇa’s service. For instance, I know devotees in this very community who have purchased houses. Someone might say, “That’s very materialistic. Why not just live in a van or sleep under a tree?”

But devotees need a place to live so they can remain healthy and steady in their service. Moreover, they may have purchased the house with the intention of inviting people over — to create a pleasant environment where guests can learn about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, honor prasādam, and participate in kīrtana.

So what would you say? If someone buys a house with the intention of hosting programs, offering prasādam, organizing kīrtana, and maintaining their health for service — is that a material wish or a spiritual wish? A spiritual wish.

If someone buys a house with the clear intention to use it for Kṛṣṇa’s service — to host devotees, share prasādam, hold kīrtana, and continue their devotional life steadily — then that desire is spiritual, because the intention is centered on service to Kṛṣṇa.

Life Lessons From The Ramayana | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 06 Apr 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIJ8RwSncys

Time where the answer starts in the video: 51 mins

Lord Rāmacandra, in particular, is exhibiting the mood of maryādā. He's called the maryādā-puruṣottama. Maryādā means duty. In the end of the Rāmāyaṇa, everyone thinks, okay it's Dīwālī time. He's calm. Let's throw colors and we'll be happy forever. And then next thing Rāma as kings did at that time, walked through the city incognito and he heard a low-class person criticizing him and criticizing Sītā, and then He could understand that there was some sense, even though it was from a low-class person. So this excruciatingly painful maryādā that he exhibits during that time is hard to bear. Anyone who adheres to the truth 100% is hard to be around, actually. Come on, just all you have to do is just adjust it a little bit. But that's his stature as maryādā. So the king has a dhārmic duty to make his citizens happy. So in that case he executed that duty.

Now at the same time, as Kṛṣṇa has multiple reasons for doing everything and all of them are for the benefit of everyone and for his own enjoyment, his līlā. This was an introduction of separation in his pastimes. We find it in a full-blown way in his pastimes in Vṛndāvana when he leaves Vṛndāvana, and there we understand when Kṛṣṇa separated from the residents of Vṛndāvana that he's showing the tenor of their devotion, which is unbreakable. There's a sonnet by Shakespeare in which he talks about true love, and true love is that which is not broken even when there's cause for it to be broken. That sentiment is expressed in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta also. And of course somebody might wait for a couple years but not 107, but that's the nature of love in separation.

And as explained by spiritual scientists also, inconceivable to those inexperienced in science—as with most scientists—it's the height of happiness and pleasure. It's like ice that burns. It's cold but hot at the same time. And Kavirāja Gosvāmī says, “Imagine a severe snake bite from a serpent that's extremely poisonous and the pain of that, where at the same time nectar is being poured on your head,” and he said that's the experience of separation.

So, he introduces that. There were of course Daśaratha who had thousands of wives, not just the ones we heard about in the immediate pastime because they had sons, and he had thousands. In this mood of maryādā, Rāma had one wife, and even though he gave her over to Vālmīki in his āśrama and the two sons Lava and Kuśa, he was still unwilling to take another wife. There was a yajña that was performed, and according to the rules of the yajña he should have had a wife sitting next to him. He refused. So they made an image of Sītā out of pure gold. And in fact in that yajña because of the intensity of his love that mūrti itself became animate. And when Sītā heard about his dedication to her, she was overwhelmed with this sense of love for Rāma. So in their separation, there was also, as usual, a sense of inconceivable connection at the same time. And in the end, they're united, but it's for the pastime of separation.

The Highest Kind of Renunciation Is To Always Have Somewhere Better To Be | 30 Mar 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAqsR0XdUrs

Time where the answer starts in the video: 48 mins

Be a little open-minded. Yeah, be open-minded if you accept the principle of Kṛṣṇa, which, if you don't, then at least for the time being accept that He's all-powerful and all-merciful and accept it on a theoretical basis, and then base it on that. Be open-minded that He'll do the right thing.

People will respect you highly for that too—anybody who's around you—if even theoretically you accept. And of course it's not theoretical; it's true. But even if you take the Bhagavad-gītā and take Kṛṣṇa at His word that He's your best well-wisher, He knows everything that's going on, everything about you, and you live your life like that, you'll really stand out, because most people complain about everything and they worry about everything.

I noticed a really excellent class Devakīnandan, the attorney from Singapore, gave in Māyāpur, and he was asked a question about astrology and other ways of getting an understanding of what's going to happen to me. The devotee who was asking was Sukhadeva Mahārāja. He was saying, “Is it necessary for devotees to do that?”

And in a very compassionate, śāstric way, he explained why it's not absolutely necessary for us. But he said devotees do it anyway oftentimes, because even though they trust Kṛṣṇa, they still want to try to alleviate the pain and the onslaught of what's happening right now.

It's quite understandable that you get a little nervous about what's happening in this material world. But if you can take Bhagavad-gītā to heart—which is best done by reading it regularly—and just take Kṛṣṇa as Prabhupāda recommends in the introduction.

When you read this book, and he's speaking perhaps to a newcomer or anybody else—but I say perhaps because he asked us to mass distribute this book—and somebody might get it and then open it and say, “Okay, at least theoretically for now accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality.” They've got it.

It's a little bit of a trick, because once you do that it's really hard to go back. And nonetheless, if you can do that, and from moment to moment when there are ways in which you feel a little bit challenged, then be open-minded to Kṛṣṇa working in His own way.

I saved a video to my phone. It's this guy walking down a city street, and there's some guy at a flower stand. As this man is walking by, he just pushes him out of the way, and the guy goes flying into the flowers. Then there's a series where he's going down the street. There's a little kid running out of the door, and he trips him. This guy trips him because the kid is running after his ball.

Then you see that the guy who flew into the flower stand—there was a car about to go down the sidewalk, and he would have gotten hit. And the little kid—he also would have been hit by a car.

In the series you see these types of incidents happening and what's actually behind them. And that's the vision we can get from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Bhagavad-gītā.

If I say, just on a practical level, if you pray to Kṛṣṇa, the human body was built for prayer. That's especially what it's made for. So you do this—do this—how do you feel now? A lot safer, right? It's like a lightning rod—just right, straight from Kṛṣṇa to your heart.

And if you pray on it and ask, like, “What's going on? When's this going to happen or not happen?” and so forth, Kṛṣṇa reciprocates from within the heart.

The Highest Kind of Renunciation Is To Always Have Somewhere Better To Be | 30 Mar 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAqsR0XdUrs

Time where the answer starts in the video: 46 mins

Be sincere. If you're sincere, then all good things will come. Sincere means we don't have any ulterior motive. Just be, as Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā in the 18th Chapter, one, who offers service for service with no expectation in return. That's a winning attitude, for sure. And also you could have the attitude that I'm helpless. I'm the runt of the litter. I got left behind. I'm a mercy case. Please help me. And the third one could be, please engage me in Your service. I'm lost in this world. I need your help. What a great question. 

The Highest Kind of Renunciation Is To Always Have Somewhere Better To Be | 30 Mar 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAqsR0XdUrs

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 2 mins

I give you an answer from the Bhāgavatam, which is given by Prabuddha Yogendra. He said,

tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta

jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam

śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ

brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.3.21]

And that starts with a “therefore.” Before that, there’s a description of the confusion of the material world. And Prabuddha Yogendra says, get yourself an attorney. When you don’t know what the legal implications of something are, don’t try to represent yourself in court. You go get an attorney. And best if you get a really good one. 

A good attorney knows the law, and a great attorney knows the judge.

And that’s how the world works, and that’s how the spiritual world works also. So if you want to know how to get out of difficulty, Prabuddha Yogendra says: find yourself a spiritual attorney. And what’s the qualification of that person? That person is śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. They have studied the law books. They know the spiritual science backwards and forwards. And Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that’s the kind of person that you want to go to. They’ve experienced it. And there’s also another metaphor for that kind of guide given by Kṛṣṇa, also in the 11th Canto:

nṛ-deham ādyam su-labhaṁ su-durlabhaṁ

 plavaṁ su-kalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.20.17]

Guru means like a sea captain. They’re salty. They’ve been through it. They’ve followed it. They’ve practiced it. They’ve got years of sādhana, and they can tell you—they’ve seen a million times how what goes around comes around, and how it works.

And they’ve also lived their life like Prabhupāda. He lived his life. When he came to America at 69 years of age. He had had children. He had been involved in political movements. He had had a business, lost a business. Anybody here lost a business before? Ever lost a lot of money recently? Yeah.

So when you go through all that and your heart sinks, and it comes back up, and then you start realizing what Kṛṣṇa said is true. Plus, you know, you’ve stuck to the process. You have vijñānam, or realized knowledge. And that’s the kind of person you want to ask. That’s who I ask when I’m trying to figure things out. I go to people—they know the śāstra in and out. Plus they’re just solid in everything that they do, and I trust them. So I say, “What do you think?” And when I discuss it with them, then I get my bearings straight. So that’s the way to find your way through life.

And Kṛṣṇa is there in the Bhagavad-gītā, but He’s also there in His representatives. That’s from the 11th Canto. Uddhava says:

naivopayanty apacitiṁ kavayas taveśa

brahmāyuṣāpi kṛtam ṛddha-mudaḥ smarantaḥ

yo ’ntar bahis tanu-bhṛtām aśubhaṁ vidhunvann

ācārya-caittya-vapuṣā sva-gatiṁ vyanakti [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.29.6]

He says: You’re on the outside as the ācārya. Ācārya means somebody showing by example how you do this. You’ve got to have some example of somebody. And then on the inside, you’re directing me as well. And so we’re never without guidance. And Prabhupāda brings that up in the verse I quoted at the very beginning of class:

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ

bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam

dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ

yena mām upayānti te [Bhagavad-gītā 10.10]

If you’re sincere and you try, Kṛṣṇa always gives you instruction from within your heart. It never fails. And so just take shelter of Kṛṣṇa and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa nonstop. That means 24/7—don’t stop chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

How to Have a Steady Spiritual Practice Amidst Life's Dualities | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 04 May 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b9w0IE8K80&t=765s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 17 mins

One of the ways Kṛṣṇa recommends in the Bhagavad-gītā is to start practicing giving some of the results that you’re getting to Kṛṣṇa. For instance, you might give it to those who are distributing books—Kṛṣṇa conscious literature—and say, “Here, here’s some of my paycheck.” When you give, that’s the general fruit, because we don’t work for a boss; we work for money, right? Anybody here work? And if your boss calls and says, “We’re not going to pay you anymore, can you please still come in?” you’ll probably say no.

So the ultimate fruit is the remuneration that we’re getting from them. And if you take some of that and designate that, “I’m giving this to distribute books,” you give it to some person or some group that you trust, and you say, “I’m investing this in helping to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” Then what happens is you start to get some knowledge and detachment by giving away the fruit of the result of your work. And it’s uncanny.

