Krsna's mercy is available for everyone. So we should accept that mercy and allow Krsna to deal with us as He chooses. However Krsna deals with us it’s always for our benefit. We should be happy that it’s Krsna and not maya.
June 21, 2005, Doneck
Spiritual life is meant for enjoyment, su-sukham-kartum avyayam. Devotional service is “everlasting joyfully performed”. But we should accept only that pleasure which is giving to us by Krishna. How do we know that we are experiencing pleasure that has been given to us by Krishna? We see how we are losing our taste for material pleasure.
June 20, 1998, Kiev
It is not artificial. It’s tangible. It can be felt from within the heart. When the devotee feels that shelter within the hearts he can go on serving in the face of adversity, he can go on thinking of the welfare of others despite his own adversities.
June 19, 2004, Moscow
I went through many tests during those first few years, and Radha-Gopivallabha [in Boston] were always there to support me. The reciprocation I received from Them was immeasurable. From those days onward They have always been an object of meditation for me. It is important for me that some of my disciples feel, at least to some degree, the same strong feelings towards those Deities I have.
June 18, 2006, Letter
If I want to purify my heart, I have to understand what the Lord wants. Even if I have some impure motives in my heart, if I’m doing what the Lord wants, I can become purified. But if my actions are based upon a mental concoction according to my own idea for happiness, then how can I become purified? How can the Lord ever be pleased by my activities? Therefore, it’s the duty of every living being to know what his duty is. What is the duty that he can perform to satisfy the Supreme Lord?
June 15, 2005, Odessa
“Without motivation” means “desire to please Krishna,” and “without interruption” means “constant endeavor to please Krishna.”
June 13, 2009, Kiev
The devotee is very eager to attain the mercy of the Lord. He or she is meditating on achieving the favor of the Lord by meditating on pleasing the Lord, and that is pleasing to the Lord. The Lord is pleased when the devotee is meditating in this way. That’s what the Lord responds to and reciprocates with - the attitude of the devotee.
June 12, 2000, Kiev
A person, if he is exemplary, when he speaks, Krishna gives his words potency. That is required when one actually wants to be an effective preacher of Krishna consciousness. Unless his words and instructions are actually given potency by the Lord, then he cannot actually change the hearts of others. Because a devotee, he doesn’t think that he is changing hearts. A devotee is one who knows that only Krishna can change the hearts of others because Krishna is in everyone’s heart.
June 11, 1996, Krasnodar
It’s not mechanical. At some point we have to execute the regulative principles of bhakti with a desire to achieve bhakti. It’s this desire to achieve bhakti - when coupled with our regulated activities in the association of those who have bhakti - that awakens bhakti. Bhakti comes from bhakti. It doesn’t come from any mechanical activity. Mechanical activities have some beginning point in time, but bhakti has no beginning.
June 10, 2002, Sochi
Someone may be attached to wealth; someone may be attached to position; someone may be attached to enjoying another person. Although they may be in the position of master, they are not independent because they are actually controlled by something material.
June 9, 1996, Rostov-on-Don