Niranjana Swami's Quote Of The Day

Topic

November 3

During initiations, Srila Prabhupada would often speak about the ten offenses to overcome. The Lord’s holy name is an all-fulfilling desire tree. It can bestow anything a person who chants it wants. If one wants material success, opulence, liberation, or freedom from sinful reactions, the holy name can bestow it. However, none of these are the goal of chanting. Chanting the holy name has a specific goal, and devotees should always be conscious of it. The real fruit of our chanting is to develop love for Krishna.To develop this love, it is necessary to receive the holy name in proper disciplic succession.
(LFD, Vol2, Chanting Purely, Pg 108, 3rd paragraph)

November 2

Srila Prabhupada gave us the practical service of distributing his books, and therefore we are able to assist him in spreading Lord Krishna’s glories everywhere. That service is not meant to make us proud or to draw us away from the heart of our practice; it is meant to help us increase our attraction for hearing and chanting. By hearing and chanting, our hearts will become cleansed. “The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.” (Bhag. 1.2.8)
Any service that helps us increase such attraction is purifying. Distributing books is particularly purifying because it forces us to speak about Krishna.
(LFD, Vol2, Chanting Purely, Pg 107 and Pg 108)

November 1

It can be discouraging if we try to please guru and Krishna yet do not see results. However, it is not the external results that satisfy guru and Krishna. Rather, they are satisfied when they see us becoming more dependent on Krishna. If we think only of results, our service can become mechanical, and we will gradually begin to think about recognition, attachment to results, and profit. We have to carefully uproot such motivations. Results come when Krishna sends them. When He sees that our motivation is sincere, He will give us whatever results He likes. Everything is completely His choice. All we can choose is whether or not we wish to serve Him voluntarily.
(LFD, Vol2, Chanting Purely, Pg 107, 3rd paragraph)

October 31

The holy name is not dutybound to bestow anything on us, such as better results in our activities. Rather, the real result of our other activities—whether we are doing book distribution or other services—is to increase our dependence on the holy name. Don’t think that just because you are chanting the holy name you will automatically be able to distribute a lot of books. Book distribution can become an external activity if we are not careful. Certainly it is purifying to distribute books, but it can also become external if we lose our sense of dependence on Krishna and are thinking more of the results than the service itself.
(LFD, Vol2, Chanting Purely, Pg 107, 2nd paragraph)

October 30

The more we become conscious of Krishna, the more detached we will become toward all other duties. We must perform our duties, but we should do so in a spirit of detachment. Don’t renounce your duties artificially, however. Artificial renunciation is in the mode of passion and will not help us. Performing duties in the spirit of detachment does not mean renouncing them nor indifference toward the responsibilities we bear. Detachment means knowing that the ultimate goal of our various duties is to achieve taste for chanting Krishna’s holy name. Our duties and our chanting are intimately connected. Since we do not yet have pure attachment for the holy name, we have to perform our duties. If we had pure, exclusive attachment to the holy name of the Lord, there would be nothing else for us to do; we would be completely satisfied. A person who is fully satisfied has no duties.
(LFD, Vol2, Chanting Purely, Pg 106 and Pg 107) "

October 29

Mold your life in such a way that you can give more attention to the holy name. To chant purely is the spiritual master’s most important instruction. By thinking deeply about this instruction, you can immediately think of ways to adjust your life and give more attention to chanting. For some, this may require juggling the duties you perform during the day. It is worth doing that. Those who give the required time to chant will be given the sense of responsibility to be even more attentive in their chanting. By chanting attentively our lives can become perfect.
(LFD, Vol2, Chanting Purely, Pg 106, 3rd paragraph)

October 28

Attentive chanting leads to meditation on the Lord’s qualities, form, and pastimes. If we chant with a deep intention and eagerness to listen attentively, gradually we will appreciate the Lord’s qualities, then His form, and eventually, His pastimes. When each of these three aspects of the Lord’s form manifests, they will become part of our meditation and we will be able to remember them while we chant. But we cannot force these aspects to appear. That is why Srila Prabhupäda emphasizes the importance of attentive hearing while chanting. If we can simply learn to hear the holy name, the mind will be clear and stable.
(LFD, Vol2, Chanting Purely, Pg 106, 2nd paragraph)

October 27

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that just as Lord Caitanya first awakened faith in Jagai and Madhai and then initiated them, it is the duty of the Vaisnava preachers to first awaken faith in others and then to initiate them into the chanting of the holy name. How does all this fit in with the idea that the holy name should be freely distributed? Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains that the Lord’s holy name can be given to anyone. Lord Caitanya Himself did not discriminate in His distribution of Krishna-nama. The holy name can be given to everyone and everyone can chant (think of the disciple who saw the washerwomen, fishermen, and boys chanting the holy name). But to receive nama, initiation, means that one must first follow a process that ultimately awakens one’s faith. And when it is time to accept nama, a follower may offer wealth, words, or intelligence to the spiritual master and the spiritual master may accept it for Gauranga’s service, but all the spiritual master is really seeking is essence: faith.
(LFD, Vol2, Faith—The Price for the Holy Name, Pg 94, 3rd paragraph)

October 26

Krishna has created this temporary material world by His own will to provide the living entities a place to exercise their minute independence and to enjoy separately from Him. Krishna has nothing to do with the material world, although He is interested in the suffering living entities who live in it. As Krishna has nothing to do with the material world, so the living entities have nothing to do with it either. They are meant only to live eternally with Krishna in the spiritual world. But under the influence of Krishna’s illusory energy, they identify themselves as residents of this world. Persons who have no faith in the holy name want only to remain here, engaging the Lord’s holy name in their own service and thus fulfilling their desires to enjoy matter. They obviously have no understanding.
(LFD, Vol2, Faith—The Price for the Holy Name, Pg 93, 4th paragraph)

October 25

Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains that sometimes persons want to take initiation to gain prestige, to remove past sins, or for material gain. Such persons are not approaching the guru or the holy name out of faith but with material motive. The spiritual master should not initiate such persons. Having no concept of the holy name’s true value, such persons will only remain indifferent to the holy name, and that will be an offense. Thus before accepting nama we must have both faith and at least some taste for chanting, at which point we can accept the vows to chant a minimum of sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra a day. When we take our vows, we should note the word “minimum” and always try to increase.
(LFD, Vol2, Faith—The Price for the Holy Name, Pg 92, 4th paragraph)

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