It’s very practical also, because there’s a way in which—have you ever been in a situation where there was an opportunity to give a donation, and then your mind’s going back and forth, thinking like, “Should I? Shouldn’t I? If I give this, then I won’t have this or that. And if I do give it, then, well, I’ll be doing the right thing,” maybe we’re thinking. And then let’s just say you do give it. One of the realizations we get right after we do that is, “Oh, I’m still alive.” Because the mind has this idea that unless I hold on to everything, then I’ll die. I have to survive in this world, and I have to protect myself, and I have to protect my happiness. And to do that, I have to fortify myself with wealth and so forth. And to a certain degree that’s true. But we also have to learn that by letting go we can see for ourselves that we’re not maintaining ourselves—Kṛṣṇa is maintaining us. And oftentimes, when you give, you grow. You become bigger. You have more capacity. You have a sense of perspective that you didn’t have before. So Kṛṣṇa advocates for this in the Bhagavad-gītā, and He says, as you’re working, just start to give away some of the fruit of your work.

I know a person who is very wealthy. He’s a devotee. He started in the āśrama in India. And he comes from a family of entrepreneurs, and he has it in his blood. So at a certain point he asked his spiritual master, “Can I start a business?” And he said, “You know, I’ll give all the results to the temple.” And after some discussion—or several discussions—he did that, and he was very successful.

And he sold the business, and he gave lots of money to help develop certain projects. And then he started an organization to help other entrepreneurs. He comes to Silicon Valley, where there are lots of wealthy entrepreneurs who also have a sense of spirituality. And the last time he was there, I met with him and some of the business people who came. And he was telling them that those companies that designate a large part of their income—the companies themselves, in their bylaws—they say, “We’re going to give 50% of everything we make to a higher cause.” He said they do better than other companies.

And then he also said that when people go into business, if they say, “Later on, once I make a lot of money, then I’ll start giving some,” he said they never do. And what’s more, they don’t do as well as the other ones. This is how he was preaching to these wealthy people.

And he was just talking about the uncanny way that when you become a giver and you don’t hold on to everything, you actually grow and you become more successful—even in the material sense—what to speak of spiritually. You start to realize that the result isn’t coming from me, and it’s not mine to hold on to anyway.

And this is the beginning of Kṛṣṇa consciousness—to understand that actually Kṛṣṇa is in control of everything, and not me. So in a very practical way, we start by giving away what we can from the results of our work, and then our knowledge will grow and our detachment will grow too. And it’s very practical to be able to do that.

How to Have a Steady Spiritual Practice Amidst Life's Dualities | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 04 May 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b9w0IE8K80&t=765s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 29 mins

Well, one is to ask yourself the question, “Am I doing this for service, or am I doing this for myself?” And the other way is, if you have good spiritual mentorship, which is always important to remain objective, as oftentimes it’s hard for us to tell ourselves. We may say, “I don’t know. Maybe this is service, and maybe it is my own false ego.”

And if you have those who are objective and who are your well-wishers—that’s why Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism is a team sport—we try to surround ourselves with those who are really our well-wishers and who don’t have a sense of trying to exploit us. They just want to help. And if you have such mentors, you can go to them and say, “I’m in this situation. You know—what’s my duty?” And that will happen more often than not, because sometimes it’s hard to tell what our duty is and what is not our duty, and what’s best. So it’s good to have that.

And then, of course, there’s this way of triangulating called guru, sādhu, and śāstra. So guru means if you have a primary spiritual authority whom you are following and who can help you—because there has to be a last opinion somewhere. People sometimes say about the Supreme Court that they’re not the ultimate authority because they’re right; they’re the ultimate authority because they’re last. I forget exactly how the juxtaposition goes, but you have to have somebody at the end who says, “Okay, this is it.”

And you can compare that to what other advanced spiritual people have said in the past and are saying now, and also what’s there in the śāstra, like the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Life’s complicated because we have these multi-layers in our life. We’re spiritual souls, but we’re ensconced in a material body. So it’s important to have ways in which we can, through the different periods of our life, discern—through consultation with these entities—what’s the best thing for me to do at this particular time. Especially in times of transition it gets difficult, because transition is a time when we think, “Oh, is this the right time to do this? And am I doing the right thing?” And then it’s good to take help.

How to Have a Steady Spiritual Practice Amidst Life's Dualities | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 04 May 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b9w0IE8K80&t=765s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 32 mins

Oftentimes, as we’re discussing in some of the other talks, we get an opportunity—in times of distress—just as Arjuna is here. In fact, the first chapter is called The Yoga of Despair, so he’s definitely in distress. And if we can come to the result of that distress—to offer it to Kṛṣṇa and say, “Kṛṣṇa, I don’t know what to do”—Arjuna comes to that point. That’s the beginning of the instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā. If he had just kept, for lack of a better term, whining—as he does in the first chapter—he’s very concerned. And he’s saying, “What about this? What about that? And I have to organize this.” And he realizes it’s a lose-lose proposition. The way he’s looking at it, no matter what he does, it’s going to go wrong. And then he comes to the point of saying, “I honestly don’t know what to do.” That’s a nice breakthrough point. And then he turns to Kṛṣṇa, and he says, “I have no idea what my duty is here. Please tell me.”

So when we’re in distress, it can bring us to that point of saying, “Kṛṣṇa, I’m offering this to You. I don’t know what to do.” And in one of his writings, Prabhupāda says we should pray like that. We should admit to Kṛṣṇa how we’re being tossed by the material ocean and say, “Kṛṣṇa, I’m getting thrashed out here. Little help.” You know, like, “I’m here getting pounded. What am I supposed to do, Kṛṣṇa?”

These are the existential questions and points in our life when we feel crushed. And sometimes those can be the most productive moments, because we’re at a point where we give up. We just say, “Kṛṣṇa, please help me. Tell me what to do.” So in times of stress, that can be very helpful too, and that’s the ultimate solution to that.

I was in a management situation once where I was really perplexed, because there was a situation that was way beyond my control. And then it blew up into a lawsuit, and there was a question about whether there was enough insurance to cover the lawsuit. And I was thinking, “What a disaster. Everything will be lost, and it’s going to lead to all kinds of bad consequences.”

And I went to consult some of my godbrothers—senior godbrothers—and I told them the whole situation. And they couldn’t exactly fix it. They just sort of acknowledged it. And I maybe felt about 2% better after talking to them, like, “Okay, at least I told somebody.”

But then a few days later, one of them had written me an email and sent me a verse from the Fourth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in which Mahārāja Pṛthu had been in a really awkward situation. He was trying to do a special ceremony, and it was a very elaborate ceremony, and it required a horse. And Indra, who had done one hundred of such ceremonies, got envious because this king was going to do his hundredth, and Indra wouldn’t be the only one who had done one hundred of them. And so Indra came disguised as a monk, and he kept stealing the horse to try to ruin the ceremony. And after it had happened several times, King Pṛthu became so disturbed that he wanted to kill Indra. And then the priests there said, “You can’t kill him. We’ll kill him.” And they were going to do an incantation that would draw Indra into the sacrificial fire.

And then Brahmā, who is the administrator of the universe, came and said, “Wait a minute. You can’t kill Indra. None of you can. Let’s talk about this.” And he gave this advice: that when things happen by destiny, then you shouldn’t take it very personally. You should just understand that this is the way the material world works. Eventually everything goes sideways here in the world, no matter how good it looks now.

And when he sent me that verse, and Prabhupāda had said in the purport that sometimes you just have to tolerate these things, then I actually got about 96%—plus the two, which put it at 98%—relief. I still had to deal with the situation, but I was able to come to a position of, “Okay, this is very directly related to my situation—this kind of disastrous situation that seems to have no solution. And I leave it to Kṛṣṇa. I’m going to do the best I can with it.”

So when we’re in distress and we have this pain, we can offer it to Kṛṣṇa and say, “I don’t know how this happened, but I’m going to just wait for You to show me how to deal with it,” and then move forward with your life.

And it very much helps if you have your spiritual practice so you can take refuge there. Because if you have your daily japa, it’s a place where, when you’re going through things in your life—whether up or down, because they’re the same coin with different sides—everything becomes justified and evened out by taking shelter of the chanting process. Your mind becomes spiritualized, and you go, “Okay, whatever happens on that plane, I’ll deal with it methodically.” But you have the wherewithal from your chanting every day to deal with it dispassionately and not become overcome.

There’s a saying that I like that relates to this: nothing is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it seems. The mind tends to spike when something good happens. You say, “Well, I’m the smartest person in the world, and now I’m wealthy for the rest of my life,” or whatever happens. But you know there are going to be some taxes to pay on that, and who knows what else is going to happen because of the so-called good. And if the bad happens, then—no, it’s not as bad as it seems either. 

Guru Maharaj; 03/10/2026 VDA Disciple Whatsapp Group

Kṛṣṇa appeared to Vasudeva and Devakī in a four-armed form, which is an expansion of svayaṁ bhagavān Kṛṣṇa in Vraja, as stated at SB 10.3.11, calling that form: kṛṣṇa-avatāra. In other words, Kṛṣṇa’s four-armed form is an expansion of his two-armed humanlike form.

In 11.46 of the Gītā, Arjuna has seen this four-armed form within the Viśva Rūpa (universal form) and now asks to see it again to be relieved of the overbearing vision of the Viśva Rūpa.

Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that Arjuna’s desire to see Kṛṣṇa progresses in the following sequence: Viśva Rūpa > Four-armed form > Two-armed form.

VCT adds that while the Viśva Rūpa was frightening for Arjuna to see, Kṛṣṇa’s four-armed form was “a mixture of sweetness and grandeur”; then, at verse 11.50, when Kṛṣṇa finally shows Arjuna His two-armed, (saumya-vapuḥ: “His most pleasing form”) He is again revealing to Arjuna His original two-armed form in which Arjuna not only finds complete comfort, but also fully appreciates this most pleasant and approachable form of Kṛṣṇa.

At verse 11.50, we learn all of this from the verse and Srila Prabhupāda’s purport. 

[Also,] Śrīla Prabhupāda quotes Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura in his purport to SB 11.2.47 about the effectiveness of worshiping Kṛṣṇa’s arcā form in the temple:

"According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī should very seriously engage in regulated worship of the Deity. The Deity is a particular incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Kṛṣṇa can present Himself before the worshiper in five different manifestations, namely His original form as Kṛṣṇa (para), His quadruple expansions (vyūha), His pastime incarnations (vaibhava), the Supersoul (antaryāmī) and the Deity (arcā). Within the Deity form (arcā) is the Supersoul, who in turn is included within the Lord’s pastime forms (vaibhava). The Supreme Lord’s vaibhava-prakāśa is an emanation from the catur-vyūha. This quadruple expansion of the Lord is situated within the supreme truth, Vāsudeva, who Himself is situated within the svayaṁ-prakāśa-tattva. This svayaṁ-prakāśa consists of expansions of the ultimate svayaṁ-rūpa-tattva, the original form of Kṛṣṇa within Goloka Vṛndāvana in the spiritual sky. This hierarchy of the expansions of the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world is realized even within the material world in terms of one’s eagerness to render service to the Lord. A beginner in the lowest stage of devotional service should try to dedicate all his activities to the satisfaction of the Lord and cultivate the worship of Kṛṣṇa in the temple."

In the context of our conversation above, all forms of the Lord are present within the Deity. Kṛṣṇa showed Arjuna His various forms. So too, He reveals to us temple-goers all of His divine forms in one place. By seeing, bowing to, worshiping, and offering prayers to the Deity in the temple, therefore, we may directly interact with Kṛṣṇa and develop our relationship with Him, just as Arjuna did.

