May 10 One of characteristics of devotional service is that devotional service surpasses liberation. What does it mean to surpass liberation? It means that devotees are so satisfied in devotional service that they don't even think about liberation.
May 10, 1994, Vinnytsia
Pull yourself away from the television sets! Pull yourself away from the computer games! And wake up! How long will you sleep on the lap of the witch called maya? She just lulling you to sleep and now Lord Caitanya is calling: "Wake up conditioned souls! You have this one very valuable chance in this human form of life to go back to Godhead, so don't waste it." So whether you are happy or in distress, Bhaktivinoda Thakur is saying "Please chant the names of Hari."
May 9, 2005, Kiev
Take up this instruction, carry out this order to tell everyone you meet about Krishna and kick out and reject everything within the heart that will obstruct you becoming a true servant of the Lord. And intensely pray within your heart for the association of those Vaishnavas who will help you to root out all of this pride. This should be our intense prayer.
May 8, 2005, Kiev
If we want to clean our hearts, we have to clean our hearts with a very powerful cleansing agent. We should clean our hearts with a memory of the instructions and examples of great Vaishnavas. We should constantly pray for every opportunity to hear from them, and to have our false ego (identification with the mind and body) continuously broken, so that some day we become qualified servants of Lord Caitanya.
May 7, 2005, Kiev
We should always think to ourselves that we are fallen and worthy of mercy, but we cannot demand it. There is a difference between feeling oneself worthy of mercy and demanding. Demanding it means that we forget that ultimately the decision is up to the Lord or the devotee of the Lord.
May 6, 2001, Divnomorsk
Patient means that whether now, ten years from now, a hundred years from now or many lives from now, I will some day get Krishna's mercy and I have to go on simply performing my sadhana and chanting with firm faith that when the time has come for Krishna to give His mercy, He will give it to me... But without endeavor it is very difficult to make progress. So endeavor is not simply to float. It is not that we simply try to find our comfort zone in the material world and pray "Krishna, please keep me in my comfort zone." This is not endeavor. To endeavor means willingness to step out of our comfort zone and to step into extending our faith into the process of devotional service.
May 5, 2008, Kiev
Lord Caitanya came to teach us how to chant the Holy Names of the Lord with feelings of separation from Krishna. Without separation there is actually no full understanding of union. Feelings of separation increase feelings of union.
May 4, 2004, Dnepropetrovsk
This festival is not for our pleasure. Although we may be able to experience unlimited pleasure from this festival, the pleasure we experience will be directly in proportion to the amount of effort we make in offering pleasure to the Supreme Lord.
May 3, 2004, Dnepropetrovsk
A good way to feel fallen is to always look for the good qualities in others. Look! Find them! And when you find them, speak about them. Glorify the devotees. This is what a society of devotees does. Not artificially, because they genuinely know how to see good qualities in others. That is their vision.
May 2, 2000, Kiev
Mercy is available for the taking; one simply has to want it. What is the symptom that one wants it? That one is willing to cry for it. Not false tears, but those tears that manifest when a devotee has nobody to turn to but the Lord. Before we can get to the stage of chanting and dancing with bliss, we actually have to cry. A devotee actually has to be willing to accept all that is due to him from his past sinful activities. A devotee is supposed to think that due to my past behavior, due to the attachments that are there within my heart, I deserve so much suffering. Therefore, he should be willing to accept that suffering so that he can cry out for mercy of the Lord. The Lord is so merciful that when He sees just a little tear manifest in the eye, then He gives that mercy.
May 1, 2000, Kiev