Not all medicines that do not taste good are the right medicine. Just like sometimes persons would undergo great austerities to become wealthy. The austerity doesn’t taste very good, but they think that’s the medicine to cure their condition, but all it does is it increases the disease.
December 26, 1997, Kaunas
So this is a little bit about relationships which exist between the servant and the master. The servant always thinks ofhimself as servant and the Lord sometimes places that servant in the position as His master.
December 25, 1997, Tallin
Krishna is very much inclined to give Himself, but if we want to have Krishna, then we have to please Krishna. In order to please Krishna, it means to give up all ideas for our own happiness and we have to exclusively think of Krishna's happiness.
December 24, 1997, Tallin
Someone who is as powerful as Srila Prabhupada, can be very liberal with the word “devotee”, because one of the symptoms of the devotee is his ability to make others devotees. That’s another important symptom of the devotee. In other words, because he is so devoted to the Lord, he is so much empowered or invested with the Lords energies, that he is very capable to make a very deep impression in the heart of someone who is not a devotee and give them an inspiration to become a devotee.
When one associates with a devotee, one naturally thinks “I would like to become a devotee.” That’s the power of association with a devotee.
December 23, 1997, Tallin
Real friends are those who give us Krishna conscious solutions. That’s a real friend. Somebody who helps us with our Krishna consciousness, so we may be situated steadily in execution of our duties for Krishna. Our duties are meant to provoke an attraction for associating with such friends so that we actually can hear about Krishna and then when we become sheltered in Krishna consciousness, then we can continue to execute our duties despite the obstacles, despite the impediments. And that’s how we become purified, because our duties become an impetus.
December 22, 1997, Riga
Krishna consciousness is a current which flows through the words and activities of Krishna's pure devotees. Wherever we can find this flow of nectar, if it deepens our attachment to Krishna, if it deepens our attachment to Srila Prabhupada and the wonderful gift of Krishna consciousness that he's giving to the world, and if it deepens our attachment to any one or all nine of nine processes of devotional service, beginning with hearing and chanting, then we should drink it without hesitation. As we get a taste of this wonderful nectar, it will gradually soften our hearts, and it will instill within us the desire to reciprocate with those who are distributing this nectar.
December 21, 2000, Letter
So in order to maintain our so called happiness, we created so called duties. Duties to society, duties to friends, duties to family, duties to demigods… so many so called duties in order to maintain this happiness. We have so many duties we have to perform, but we forgot our ultimate duty in life because we became overwhelmed by all these so called duties that the ultimate goal of life has been lost.
December 20, 1997, Ryga
If you put your mail in the trash barrel, it is going to go to the dump. Nobody is going to look at the address and deliver it. It is not authorized. But the Deity is the authorized form of the Lord, who appears by the kindness of the Lord's pure devotee, who by the intensity of his request and prayer, he asks the Lord to kindly appear in that form to accept the service of those who cannot see Him.
December 19, 2010, Boston
The cleansing process is there when one chants with faith. What will chanting do? One has to have firm faith that this will lead me to the goal.
December 18, 2011, Hartford
One who is not satisfied in devotional service will simply approach others simply to try to fulfill his own satisfaction. Therefore he can not be genuinely compassionate, because he still thinking of his own self interest.
December 17, 1994, Odessa