We Become Closer to The Lord Through The Mercy of Devotees | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 30 Jun 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL4goh0IURs

Time where the answer starts in the video: 40 mins

We respect all. Wherever we see the impetus to worship God, we show respect. In fact, this was the conclusion of the sages at Naimiṣāraṇya, who were discussing what is the way to do the greatest good for all people in the world. And then Sūta Gosvāmī summarizes it for them at the very beginning:

sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo

yato bhaktir adhokṣaje

ahaituky apratihatā

yayātmā suprasīdati [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6]

This is what’s known as the gold standard. As Prabhupāda says, gold is gold. You say, “Well, this is Thai gold and this is German gold,” and then you say, “Yeah, whatever. I just want to know how pure it is.” That’s what you ask.

And that’s what the sages concluded—sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ. “Paro” means that it just goes to God. There are no conditions, no contingencies. You know—contingencies like, “I’ll do it if I get this in return, and if not, then I don’t believe in God anymore.” But spontaneous love flows. And then the other one is ahaitukī apratihatā. It’s uninterrupted. In other words, it’s so nice that there’s no reason to do anything else. So that’s our standard when we’re introducing it to people all over the world.

Regarding the second part of your question—do you need to wear a tilaka and be a Vaiṣṇava to go back to Godhead? When Jayananda Prabhu left the world in 1977, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote a bereavement letter and a letter of appreciation for his service. And he said that if he was thinking of Kṛṣṇa when he left, then he went back to Godhead. If not, then he will take birth in a higher planetary system, and then he will take birth in a family of very devoted souls, and he will have every opportunity to then complete his journey back to Godhead. It’s a science, and Kṛṣṇa mentions the science in Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is so universally appreciated because Kṛṣṇa presents the science of consciousness:

yānti deva-vratā devān

pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ

bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā

yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām [Bhagavad-gītā 9.25]

Which means you’re free to move about the cosmos. Little jīva, you can go wherever you like. And if your impetus is in your heart to go live with your ancestors—who would want to do that? I have no idea. But if that’s what’s in your heart, then it’s there. We can see in Purūrava and other stories in the Bhāgavatam, like, “No, I have to be with Ūrvaśī.” And you know, all kinds of pūjās and worship—these are all possible in the heart of a jīva, who is part and parcel of God in the material world. And they’ll want to go to a certain place. So Kṛṣṇa says that’s where you’ll go.

And the junction when that’s all settled up is at the time when you leave your body. Kṛṣṇa says:

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ [Bhagavad-gītā 8.6]

Whatever you think of—the material nature is accommodating. It will accommodate you. And if you don’t want anything else but God, then you’ll get that too. Now here comes the rub: you have to know who God is. And if you don’t have any idea, then you’ve got more work to do.

And Prabhupāda brings this up in his conversation with the venerable Yogī Bhajan, who invited Prabhupāda to a conference of many different kinds of spiritualists—most of them Māyāvādīs. In that conference he said, “We’ll all come together and merge. We’ll all be together and merge together.” And Prabhupāda said, “They will never merge. You can write it in your book.”

And the thrust of Prabhupāda’s conversation at that point—throughout the conversation—was to get Yogī Bhajan Prabhu to commit to a conception of God, which he would not do, because he wanted to be so ecumenical as to say that anybody can believe in any conception of God. And Prabhupāda said, “Well, name one. What is that conception of God?” And he wouldn’t commit. And in fact, when he mentioned that in the Guru Granth Sāhib there was mention of Govinda, Prabhupāda said, “Then you take that.” And he said, “No, no, not even that.” So there is a way in which:

ye ’nye ’ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas

 tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

 āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ

 patanty adho ’nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.2.32]

Kṛṣṇa doesn’t cheat us. It says that unless you have a very clear idea of who God is—and He’s a person. We can logically prove that He’s a person. If you can’t come to that conception, it doesn’t matter what religion you are—you’ll be left with a lower conception.

So much so that you’ll again be attracted to the variety of the material world, and you’ll look at other persons here like— I don’t know—Tom Cruise or who’s that singer? What’s her name? Taylor Swift. You don’t have to go to a Taylor Swift concert if you get Kṛṣṇa, because you need to hear somebody singing and you need something for the eyes.

So we have:

cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-

lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam [Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā 5.29]

You couldn’t be more specific. And it was like, “Don’t be so specific.” It’s like, “Then you be specific.” That was Prabhupāda’s point to Yogī Bhajan. Prabhupāda would say we have:

cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-

 lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam [Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā 5.29]

He’s got pets—cows. And they say, “You’re being so specific about God.” Fine—then you be specific. You say, “What’s your conception of God?” And they say, “We don’t really have one.” Then Prabhupāda says, “Then take this one.” And this is not being condescending. It’s not. It just is the way it is. We’re persons, and God is a person. And unless we have a relationship with Him, then whatever tenuous relationship we have with anyone in the material world—we’ll lose that. And so it’s a great service, actually, to give people specificity. It’s scary, because that’s what everybody’s afraid of in the material world. Kṛṣṇa says: vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā [Bhagavad-gītā 4.10]. Everyone’s freaked out by the idea that we might have a personal relationship with God. And the beauty of Vaiṣṇavism is that we come in and say, “No, it’s possible.” First you can develop a relationship with the devotees and learn to trust them. Find out that there is a place where you can trust somebody. It’s very hard, because we’re so used to being misused or having misplaced trust. But if we can get that, then you can start opening your heart to the topics of Kṛṣṇa, and then Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself more and more. Then we have that conception.

So we respect all, and we want everyone on their level, but we have no misconception about the fact that, in fact, we accommodate Vedānta: vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.11]. We do say there is one God—advaya-jñāna-tattva. He has variety within that. But it’s not sustainable. That’s why Caitanya Mahāprabhu comes. It’s not sustainable at the level of Brahman or Paramātmā, because our relationship isn’t thick enough at Paramātmā. We’re just asking, “Daddy, give me this. Daddy, give me that.” And you know, that’s our relationship with God—it’s like a little child.

It hasn’t matured yet to the point where, as an adult, the child starts to think, “Oh, my parents have done so much for me. How can I serve them?” Minus that, you don’t have much.

So it’s a great service to the world to distribute the personal conception, and even to write about it. You’ll notice if you’re preaching—that’s where the rubber meets the road. You can say “peace of mind.” You can say “We’re all good.” You can say “stress-free.” Everyone’s fine, right? Still good. But then you say, “God’s a person.” And people look and say, “What kind of person is He? Is He better than me? He’s not better than me. How can He be a person? I’m the only person.” And so on and so forth. But within that, it’s not that there’s some restriction. The spiritual world is unlimited. 

bhāvayaty eṣa sattvena

lokān vai loka-bhāvanaḥ

līlāvatārānurato

Deva-tiryaṅ-narādiṣu [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.34]

Just as the Lord gives variety in this world—8,400,000 species. That ought to be enough, don’t you think, to try it out? If you only gave… if you had only ten tries—you know—you could be an aardvark, you could be a worm. There would be only eight left, and you might think, “Well, that wasn’t enough. I could have been happy. Maybe I should have tried being a mongoose. You know, I want to kill snakes.”

But Kṛṣṇa gives you 8,400,000 species in the material world to try it out and see how you like it. And you go through all the rides, and at the end you say, “I didn’t like it.”

What about the spiritual world? The material world is limited. The spiritual world is unlimited. There are unlimited relationships with God. So once we cross the threshold and embrace God as a person, He is willing to offer Himself to us in any way that we like. There is no restriction there. You can read and bring out in the Brhad Bhāgavatāmṛta that the devotees who become enamored of Kṛṣṇa in any of the incarnations in which He comes into the material world to save the living entities—including the vegetable tribes—the devotees who have appreciated Him in that form and who attain sārūpya-mukti also take on a form like that, out of appreciation for the Lord. So you may say, “That’s wild.” Yes—because there’s no end to it, to the ways that you can worship God and the ways that He will accommodate—just as He is accommodating the material world.

We Become Closer to The Lord Through The Mercy of Devotees | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 30 Jun 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL4goh0IURs

Time where the answer starts in the video: 52 mins

Well, that's why it's an art. When you see somebody do something artful, you go, like, “How did they do that?” Because they've done it so many times, and they're so tuned into it that they just naturally respond in the right way. And when we go out into public—I mention it as a high sādhana—there's a way in which we're testing ourselves.

It's like in the '60s, '70s, maybe '80s, '90s—I don't know—biofeedback. Have you ever heard of that? It's a machine that you can hook up to. It takes all your bio data, and you can watch the machine, and you can see how it's responding to your moods. Then you can learn to control your emotions, and thereafter, subsequently, all the rhythms of your body, which are connected to the way you're thinking. The mind and body are one thing.

In a similar way, we get instructions from Kṛṣṇa and all the ācāryas:

vāco vegaṁ manasaḥ krodha-vegaṁ [Nectar of Instruction, verse 1]

And the ways in which Kṛṣṇa talks about how to be a kind friend to all living beings, and to not become your enemy’s enemy, and to be tolerant and so forth. You know the last verses in the Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, right?

So then, when we go out into the public and we're presenting Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that's our biofeedback machine. Because when you present to somebody, if you have anything in your heart other than goodwill for them and the sense that you want to serve them—and that you're a humble servant of the servant of the servant—then the lights on the biofeedback machine come on. If you think you're better than them because you've joined an organization somewhere and you're given a position or something like that—anything like that—then they'll give you back, inordinately, a kind of feedback that will then show you that, “I did it wrong. I need to tune my heart.” So one should be:

tṛṇād api sunīcena

taror iva sahiṣṇunā

amāninā mānadena

kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ [Śikṣāṣṭakam, verse 3]

We should learn how to show respect to all living beings and not expect anything in return. You can do that at home. You can do it in the temple, in the āśrama, and you can feel free to do it all day long in public too, when you're distributing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and you'll get refinement in that process. It's one of the reasons that going out and meeting dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, millions of people over a lifetime—one after another—and interacting with them in a way that you're coming to the point where you're supposed to come to, of trying to serve them—it's a refining process. Prabhupāda said everyone should learn that art. So when we meet people, we want to be very sensitive.

There are ways in which I've been talking about over the last few days—a scale from one to ten. If you look out into people's eyes and their countenances, you can see where they are. If they're one to five—just all the way up to five—they won't stop on their own. 5.1—maybe a little open.

A tiny opening. 5.2, 5.5, 5.7…

Then 7.5—they won't go away. Even if you tell them to get lost, they'll follow you to your car. Someone came yesterday—who was it? Who sold the Bhāgavatam set? Keśava Gokulānanda Prabhu. Prabhu met this—what’s the word for him? He's a natural devotee. His name is Bhagavān, and he's from Mathurā, a young man, and he immediately bought a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam set. And then when I met him, I said, “You're one of us. You should just do this.” And he just joined us for the rest of the day. He followed us to the car, and he's like, “Yeah, I'm one of you. I want to be part of this.” That's—you know—you're getting up into the eights and nines there. They're out there. Then there are all the fives. Then there are fours, threes, twos, and ones. So in the beginning, we have to have some scale, and we have to remember the śāstra: Don't agitate people's minds. They're already agitated. Be nice. Be a kind friend. Be a servant. Be a sādhu. Be a sādhvī. And when you go out there, interact with people in ways where you leave them with a good impression.

