Niranjana Swami's Quote Of The Day

Topic

March 10

The real criterion of success is that people give up their bad habits. Not only that they give up bad habits, but that they develop their love for Krishna. Their lives change. This is an internal, INTERNAL change, that takes place. And it is nothing external. This is how one actually can judge the success of a Vaishnava.

And, in fact, it is even stated in the sastra by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, that the success of a Vaishnava is seen in terms of how many people he turns into Vaishnavas. It's not how many followers he gets. It's not that the Vaishnava is interested in followers, he wants to see others become lovers of Krishna-- and that is a Vaishnava. That is the criterion of success.

March 10, 1991, Kiev

March 9

Sometimes a father, when playing with his child, they may be playing together on the floor and a child is trying to beat up his father. The father simply falls down on the ground and accepts defeat and lies there and a child is thinking "I have defeated him." Of course the father has not been defeated in any way by the child, but his whole motivation is simply to give pleasure to his child, and the child is thinking “ Yes I have defeated my father.” So in the same way, Mother Yasoda, she is chastising Lord Krishna, because she is thinking “My son is very naughty, and by His mischievous behavior He must be chastised accordingly." So Krishna subordinates Himself with this attitude to mother Yasoda.

March 9, 1991, Kiev

March 8

Krishna's personality is so great, His intelligence is so deep, and His purpose is so inconceivable, that a devotee realizes he can never fully understand Krishna. That is one realization of Krishna, that Krishna is beyond understanding through our blind material senses. Krishna is adhoksaja, which means that He can not be understood simply by some material formulas, He only can be understood by devotion. Without devotion to Krishna it is not possible to understand anything about Him.

March 8, 1991, Izori

March 7

Even though we may not have unalloyed devotional service, if we are trying to do it on the order of one who has devotion, then on the strength of that devotional service one can remember, on the strength of that devotional service we can say something about Krishna. We can chant Hare Krishna, and although Krishna may not be inclined to dance on our tongue, if we chant Hare Krishna on the strength of the order of the person who told us to chant Hare Krishna, then on the strength of that devotional service one still can come in contact with the Lord. It is through the power of devotional service that one can come in contact with the Lord. There is no other way, because bhakti attracts bhakti. Krishna cannot be attracted by anything else.

Ottawa, Canada 1997

March 6

There is no cause in the distribution of this mercy. There is no qualification on our part to have received this mercy. Our only qualification is that we take it. That’s our qualification. Our qualification is that in the age of Kali Yuga everyone is fallen. That is our qualification. So, therefore we must understand that it is due to the causeless mercy of Lord Caitanya and Lord Caitanya's representatives that this desire that was dormant within everyone’s heart is being evoked.

March 6 1991, Izori

March 5

A man may be thinking of how he can provide for his family, or a government leader may be thinking of how he can provide for his people, or a philanthropist may be thinking of how he can provide for the needs of human society. Thinking in this way, he is always trying to adopt measures to mitigate the distress of the sufferings of others. However, Krishna so perfectly designed the material world that there can't be mitigation of distress, there can't be release from the material nature until one gives happiness to Him first and foremost.

March 5, 1991, Moscow

March 4

Until one comes to the platform of pure unalloyed devotional service, then the devotee still has the opportunity to act independently and accept the reactions. However, the most important point to understand in relationship to the devotee is the reactions that he gets are by the will of the Lord. His independent misbehavior is his own will, but the reactions he gets are by the will of the Lord, whereas, the non-devotee the reactions are under the auspices of the external energy of the Lord.

SB 1.18.29
Montreal, Canada

March 3

There are wanted desires and there are unwanted desires. The unwanted desires are those desires which are not favorable for devotional service, and wanted desires are those which are favorable for service to Krishna.

March 3, 2008, Govardhana

March 2

In other words, Suta Goswami was very submissive to his spiritual master. And simply because he was submissive, therefore, all favors were bestowed upon him. What does it mean, all favors? It means that divya jnana, transcendental knowledge, was actually given to him.

So when one is actually submissive to persons who are always engaged in discussing transcendental narrations of the Lord, they can counteract all the effects of a sinful life.

March 2, 1996, Mayapur

March 1

Envy is the disease that brought us into the material world and it is the root cause of our existence in material life. And purification from material existence means to purify ourselves from these envious tendencies and the ultimate object of our envy is Krishna. So into order to become free from envy we simply have to reverse the process, which simply means that we serve. Envy means that we want to take the position of one who is in the superior position. That is the mentality of envy. So envy in relationship to Krishna means that we try to become like God. So the only way we can become freed from this envy is to serve.

1992, September, Riga

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