If you keep that in mind—and then someone is at five, and you want to push them harder, and then they snap at you or something like that—then you can see: “Okay, I'll wait next time for a 5.2 before I exert that much pressure.” So you have to learn that—just like a surgeon. Very careful. No extra pressure. No under pressure. Everything has to be done just right. So that's what we're doing. We're dealing with surgery. And it can't be blunt-instrument surgery. We should  also be sterilized. You know, you should chant your rounds. If you don't chant your rounds and you go out thinking: “How much money am I going to collect today? How am I going to beat somebody else?” Then you may stab somebody in the eye with your little scalpel— because your intention is not tuned properly.

We Become Closer to The Lord Through The Mercy of Devotees | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 30 Jun 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL4goh0IURs

Time where the answer starts in the video: 59 mins

Puṇya [piety] is defined in various ways, and you'll find this in the purports. In a purport, Prabhupāda writes about bhakti-unmukhī-sukṛti. This is a special kind of sukṛti, which means that one has come in contact with devotees. It's also in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, where Rūpa Gosvāmī says that those who have a natural attraction for Kṛṣṇa consciousness in this lifetime have had previous association with sādhus, because that’s where it comes from.

And then there is sukṛti that qualifies somebody for impersonal realization. And then there is sukṛti that gives one an opportunity to become successful materially in the material world. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura distinguishes between these. And the word puṇya is also used in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the story of Aghāsura:

itthaṁ satāṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā

 dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena

 māyāśritānāṁ nara-dārakeṇa

 sākaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.12.11]

This is bhakty-unmukhī-sukṛti that is mentioned by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who says that the cowherd boys who are associating with Kṛṣṇa have amassed this kind of bhakty-unmukhī-sukṛti.

And in the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says:

yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ

 janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām

 te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā

 bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ [Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 7.28]

Those who are more in the mode of goodness have a little more opportunity. And this isn’t bhakty-unmukhī-sukṛti, but it refers to goodness, which is part of the mahat-tattva. We heard from the Bhāgavatam the other day that this allows one some clarity.

Just as

pārthivād dāruṇo dhūmas

tasmād agnis trayīmayaḥ

tamasas tu rajas tasmāt

sattvaṁ yad brahma-darśanam [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.24]

If somebody is a little more in sattva-guṇa, then sattvaṁ yad brahma-darśanam. They have more of a tendency to understand the difference between matter and spirit. From that position, they can also become more ripe to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So there are these different definitions of sukṛti.

We Become Closer to The Lord Through The Mercy of Devotees | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 30 Jun 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL4goh0IURs

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 2 mins

Well, one thing is, I don't want to make everyone neurotic, because people get annoyed, and it's not the end of the world. You can always apologize to people if they do become annoyed. And sometimes people become annoyed even if you do apologize. Some people just don't like to see devotees there.

It doesn't mean we give up our posture of, “We're representing Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and my spiritual master told me to come here.” And we shouldn't be belligerent, but we should also know who we are and what we're doing.

And although we're gentle with every soul and we're apologetic if we invade their space—and we should refine ourselves—we should also keep doing what we're doing.

And what happens? Well, there are lots of anecdotal cases you can find around ISKCON. If you go mining for them, you'll find that somebody said, “You know, I refused a devotee. I screamed. And next thing you know, I'm chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.” Be careful—he said Hare Kṛṣṇa.

My old friend and godbrother, Ruci dāsa, when he was a teenager, he and his friends would ride by the ISKCON temple in Los Angeles and took exception to the dress and the Hare Kṛṣṇa way. So they threw rocks at the marquee and broke it.

And then Keśava and his brother Karandhāra, who were big wrestler types, chased after them and caught them and threatened to pummel them. And then Ruci joined and said, “That's the way they are. I'm going to be part of this organization.”

So you don't know—when we mix it up with people everywhere, the circumstances may seem odd, and it's unpredictable how it's going to go. We have to do our part, and then not become overly concerned if something doesn't go perfectly.

Build a Base For The Rest of Your Life | HG Vaisesika Dasa | New York | 17 June 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0j1TnRwJE0

Time where the answer starts in the video: 2 mins

It takes a long time. It's a lifetime endeavor. But as you live your life, and you continue chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and you go through the various trials of life and different eras in your life, and you stick to the chanting, Hare Kṛṣṇa, you'll integrate those experiences into your life, and they'll give you more and more inspiration. In the Śrī Īśopaniṣad it is said:

vidyāṁ cāvidyāṁ ca yas tad vedobhayam saha

avidyayā mṛtyuṁ tīrtvā vidyayāmṛtam aśnute [Śrī Īśopaniṣad, verse 11]

Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality. It means that we have to go through life, and the qualities that seem troubling—they do diminish over time due to several factors. One is that you get a higher taste, and also your circumstances change. There’s always a biological certainty that you'll feel more passionate when you're younger, because it's just a life cycle. When you're going through it, hormones are stronger. The idea of conquering the world, or various other thoughts, will be more prevalent. Of course you keep the conquering-the-world part and do it for Lord Caitanya.

But the eras that you go through define you in different ways, and you have to be a little tolerant and realize that this is my mental, psycho-physiological nature that I'm dealing with as I go through these stages. Do the best you can to stay steady with the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa in all those circumstances. The result, as Prabhupāda writes, is sure and certain. Then he goes on to say that when you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even if you decide you don’t want it, it will come by its own force. So he advises that stay the course and keep on. You're doing great, by the way. And patience is something that Rūpa Gosvāmī recommends—be patient. When the time comes, it will come. It's just like with a tree. If you want to grow almonds, it takes seven years for an almond tree to produce almonds. The good stuff takes longer for the roots to go down and get established. Youth is the best time to get your roots down. So keep doing it.

Build a Base For The Rest of Your Life | HG Vaisesika Dasa | New York | 17 June 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0j1TnRwJE0

Time where the answer starts in the video: 13 mins

Well, I can give my realization about it, because sincerity might be interpreted in various ways. What it feels like to me is to identify internally my intention, which is: I only want Kṛṣṇa. I only want devotional service. I don’t want anything else.

And when I find that in myself and I dwell on it, I immediately feel enlivened, even if it is in a molecular size. That is the seed that can grow into full-blown devotional service, by which you can overcome any obstacle. If you can identify, even on a molecular level, a desire that I really want to be Kṛṣṇa’s devotee, and that is all I want. I don’t want anything in return. I just want to do this because I feel so grateful to Kṛṣṇa.

And if you find that—and if we give the metaphor of a spark—and you fan that, it will turn into a little flame, then it will grow and become a fire, and become all-consuming.

So that is a good idea. I recommend it. Find your own sincerity and then dwell on it.

There are lots of things you can dwell on that exacerbate our problems here in the material world, but this is one thing you can dwell on that solves all your problems. Because jīva kṛṣṇa-dāsa, ei viśvāsa, korle to’ ār duḥkha nāi. When you feel this sense that I only want to be a servant of Kṛṣṇa, as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says in the line I just quoted from the song “Rādha-Kṛṣṇa bol”, then there is no more misery for you. Real misery comes from being misaligned from that sincere desire to serve Kṛṣṇa.

Build a Base For The Rest of Your Life | HG Vaisesika Dasa | New York | 17 June 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0j1TnRwJE0

Time where the answer starts in the video: 16 mins

Balance is important. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, 

yuktāhāra-vihārasya

yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu

yukta-svapnāvabodhasya

yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā [Bhagavad-gītā 6.17]

Yukta means balanced, regulated. He says be regulated in the way you eat. Don’t eat too much, don’t eat too little. Don’t sleep too much, don’t sleep too little. Don’t recreate too much, don’t recreate too little. You have to take care of your body, mind, and soul.

We are living a dual existence because we do have a body and mind. You do have to do some kind of work in the world. So, one of the ways that you can find your way through the various areas of your life in good fashion is to ask: Which of my activities are helpful to my devotional service? For instance, if you’re going to get some employment, if you’re looking for a job, try to organize it in such a way that it’s as helpful as possible. For instance, a job where you might work a swing shift and work all night long in a nightclub with loud music, or something like that, might make it hard for you to watch the sunrise and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, because you’ll be tired and still be up at that time.

Asking yourself: Where should I live? Where should I go to school?—a lot of decisions are made based on where you will have the best association. You may have on one side a better-name school, but it’s out in the boondocks. And the other school—well, it’s good enough—but it’s close to where you know you’re going to go to all the festivals and the programs of the devotees. If you can make choices based on that, because you could make the other choice and say, “Well, I want the better-name school because maybe I’ll make more money later on.” But if you’re not a devotee and you make money, then it’s hard to justify that.

My friend Satyadeva was a paramedic for twenty years, and the first thing they teach you in paramedic school is that a dead paramedic can’t save anybody There are a couple of lines in the purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.8, that famous verse:

tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo

bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam

hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te

jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk

Everyone knows that verse—Brahmā is saying that if we can go through this lifetime and learn how to tolerate the inconveniences, seeing them as Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, then we are eligible to go back to Godhead. In the first line of the purport, the commentators serving Śrīla Prabhupāda have quoted from Śrīdhara Svāmī. He’s a great commentator from antiquity, and he said that the first duty of the son of a rich man is to stay alive, because he will inherit. So he says the first duty of the devotee is somehow or other to stay alive. And if you think of it like that—how do I best stay alive in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?—despite the fact that I have obligations. Everybody does. There’s nobody who’s born in this world without complications. Śukadeva Gosvāmī knew that. That’s why he wouldn’t come out of the womb. He stayed there for sixteen years. And finally he came out of the womb and he took off running, and his father was like, “Wait, come back!” He didn’t even turn around. He didn’t want to get entangled. But we’re all entangled just by coming into the world. If you make your priority to somehow or other stay alive in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, figure out a way that you can finish what you start.

And that’s another word that goes with patience: determination. If you break the word determine down, it has the word terminus in it. Terminus means an ending point. So one way to understand if you’re determined or not is whether you finish what you start. For instance, if you start a program to chant and you say, “I’m going to chant this number of mantras every day,” and you’re able to stick with it, then you’re determined. 

Other advice is to find in your sādhana a level that you won’t go below—make a stand. So let’s just say you’re really busy, you don’t have a taste, and all you can do is one round a day. Because we always say that if you’re going to make a vow, it should be something more than zero and not less than one. So let’s say you can only do one round. That’s fine. If you hold it and keep doing it, you get on a streak where you keep that going for a week, a month, a year, three years—it will give you the power to move up to the next level. And what is the next level anyway? Birds fly in the sky as high as they’re able, but the sky is unlimited. So it doesn’t matter exactly how high you are. It just matters if you’re progressing and developing your capacity. You can do that. It actually helps when you’re involved in the world and at the same time doing your sādhana. I quoted the verse earlier. It’s worth noting in the Śrī Īśopaniṣad, verse number 11—that side by side. You don’t have to invent how to do material life, because we’ve already figured that out. But you do have to figure out how to simultaneously keep the vibration going.

We have a saying: KTTVG. It means Keep the Transcendental Vibration Going. I’m going to get some hats—KTTVG movement. And if you just keep that in mind, no matter what else happens, somehow or other stay alive and keep the transcendental vibration going, then there’s a way that Kṛṣṇa will help you. He’ll help you anyway—but He will really help you if you take that side of it and keep it going. 

Take Conscious Control of Your Life | HG Vaisesika Dasa | School of Bhakti NY | 17 Jun 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8kw1CVc3-Y&t=3s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 2 mins

When I first joined an āśrama, the first service I was invited to participate in was washing pots. And once I started washing pots, I felt enveloped by the spiritual energy, because I had my own spot right there at the sink. I felt like I was an insider. And I didn’t really distinguish between one service and another. I just thought, “I’ve been given this service, and I’m going to lean into it.” And the more I leaned into it, the more I did feel peaceful and looked forward to it—especially because the environment of the āśrama was specifically for those who want to cultivate this mood of selfless service.

It’s not the activity as much as it is the attitude with which we approach it. We can engage in philosophical discussions as a service, or we can cultivate philosophy by reading and memorizing verses and so forth. You could also do that in a covered way as well—you think, “I’m going to know more than everybody else”—and then you may not feel as satisfied. But if you sweep with the idea that “I’m doing this for Kṛṣṇa,” then you feel satisfied.

And the evidence from history—one of the great examples of sweeping in order to be connected to God—is given there in the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s a history of Kṛṣṇa’s avatāra as Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And there’s an incident in the city called Jagannātha Purī. It’s a holy city where there’s a remarkable temple, and they have a festival every year to celebrate. There was a king there named Pratāparudra. And although he was engaged in politics, as kings usually are, and he was a very wealthy person, he had a sincere desire within his heart to please God. And at that time, it was unheard of in that culture for a king to come and sweep the road. At that time in history, there was a hierarchy, and the king would not touch a broom. He very deliberately came, and before the festival called Ratha-yātrā—which we just celebrated down Fifth Avenue on Saturday—the king came and took the broom, and he swept in front of the cart. It was symbolic. The cart could have rolled in that direction without him, but he wanted to show sincerely that he wanted to serve manually, even though he was a king who would never have picked up a broom. And because of that, it is described how he reached the pinnacle of spirituality through sweeping.

So it’s not so much what the activity is, but the way we approach it. If we approach any activity sincerely, with the idea of wanting to do this to please the Supreme—which is the admonition or the directive that we get, and I’ll repeat it, from that seminar that took place 5,000 years at Naimiṣāraṇya, 

sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo

yato bhaktir adhokṣaje

ahaituky apratihatā

yayātmā suprasīdati [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6]

which means that anything that you do in this world, if you offer it sincerely to the Supreme, Kṛṣṇa, it will satisfy your heart. It’s not the activity, but the mentality with which you do it.

Rise Above The Modes or Be Ruled by Them | BG Ch 14.1-18 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 04 Feb 2026

https://youtu.be/RiZxcplVYLk?si=191DGV56Vw9uRYvR

Time where the answer starts in video: 53 mins

In one word, it’s love. Because to have love, there has to be two. And it’s a peculiarity of our ontological state that we’re one with and different from God at the same time. Why? Because the One is full of joy Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt. Joy wants to interact with others for the sake of sharing that joy, and the highest joy is love. Therefore, the whole purpose of us is to love God. We have no other purpose. 

sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo

yato bhaktir adhokṣaje

ahaituky apratihatā

yayātmā suprasīdati [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6]

You’ll find that in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.6, where an early conclusion is made. At Naimiṣāraṇya, the forest sages all wanted to ask a similar question you’re asking: What’s the purpose of life? And Sūta Gosvāmī tells them at the outset—it’s to love God. That’s the whole purpose: to develop this loving association with God, a loving relationship.

So relationship means two. And that’s why Kṛṣṇa gives you an opportunity to also look elsewhere. In the material world, you get 8,400,000 species—8,400,000 different rides to go on. Like if you went to Six Flags or something, and they had millions of rides—you could try them all out, become exasperated with the material experience, and then turn to God.

But the point is this: if there’s a king—another similar point—a king doesn’t just mean king alone. King means kingdom. King means subjects who appreciate him. What’s the use of being a king if you don’t have people surrounding you saying, “You’re really great”? What kind of kingdom is that? That’s no fun. So what’s the use of being God unless there are those who appreciate how great He is? And so that’s our role. It’s not a job—it’s a pleasure—to appreciate Kṛṣṇa, and He reciprocates with us. As my godbrother Śrīdhara Svāmī used to say: what would you rather be—a sugar cube, or taste a sugar cube? If you are the sugar cube, then I don’t know what you get out of that. But if you taste a sugar cube, then you have a relationship.

So it’s for love. It’s mentioned in the Vedas that God is one, but He expands Himself eko bahu syām into many for His enjoyment. And that enjoyment is loving reciprocation with His parts and parcels.

Take Conscious Control of Your Life | HG Vaisesika Dasa | School of Bhakti NY | 17 Jun 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8kw1CVc3-Y&t=3s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 10 mins

There are different levels of liberated souls. Some are cognizant and go through a seeming series of regular life situations, and then, by the result of their work, people can understand that they’re liberated. What’s more, the idea of liberation, as Kṛṣṇa describes it in the Bhagavad-gītā, applies to anyone who’s sincerely engaged in the process. Because, as some of the great teachers have described, there’s a ripe mango and there’s an unripe mango. They’re both mangoes, and one will ripen soon; the other one is already ripe—they’re just different stages. So as far as cognizance goes, it’s not stereotyped. There are different kinds, there are different situations, and for different reasons people are aware that they’re liberated.

But a liberated soul, in general, doesn’t consider him or herself to be liberated, oftentimes. So it’s a bit of a conundrum, because there’s a kind of humility called dainya that comes along with spiritual advancement, where one—counterintuitively, or paradoxically, I should say—thinks that one is less qualified than one actually is.

But by the symptoms, one can see how somebody is a liberated soul. And especially, there are two symptoms mentioned in the vast number of Vedic literatures that are always applicable. One is steadiness, and the other is the quality of the person’s speech, which is detectable. In one saying: a fool is not discovered until he or she speaks—or he had nothing to say, and then he said it. And a liberated person, who is full of light, speaks in such a way that others get benefit. That’s their attention, and that’s what comes out from their heart.

The Mood and Mission of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 25 June 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox1F-tmOerY&t=5384s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 59 mins

They’re saying them in ways that we can appreciate, and there is a phenomenon that I referred to earlier in bhāva, when the heart softens and one is experiencing mellows within the heart. There is a spiritual phenomenon, which sounds contradictory, of feeling oneself unqualified—and this is what is called dainya. Even though one is becoming more advanced and more qualified, out of this sense of deep humility one feels that.

It’s not that the pure devotee has these qualities or has had them. It’s that there is an overwhelming sense of disqualification, even though one is becoming more advanced spiritually. And it is also didactic. I mean, it’s not that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is making this up, his mood of surrender and just for others—he actually has this deep sense of humility.

After all, what is humility and what is this sense of disqualification? It’s like I have no good qualities in oneself. A pure devotee, as it is described elsewhere, sees everyone else as having good qualities except himself; he sees everyone else engaged in devotional service except himself. And so that is the paradox of it all.

And what’s more, when we hear it and we actually experience it—like, I can recognize that I do have that quality—it melts. By hearing someone expose what we may have within our own hearts and say it out loud, there is a way in which it creates a kind of spiritual embarrassment. It’s like, “Yes, I have that.” And it is a mystery how it simultaneously helps us overcome that by revealing it.

The Mood and Mission of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 25 June 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox1F-tmOerY&t=5384s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 16 mins

I will read a couple of the tenets that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura personally adhered to. He says, “Birth after birth, let me be attached to the following, come what may: one, to my spiritual master; two, to Lord Śrī Gauranga; three, to the topics of pure devotional service as instructed by Him; four, to the holy places of pilgrimage, which are all blooming with sanctity due to His performance of pastimes therein; five, to my dīkṣā-mantra; six, to the holy name of Śrī Hari; seven, to the beloved associates of the Lord; eight, to the holy days associated with Lord Hari; nine, to those persons who follow in the footsteps of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī; and ten, to the scriptures enunciated by Śrīla Śukdeva Gosvāmī.”

That’s a good list of ten, and we can take that list and see how Śrīla Prabhupāda so expertly brought us a lifestyle that contains all those things, and we can reiterate it. It’s not hard taking the basic lessons he has here. For instance, being attached to the spiritual master means that I’m not whimsical. The spiritual master—tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam. He said, adhering to śāstra and espousing the regulative principles, everything should be backed up with pramāṇam. So follow the spiritual master—that is what we should be attached to. He says, “Birth after birth let me be attached to the following, come what may.” So be attached to your spiritual master. Be attached to Lord Śrī Gauranga—you’ll never go wrong there. Be attached to the topics of pure devotional service as instructed by him.

Here’s a nice list—you could just make that your focus. Read it every day. Here’s another one. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, “Within the forest of Vṛndā, which is gloriously rich in the treasure of mādhurya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the personification of spiritual mellows, gives transcendental bliss to Śrī Rādhikā, who is the topmost manifestation of His divine potencies and the personified form of the supreme mellow of love in separation. This same Lord Kṛṣṇa is identical to the son of mother Śacī, who resides in Gauḍadeśa, Bengal, and teaches the process for rendering His own devotional service. May this Śacīnandana be my supreme master, birth after birth.”

Three. Let not renunciation be fit for my acceptance if it does not give rise to loving devotion, and let not knowledge appeal to me at all if it does not admit to the individuality of the Lord and the jīvas. I have no desire at all to practice the eightfold yoga process, because none of these are productive of the happiness of serving Lord Hari. Such is His confidential worship. Therefore, let such abundant confidential service to Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa be mine.

He left behind a treasure trove. But one thing I will bring up, which I’ll echo from what you sent me today, was the mood of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in expanding the saṅkīrtana movement, as is evident from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, was the mood of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Don’t consider who is a fit or unfit candidate. It’s an instruction and a mood that we can emulate, and that is to dive into the saṅkīrtana movement, find innovative ways to present to the people that we meet anywhere and everywhere—or especially universities, and especially in Davos—that will attract them and bring them into the practice of devotional service.

And by that method of focusing one’s mind on expanding the saṅkīrtana movement, one shows the mood of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then we will experience the mercy of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and the other great ācāryas. It’s undeniable. One’s chanting becomes more intense, and one’s desire to hear (śravaṇam) increases.śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.16]. One gets ruciḥ by serving the great souls.

So that’s also something that we’re living as it has been passed down to us—the ways of adjusting constantly, if necessary or when necessary, the ways that we present Kṛṣṇa consciousness, innovating to try to get people to come into the practice of devotional service so they can be happy. There is no happiness in the material world, and that was the mood of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.

And then take his great love for all the practices of devotional service—the song śuddha-bhakata-caraṇa-reṇu, which is very similar to that first set I read there—where he is relishing the various aspects of devotional service. Just make your life spiritually rich by taking all of those—going to the dhāma, hearing and chanting, being attached to Lord Caitanya and the spiritual master, and so forth.

Don't Be Disappointed by Your Ineptitude | BG Ch 14 | HG Vaisesika Dasa Mayapur | 05 Feb 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyZmadjJZhg&t=2386s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 29 mins

Well, first in the Bhāgavatam we’re given an idea of everything. Everything is God. There’s nothing outside of God. God is one. And that’s called advaita. Dva means two, and advaita means not two—one. So first of all, God is one thing, and everything’s within God, and everything is God, and at the same time He has His own personality.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where you hear this term advaita, there’s the distinction that within the oneness there’s also variety. And that variety is described as the impersonal aspect of the Lord, which is compared sometimes to looking from a distance at a mountain. If you’re far enough back, you may just see something that looks like a mass or just a discoloration on the horizon. But as you get closer, you’ll find that it has shape, and that’s compared to the other aspect of the Lord, that Prabhupāda mentioned in his purport—which is becoming aware that there’s a personal presence of God within your heart and everywhere else. It’s a universal intelligence, and one comes to perceive that it’s coming from the intelligence of a person. That’s compared to getting closer to the mountain, seeing the form of the mountain.

And then there’s what we call Bhagavān, or the source. In the last verse of the fourteenth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says that “I am the source of Brahman.” He’s also the source of Paramātmā, which He talks about elsewhere. And if you get on the mountain, you’ll notice that there’s a lot more detail that you didn’t see before. And the detail is there within the original Supreme Person, from whom everything else emanates and within whom all qualities are subsumed, because they all come from Him.

So that Brahman is a distant realization of God—a sense of His all-pervasiveness. And generally, people with that feeling are inspired. They also have a sense of disassociation from the material body that they are in. But then other stages come, especially if one has association with those who are personalists, where one begins to feel gratitude toward the source of everything and of oneself.

One may realize, “I’m a conscious being, and I’m enveloped by a supreme consciousness.” But then one may begin to feel some sense of appreciation, gratitude. When you have gratitude, it leads to personality, because it’s impossible to have gratitude without attributing it to a person. Because gratitude is based on perceiving benevolence, and benevolence comes from intention—somebody wanted to do something for you. So, when that sense of gratitude arises, then one begins to think of the Supreme, less in an impersonal way and more in a personal way. In fact, we find this sometimes—in California at least—someone will say, “Yeah, I prayed to the universe. He gave me a car. It’s a Volkswagen.” One’s at that point beginning to talk about the Supreme as an entity who can reciprocate.

And then, when there’s an awakening of a desire to do something for that person, then one starts to gravitate toward devotees who are engaged in service. And then the devotees want to know more and more about the Supreme Person so they can do something very personal in service.

The best kinds of gifts, probably, I am guessing, you have ever gotten are from people who really thought about what you like and then brought you something especially the way you like it. And all those features of God, of Kṛṣṇa, are always there, but it’s a matter of what Prabhupāda calls developing our appreciating capacity.

In the Tenth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the story of Aghāsura, it’s described how people with different appreciating capacities see Kṛṣṇa from their perspective. As Epictetus, the Greek philosopher, said, “We don’t see the world the way the world is; we see the world the way we are.” And it’s similar in devotional service. The verse reads

itthaṁ satāṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā

dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena

māyāśritānāṁ nara-dārakeṇa

sākaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.12.11]

It’s an observation being made by Śukadeva Gosvāmī—that there are these different people, and they see the Lord in different ways. So, the first one says itthaṁ satāṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā, that people who have developed, in the ways that I discussed a moment ago, a certain perspective are able to appreciate the Lord as Brahman. And then he says dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena. There are others who have a sense that God is the Supreme Person, and therefore they have this urge to worship Him in personal ways.

Then it says māyāśritānāṁ nara-dārakeṇa—people who are bewildered by the illusory potency of the Lord, called māyā—just when they hear about God or Kṛṣṇa or the Supreme Person, they think, “Ah, He’s just like me. There is no such thing.”

And then he says sākaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ—there are others who have qualified themselves so much by association with pure devotees who know God’s personal form—and you’ve got to brace yourself for this one—but they’re playing with Him. And in Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, you’ll read in the Kṛṣṇa Book how Kṛṣṇa plays with other children. He manifests as a child. There are other various forms, which I’m sure you’re familiar with if you’ve been around, seeing pictures or whatever.

But these special souls, kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ, they’ve acquired so much appreciation and qualification that they can see God as a child and play with Him—blissful, eternal play. It’s called līlā. So those are the varieties within the Supreme.

Well, on a morning walk once—Prabhupāda used to walk regularly, and then devotees would walk with him and they’d have discussions, often philosophical sparring and various other topics—and once a person had joined, and he seemingly was a newcomer, but he asked, “Why are there so many differences in religious processes around the world?” Prabhupāda said, “These are not differences; they are variety.” And so there’s a way that God is one, but according to us—and the way we have developed, and the kind of association and the type of practice we have—then we will be able to appreciate Him in a certain way.

Assimilate What You Have | SB 1.5.15,16 | HG Vaisesika Dasa 

https://youtu.be/RkZDe_lC1Dc?si=_gQBpyF5BUT4RJLP

Time where the answer starts in the video: 27 mins

Assimilation means you spend some time going deeply within the book: researching it, learning all the verses, and knowing the purports backwards and forwards—learning the verses backwards and forwards. We did that with 'Divinity and Divine Service.' In order to get full credit, you had to be able to recite the chapter forwards and backwards. That’s the very beginning of assimilation.

Hanumat Presaka Swami, one of the great thinkers and scholars in our movement—I just remember when he was frequenting ISV. He always kept a little pouch around his neck. What was in that pouch? The Upadeśāmṛta. But not just the Upadeśāmṛta; it was in Spanish. He wanted to challenge himself doubly, because that’s how his brain works. He speaks Spanish, and he wanted to practice reading in Spanish. But everywhere he went, he would have that around his neck, and he'd read it and read it.

When you assimilate a book, you’ll find out how—or at least, when you attempt to assimilate one book, you start to realize how deep it is and how much is really there. Generally, people get involved in things because they want to 'strike it rich quick.' That’s why so many people live in California. In 1849, the world changed because there was a discovery of gold in the mountains of California. Actually, the world wealth situation dramatically increased at that time because so much natural gold was discovered. People came from all over the world, and they wanted to strike it rich.

There’s still the impulse in each person in the world that they want some way to get rich quick. In a business I once had, I was training people how to do business, and I noticed that people would come in, and then as soon as they had to make a few phone calls—which is actually work—they would quit and say, "I’m going to find another business that’s easier."

There’s a tendency to do that in spiritual life also. Instead of reading the whole Bhagavad-gītā 108 times, or as Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta said, "You should read Prahlāda Mahārāja a hundred times and Dhruva Mahārāja a hundred times." Did you know it’s mentioned in one of the commentaries that the gopīs used to read Dhruva Mahārāja and Prahlāda Mahārāja? They would weep reading those accounts of those little boys doing such austerities and so forth.

Assimilate the Bhagavad-gītā. I know very few people who have actually gone deeply within the Bhagavad-gītā who can sit and discourse. Caitanya Caraṇa—he comments on it every day. He reads it deeply and thinks about it when he’s sleeping at night; he’s thinking about what he’s going to present the next day, how to bring out topical points in the world and connect them to the Bhagavad-gītā. Ask him if he’s assimilated the Bhagavad-gītā. What will he tell you? The more he’s going into it, the more he’s seeing how deep it is.

The Importance of Prayers | SB 10.70 | HG Vaisesika Dasa | Dec 2 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By6pWU8t1ZI&t=1882s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr

One of the ways that prayer helps us, although Kṛṣṇa is aware of our situation and He also knows what to do, is that when we articulate to Kṛṣṇa what our situation is and how we need help—even though He is always aware of our needs and always attentive to our needs—we also become aware of the ways in which Kṛṣṇa is helping us. When we just go on with our lives and think, “I’ll deal with it myself,” or “maybe Kṛṣṇa will deal with it in His own way,” we may not be as aware of Kṛṣṇa. But as Gajendra says in his prayers, “Kṛṣṇa, You’re always there—it’s just now, when I need help, I’m reaching out to You.” It’s not that previously You weren’t there, available and ready to help, or even interested in our case. He is always interested in our case. He is never indifferent. Gajendra says He is not lazy—he uses that word—that He’s not lazy about our deliverance. He is fully involved. So when we articulate our need, when we say, “O Kṛṣṇa, please help me. Here is the situation I’m in,” He already knows that, but it helps to establish our relationship with Kṛṣṇa when we do that, because it’s a two-way relationship.

He is offering help, but we also have to be demonstrative in reaching out to take that help. So when we make a prayer—“O my Lord, I’m in this situation, please help me”—we become more dedicated to Kṛṣṇa and our relationship with Him. That is very helpful. It also helps to really clarify for ourselves. Although Kṛṣṇa knows our desires, when our desires become very clear and unmuddled—not mixed with anything else—one of the best ways to do that is to say it: “This is what I really want.”

And even your mind may say, “Wait a minute, don’t say that—you might get what you ask for.” But once you say it, it cannot be taken back. It’s all recorded. And Kṛṣṇa says, “Okay, you’re giving Me permission now,” because He is very conscientious about not interfering with our freedom. Samo ’haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu na me dveṣyo ’sti na priyaḥ [Bhagavad-gītā 9.29]—He is equal to everyone. Whatever you want, He will accommodate; He will arrange for that.

So when we say it, or even put it in writing, then it’s indelible. The whole relationship becomes clearer, and Kṛṣṇa’s permission to take over in that situation becomes more pronounced as well.

So both are true: Kṛṣṇa already knows, and we don’t necessarily have to ask. But if we do, it enhances our relationship and makes it clearer to Kṛṣṇa that we really do want help—and then He can intervene.

2013-11-23 ISV The Five Elements of Powerful Sadhana Part I - HG Vaisesika Prabhu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfvKGLcm0bM&t=4805s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 28 mins

One way is to realize that whatever ability we have to be strict is coming from Kṛṣṇa. I read something the other day that really attracted my attention regarding practice. And this is in the Bhagavad-gītā, 12th chapter, where Kṛṣṇa is talking about the process of devotional service. And He tells in text six and seven that those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation—that’s strictness—engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me—that’s strictness—having fixed their minds upon Me, O Arjuna, for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.

So the last clause is that for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death. And in the purport, Prabhupāda mentions that when one takes to the process of devotional service very strictly—when one surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa takes charge of one’s advancement in devotional service. The responsibility is taken by the Supreme Lord Himself. He clearly states here that He Himself becomes the deliverer. “A child is completely cared for by his parents, and thus his position is secure. Similarly, a devotee does not need to endeavor to transfer himself by yoga practice to other planets; rather, the Supreme Lord, by His great mercy, comes at once, riding on His bird carrier Garuḍa, and at once delivers the devotee from material existence. Although a man who has fallen into the ocean may struggle very hard and may be very expert in swimming, he cannot save himself; but if someone comes and picks him up from the water, then he is easily saved. Similarly, the Lord picks up the devotee from this material existence. One simply has to practice the easy process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and fully engage himself in devotional service.”[Bhagavad-gītā 12.6-7 purport]

So if one remembers that although one is being strict, Kṛṣṇa is the one who is delivering, then one does not become proud or simply attached to being strict, but is attached to being strict for the sake of showing to Kṛṣṇa that one is sincere. Then the heart doesn’t become hard. If one practices severe austerities just for the sake of the austerities and doesn’t remember that Kṛṣṇa is the deliverer, then the heart can become hard. Rūpa Gosvāmī mentions this in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. 

#80.1 | The Sixty-One Explanations of the Atmarama Verse-7 | Govardhana Readings | 17 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp8o85Ml5pc

Time where the answer starts in the video: 28 mins

As soon as I wake up, the first thing I do is I say Prabhupāda's praṇāma mantra: 

namo om viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale

śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe

nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

Following that, I chant the Pañca-tattva Mahā-mantra: Jaya Śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda, Śrī-Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. Then, I chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare; Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. 

The verse from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (SB 10.90.48):

jayati jana-nivāso devakī-janma-vādo

yadu-vara-pariṣat svair dorbhir asyann adharmam

sthira-cara-vṛjina-ghnaḥ su-smita-śrī-mukhena

vraja-pura-vanitānāṁ vardhayan kāma-devam 

I say all those before I swing my legs out of the bed. Then, before I put my right foot on the floor, I say, "Oh, Mother Bhūmi, please forgive me for stepping on your surface." Then as soon as I have two feet on the floor, I say, "Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda." And then whoever I feel gratitude for at that time, I start saying thank you to them. It's usually God brothers, or whomever happens to be fresh in my mind when I take a moment of gratitude before I stand up.

That prayer, Jayati jana-nivāso, has a history to it, but it's in the paddhati as one of the prayers that one may say upon waking up. So is asking Mother Bhūmi for forgiveness for stepping on her surface. It adds something special: a reminder of how good she is to us and how abundant the world is—that Mother Bhūmi, "Please forgive me for stepping on your surface"—and also treading lightly, being careful wherever we go. So those are what I say when I wake up in the morning.

#81 | How All The Residents of Varanasi Became Vaisnavas-2 | Govardhana Readings | 17 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RHIDiwCWYA

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 17 mins

Well, avatāra is a general term. It means “one who crosses down,” comes from above and comes below. Plenary means full potency—like when you have a plenary meeting, it means everybody’s there; it’s the full thing.

Then incarnation—did you say incarnation is another general term? It actually comes from Latin, incarnate. Carne means flesh, so it means the form of the Lord has appeared. So it’s kind of generic, like avatāra.

And the other one—expansion. So the idea of expansion is given in the Brahma-saṁhitā:

dīpārcir eva hi daśāntaram abhyupetya

dīpāyate vivṛta-hetu-samāna-dharmā

yas tādṛg eva hi ca viṣṇutayā vibhāti

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā 5.46]

Brahmā said there’s one original candle. So that candle, in this analogy, is Kṛṣṇa—He’s the original. And then if you take that candle and light other candles, they have the same candle power. The light is the same light, but there’s still an original candle.

So when we say expansion, it means Kṛṣṇa is the original, and then He expands into Baladeva. Baladeva expands into the catur-vyūha, and then Mahā-Saṅkarṣaṇa, then the secondary catur-vyūha, and then Mahā-Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu.

And then there are unlimited other expansions or incarnations or avatāras of Kṛṣṇa who come for various reasons. Some come as līlā-avatāras, some as yuga-avatāras, some are manvantara-avatāras.

So most of those terms are very generic, and that’s generally what they mean—what I just said. But if you want to know the science in a more detailed way, as we read earlier, you can get a copy of the Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta, which was written by Rūpa Gosvāmī.

And if you have a lot of patience and you go through that—actually, it’s good as a reference book. You can read it all the way through if you really have some grit. It’s a very technical book, but all the technical questions are answered in that book.

And if you have specific questions about various expansions—who they are, where they come from, and so forth, what their category is—then you can look it up in the index and find it in the Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta.

#79 | The Sixty-One Explanations of the Atmarama Verse-6 | Govardhana Readings | 17 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PGNlgQTOpI

Time where the answer starts in the video: 42 mins

Some gurus are experts. I know that, and they’re different. Everyone’s different in the way they interact with people. Like Romapada Maharāja answers all of his emails. I don’t know how he does it and keeps up his schedule of traveling constantly, but he answers everybody, because in the verse it said the guru gives all transcendental necessities.

And there’s just sort of this understanding that the guru really doesn’t have to—the guru can just be a guru and be a great devotee—and then it’s up to the disciple to take advantage of the guru. It’s like if you have a cow, you have to learn how to milk it. You can’t say, “Why doesn’t it come into the kitchen here and milk herself and then put the milk in the refrigerator for me?” Because, I mean, if a guru—let’s just say there’s somebody who’s not so outwardly focused—they do preach, they do travel, but they’re more internal. Still, they’re preaching. A disciple could, especially in this day and age, take full advantage of hearing from them, from listening to their talks and so forth, and going to where they are—let’s say if they have a yātrā or something like that—they can show up.

It’s like, “Why doesn’t he come to my house?” Well, Kṛṣṇa can do that. He went to see Bālaśva and Śrutadeva because He’s the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He can expand Himself. But little human gurus have a problem expanding themselves, except by setting an example so that other people can follow it. I mean, that would be okay too. Probably it’s just that a disciple has to take advantage.

Take advantage there—like we’re taking advantage of Prabhupāda’s association. Did he have time to talk to everybody? No. He had a small group that he dealt with—the generals—and then they would deal with their leaders, and it fanned out throughout ISKCON.

But he made himself fully available through his books, of which we’re taking advantage right now. This is the best association with Prabhupāda, as stated by himself. He said, “If you want to know everything I had to say, I said it all in my books.” Therefore, upon my departure, he said, you’ll go on taking advantage of this and have my association.

I feel like we’ve been getting Prabhupāda’s association. When I wake up in the morning, all I’m thinking about is: what did Prabhupāda say over the last 20 days? And it’s very direct. You couldn’t get this kind of association with Prabhupāda if you tried at that time.

Everyone needs training in this world. Prabhupāda said it earlier. And having realistic expectations is very helpful in not becoming disappointed. And that’s something I think in ISKCON they’ve tried to do institutionally. There’s the IDC and things like that. I’ve asked devotees, “How did you like it?” Most people say, “Yeah, it really helped me. It taught me a lot of things I didn’t know.” And then also, there were a couple of devotees visiting here from Vṛndāvana, and one of them was taking a course called Sadācāra. I didn’t know that was available, but I asked how it was and what they were teaching, and it sounded great.

We have a program called Bhakti Jump Start, besides the IDC, where we try to build some context for what initiation is. And I think it’s really helpful when devotees have a clear understanding of what they can expect. 

And it’s not like you’re getting a personal life coach necessarily that you can call on a hotline 24 hours a day. I mean, it could be like that, but it’s generally not what’s going to happen. So yes, it’s good to set proper expectations.

#77 | The Sixty-One Explanations of the Atmarama Verse-4 | Govardhana Readings | 16 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAkM16EeTNI

Time where the answer starts in the video: 58 mins

You could take Mahātmā Prabhu’s seminar on how to forgive. Lots of people have spoken about forgiveness. Mahātmā Prabhu, in the devotee context, talks about it. But one thing is that forgiving doesn't mean that you condone what people have done; rather, forgiving is for you—to let it go so that you can move on.

Śrīla Prabhupāda gave an instruction to Peter Burwash. He was a businessman who ran Peter Burwash International. It was a big, huge tennis company that taught people how to play tennis. He was a devotee, but he never got initiated, and in Hawaii he got a lot of association with Prabhupāda. He signed up as a life member one afternoon, and the next morning he found out that the devotee he gave his money to had absconded. He became so disturbed and angry, and he went to talk to Prabhupāda about it.

Prabhupāda gave him this instruction, which he kept for the rest of his life. He used to give seminars and would always start with this instruction. Prabhupāda said, “Don’t be angry with the instrument of your karma.” He took it to heart.

So, if one takes whatever happens—it doesn't mean, of course, that you don’t do due diligence. If somebody has abused you or is bullying you, you have to do your due diligence. It doesn’t mean to become a doormat to forgive. But internally, one can become highly philosophical and think that whatever comes to me is by Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement. Perhaps I’m paying back a debt from my last life, and Kṛṣṇa gives this permission. Or the śāstra gives us this vision—to take it as a lesson and just let it go.

So it takes a little practice and some philosophical underpinning.

#73 | Life’s Ultimate Goal — Love of Godhead-2 | Govardhana Readings |15 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5zNz0XeEDQ

Time where the answer starts in the video: 29 mins

Prabhupāda probably gives the example in the story of Dhruva, when he points out that Dhruva did something that was above what any other human being could do, which was to end up living just on taking inhalation every once in a while, and then holding his breath, and so forth.

And then Prabhupāda goes on to say that there are ways in which we already have a system of devotional service that follows in the footsteps of Dhruva Mahārāja by performing the activities that we perform. Similarly, in the Payo-vrata, which is a way of purification, there are all these details of how one must wake up, when you can bathe, when you don’t bathe, only drinking milk, and so forth—a long list of vows in order for purification. Eighth Canto—and then Prabhupāda comments there. He says members of the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness are already following these things; they’re already doing these. It’s built into the program. He said if you just follow the program we’re already doing, then you have fulfilled all these specific vows.

So we have to do what we can, according to our adhikārī—sve sve ’dhikāre yā niṣṭhā sa guṇaḥ parikīrtitaḥ viparyayas tu doṣaḥ syād [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.21.2]. There is a way Kṛṣṇa says, —if you can do a certain amount. Like Prabhupāda judged from experience that devotees in the West couldn’t chant sixty-four rounds, what to speak of the East or anywhere else, and then engaged everyone in service. And then he says in The Nectar of Instruction that this is an adjustment based on the mood of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, and he said we’re hopeful that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta will accept that adjustment, because it’s what the devotees can do practically. And all you can do is all you can do—but all you can do is enough. Thats the title of a book. 

#73 | Life’s Ultimate Goal — Love of Godhead-2 | Govardhana Readings |15 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5zNz0XeEDQ

Time where the answer starts in the video: 31 mins

Well, first of all, it’s helpful if you do all the basics and then also try to follow the general instructions, because then specific instructions may be needed. It’s kind of like when you take music lessons. If you take the general instruction—practice at least half an hour a day—seriously, then the teacher will notice that this person is making advancement. Then there will be a need for more specific instructions about what the person could do. If you don’t even do that, you know—it’s like, “I did it once, not every day, but just maybe once”—then what’s the music teacher going to say? It’s like, “Well, just try to get to that point.”

But when people are following very strictly the basic things and also trying to do some service in an enlivened way, that’s usually when there’s a need for personal instruction, or when the person is noticed.

I told the story before: one of my godbrothers had come over to India during the time that Prabhupāda invited, “Let the Americans come here, and we’ll start the movement in India.” Quite a few devotees came. Well, some devotees came. There were some already here who were evading the draft.

My godbrother told me that Prabhupāda was available. He was giving darśana. He was going regularly. He even had a little service in the morning—putting sandalwood paste on Prabhupāda’s forehead, he said. But Prabhupāda’s interaction with him was perfunctory. There wasn’t any specific thing or much notice either, he said.

But then he went on a traveling party to South India with these other devotees, and they were down in Coimbatore and got into a public debate with some paṇḍita down there, and they defeated him by quoting from the Śrī Īśopaniṣad. It got into the paper, and Prabhupāda saw the paper. He said that when he came home, Prabhupāda was talking to him. And so he had this realization of his relationship with Prabhupāda, which was: you go do something.

Prabhupāda gave this example—he gives it in one of his books, and also in a letter. He says that during wartime, an innocent farm boy from the countryside who is insignificant joins the military, and then he is sent to the front lines. Somehow he performs a heroic act, and he comes home as a national hero. He said he never would have been anything otherwise.

So he said, in the same way, all of you—you are performing some heroic service, and therefore you are being recognized by Kṛṣṇa. He even said that just by following the general rules, that is no small thing.

Because he told the devotees when they went to Surat—when they first went to Gujarat—and people were coming out to see the harināma party, and there were all these Westerners chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa very enthusiastically (there are videos of it), and they were making divots in the road. The locals were trying to smear the dust where the devotees had walked all over their bodies.

And Prabhupāda said it is because you are following the four regulative principles and following this order to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa that they are worshiping you. And he said, “You’ll find this anywhere you go in the world—because you are following the four regulative principles and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, you will be worshipable.”

So generally, those who do the needful and use their spiritual acumen or intelligence to do something noticeable, generally get individual instruction.

#70 | The Process of Devotional Service -1 | Govardhana Readings | 15 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbRM6QmIV1s

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 1 mins

Well, it takes inculcation. Because, like Gītāpriyā asked me the other night, she said, “Why does it seem easier to do the wrong thing than to do the right thing?” And it's because of habit — kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgasya [Bhagavad-gītā 13.22] — because of bad association. We've come to a point where it's second-nature habit to do the wrong thing.

loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā 

nityā hi jantor na hi tatra codanā 

vyavasthitis teṣu vivāha-yajña

surā-grahair āsu nivṛttir iṣṭā [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.5.11]

It says in the Bhāgavatam that for a conditioned soul, it's natural to eat meat, have illicit sex, and take intoxication. These are the three things everyone wants to do, just by nature. And to be reformed takes inculcation.

One has to have, as Prabhupāda said, two things: knowledge and practice. And that has to be systematic. When Prabhupāda was envisioning this great movement, he had a schema. He charted out how he was going to make brāhmaṇas — an extensive scheme to step by step elevate people to the highest level in varṇāśrama, and beyond, obviously, by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

And that’s what’s required. That’s also likely why Prabhupāda emphasized, just before he left, that we should widen that net and have varṇāśrama available to people, so they could get regulated and make advancement.

So we have to have some framework. That’s why Prabhupāda established communities and a society where people could associate and make gradual advancement, through getting a taste for doing the right thing. Otherwise, it doesn’t happen by itself.

māyā-mugdha jīvera nāhi svataḥ kṛṣṇa-jñāna [Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 20.122] — that’s the verse Mahāprabhu already quoted to Sanātana Gosvāmī earlier here. And we said, it’s not svataḥ or automatically that people come out of being māyā-mugdha, being ignorant. It requires an intervention of knowledge. jīvera kṛpāya — by the mercy of Vedavyāsa, who has given this knowledge intervention — then people can come out. 

When I joined the temple, we had five classes a day for new bhaktas — five classes a day: Bhāgavatam class, Gītā class, Kṛṣṇa Book, Nectar of Devotion, and Śrī Īśopaniṣad — mandatory.

#68.2 | The Opulence and Sweetness of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa | Govardhan Readings | 14 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqvLBpDAw9g

Time where the answer starts in the video: 1 hr 19 mins

Well, Lord Caitanya says tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. He is Kṛṣṇa as a devotee, He says:durdāivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ. He expresses the mood of many devotees who chant the holy names of the Lord and are fully available:

nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis

 tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ.

But He says, “I can’t get no bhāva.” And then He says, “durdāivam”—first—“It must be really unfortunate.” 

durdāivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ — I can’t get any bhāva. So what to do? Then Lord Caitanya gives a practical tip. He says you should be ready to offer all respect to others. So get ready—that’s a practical tip. Get yourself ready. If you become aware of Lord Caitanya’s instruction, which is the remedy for not having a taste, and you prepare yourself. More humble than the grass, more tolerant than a tree, not expecting any respect from others, but ready to offer all respect to others. It indicates there that you should practice that—make it a practice. That’s practical.

#66 | Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Instructs Sanatana Gosvami-5 | Govardhana Readings | 14 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C9OclSd8sM

Time where the answer starts in the video: 44 mins

So the mind is in the mode of goodness. It’s neutral. It’s just like a screen that reflects the various images that we get from the material world. But intelligence is in the mode of passion, because it discerns how to take those images and connect them to material enjoyment.

So in other words, you may see a lemon and a lime in your mind, but then your intelligence goes: “A lemon–lime—why not mix the two and put in a little sugar?” That’s passionate, because it’s creative and it’s thinking about how to manipulate material nature. But the mind just is there. It’s just the screen. It’s not doing anything except catching the imagery. But the intelligence is the one that’s figuring out how to mix it all together—and it’s either mixed together for Kṛṣṇa, or it’s mixed together for trying to satisfy the senses. That’s why the intelligence is—that’s—it’s a passionate creation.

#65 | Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Instructs Sanatana Gosvami-4 | Govardhana Readings | 13 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soNSrJ8NIA0

Time where the answer starts in the video: 44 mins

Deities don't require installation because they're self-manifested. For instance, Śālagrāma-śilā—no installation necessary. It's a self-manifested Deity of Lord Viṣṇu that comes from the Gandhakī River. Then, of course, Girirāja is already Kṛṣṇa. You don't have to install the Deity. And there are other self-manifested Deities.

The main point about Deities—Kṛṣṇa appears to please His pure devotees. For instance, all the Deities we have in ISKCON, they're all because of Śrīla Prabhupāda, because Prabhupāda had such devotion for Kṛṣṇa. Everywhere he went, Kṛṣṇa appeared, and he established the Deities, and they agreed to appear.

If somebody keeps a Deity for making money and they don't actually have faith in the Deity, they just have a little family business going on, then that's different. Because we'll just take a ride down to Loī Bazaar. You can drive down on a rickshaw, and you can look in all the windows, and you'll see lots and lots of forms of the Lord—but you don't get off your rickshaw at every shop and offer your obeisances, right?

But if you go to the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Mandir, where Prabhupāda personally established and installed the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Deities, then they reciprocate, and they're especially there. So there's a difference in the presence of the Lord based on His reciprocation with the Deities and with the devotees.

What's more, there's a verse in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta regarding Deity worship—that Kṛṣṇa has empowered Nārada and others to create the Pañcarātra, or the system to worship Him. And Kṛṣṇa talks about it Himself. He gives precise instructions on how to worship His Deity forms in the Eleventh Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And then there is a verse spoken by Kṛṣṇa from one of the Purāṇas—that if someone follows the Pañcarātra system to worship Him, then He is pleased. And if people don't follow it, then they are known to be offensive. Kṛṣṇa is not like a vending machine—that you set it up, put coins in, and get something automatically. Kṛṣṇa appears where He wants to appear.

So like we say about the holy name—if a Māyāvādī is chanting the holy name:

avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁ pūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtam

śravaṇaṁ naiva kartavyaṁ sarpocchiṣṭaṁ yathā payaḥ 

[Padma Purāṇa; quoted by Prabhupāda in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā 13.113 ]

Don't listen to that, because it's not actually the holy name, because Kṛṣṇa hasn't agreed to appear there. It is spoken by somebody whose intention is to blaspheme Kṛṣṇa by saying He doesn't really exist.

And that's the whole topic of the 87th chapter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Tenth Canto)—how does Kṛṣṇa manifest in this world? And the answer is: by His own sweet will, because of His attraction to the devotees, or those who are following the devotees.

Like somebody is following Nārada Muni—by following the Nārada-pañcarātra, Kṛṣṇa will agree to appear there.

That's why we have an installation ceremony for Deities. And there are different kinds of ways of installing Deities. According to śāstra, there are certain ways to install a Deity.

Now, in the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Mandir in 1975, Prabhupāda invited many local paṇḍitas to come and perform all the mudrās, mantras, and ceremonies. But Prabhupāda personally had us all there chanting harināma. We had a huge saṅkīrtana party going practically non-stop for hours during all the mantras and mudrās.

And afterward, Prabhupāda wrote in his purport that we didn't need all that other stuff—we just needed the holy name. He said the only reason he did all those rituals was because the locals wouldn't have accepted that we had a real temple, because they were fixed on the ritual rather than Kṛṣṇa reciprocating with the pure devotee and the pure chanting of the holy names.

Another way that Deities become installed is if someone with devotion starts worshiping them—even if they don't do an installation ceremony. If they are steady and keep worshiping them over many, many years, and people come to see them, they are known to be installed without all the ritual and ceremony.

Yes, so there's nuance in it—but the real thing is the devotion that's behind it. And that can be expressed in different ways.

#65 | Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Instructs Sanatana Gosvami-4 | Govardhana Readings | 13 Oct 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soNSrJ8NIA0

Time where the answer starts in the video: 51 mins

Well, the local version is that you have to get it from a Vrajavāsī. That is the local version. I’m not saying it’s the only version. The local version is that you have to be gifted by a brāhmaṇa, the local person. Good luck verifying that. And then you have to put back or donate back an equal amount in weight of gold to that person.

But the etiquette is that if you worship any Deity, it should be done under the direction of the spiritual master. That’s the etiquette, because when we worship the Deity, we should be thinking, “I am worshiping on behalf of my spiritual master.” And so when it comes in that way, that’s first class. And the best Deity to worship in Kali-yuga is Pañca-tattva, because all power comes from worshiping Pañca-tattva. Practically, mercy comes unlimitedly and automatically. So that’s highly recommended.

Śrīla Prabhupāda did start śālagrāma worship himself, in the sense that he gave some śālagrāma-śilā to Pradyumna, his Sanskrit editor who traveled with him, because he wanted him, as a gṛhastha, to have a Deity to worship. He told him to keep the Lord in a box, and he wrote about it in a purport. He also wrote a couple of purports about śālagrāma worship in his books. He said that at some point all ISKCON temples should have śālagrāma, but at this point it may not be the exact time, because many temples are struggling just to worship the Deities they already have.

And as far as etiquette goes, it’s always best to ask your spiritual authority and align it properly. That’s always best. In fact, in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, for instance, there is a section about initiation. This is just a parallel kind of example. There are about three pages of explanation about the places and times when you should take initiation and the places and times when you shouldn’t. And then, after three pages of detailed explanation, there is one tiny paragraph at the end that says: if the spiritual master decides to give you initiation in the middle of a rice field at any random time, then that is when you should take initiation.

And so what that means is that being spiritually intelligent means we should take any kind of worship we do of Kṛṣṇa through the paramparā and through authority, and not self-medicate.