Niranjana Swami's Quote Of The Day

Topic

September 30

If we associate with persons whose devotional service is influenced by karma or by jnana, and especially if it is being presented as pure devotional service, then that contamination can also affect our hearts and the result of this is that anarthas will grow rather than pure devotion in our hearts. So certainly we should properly discriminate on that message which has been spoken and we always should try to hear from a devotee who is protecting our devotional creeper and who is presenting Srimad Bhagavatam without any impure motive and who is simply interested in glorifying the Lord and qualities of pure devotional service.

September 30, 2004, Divnomorsk

September 13

The Vaisnava is not thinking of how to push others down and obstruct service to Krsna--because pushing others down, diminishing them, means that we are actually obstructing, getting in the way of, others' service to Krsna. Then we think, "My service is the most important. And because my service is most important, everybody should simply assist me in my service and then everybody will be rightly situated." Such envy--thinking that "I am the source of all service to Krsna. Everything is emanating from me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in my service and worship me with all their hearts." That is envy. We have to be very careful; the Vaisnava mentality means "How can I increase Krsna's service?"

September 5, 2010, Almaty, Kazakhstan

September 12

In the material world people make progress, move up, by pushing everyone else down. If I push everyone down and criticize them, then, "Here I am! I haven't spoken about any of my faults, because they don't exist. Now you recognize who I am." That's envy, and it becomes very dangerous in a society of devotees because, as we explained, the devotee's mentality should be to always want to push others forward but him- or herself stay back. Gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah--to become the servant of the servant of the servant.

September 5, 2010, Almaty, Kazakhstan

September 11

We cannot be envious of somebody and use it for Krsna's service. But still, as Prabhupada is explaining here, completely purified envy exists in the spiritual world. What is the symptom of purified envy? That it is always to increase Krsna's service--without ever any malice. In contrast, when we are envious in the material world, we want to put others down. We want to either do better than others or achieve something better than them, and the way we do it is by diminishing what they are doing.

September 5, 2010, Almaty, Kazakhstan

September 10

Those who are not on a platform on which they can always speak about Krsna, but have a desire to always speak about Krsna, may restrict themselves from speaking about others out of fear of suffering. And generally that's good. At least they are not speaking unnecessarily about others and causing disturbance to others, but the motivation of not wanting to suffer is not completely pure. When a devotee actually has awakened his spontaneous attraction to always speak about Krsna, he doesn't have to worry about speaking critically or unnecessarily about others.

September 5, 2010, Almaty, Kazakhstan

September 9

It is natural to speak about somebody else, but unfortunately, if the tongue is not controlled, then immediately when we get in the association of others, we will begin speaking about somebody else and will be looking for something to say about them. And if we are not careful, or if we do not control our propensity to speak about others, eventually we may say something that may be disturbing either to the person about whom we are speaking or to somebody who has a relationship with that person, and before we know it, we are causing harm to others.

September 5, 2010, Almaty, Kazakhstan

August 31

One moment of full consciousness is much better than a lifetime of fearfulness. So if we get just one moment of full consciousness from chanting and that will be sufficient to help us along the path of continuous chanting, so that one can enter into this state of Krsna consiousness.

March 15, 2011, Taipei

August 30

One who is in proper consciousness sees that nothing can happen without Krsna’s will. If I’m put in a difficult situation, it’s due to my past misdeeds. (...) A devotee is thinking: “Actually, I deserve much more, but Krsna has reduced it to this so I can remember Him. If it were so difficult, I wouldn’t be able to remember Him but I can still remember Him - Krsna is so kind.” That is how the devotee thinks.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 29

Pride is so dangerous. Pride is a cause of so many sufferings and inconveniences. Pride means ‘disconnected from Krsna’; it means ‘I’m forgetting that I’m a servant’. Self-esteem, as we said it before, is not pride, self -worth is not pride in the sense ‘I’m so important’. Self-worth means ‘even though I’m so insignificant, even though I’m a wretch, even though I have neither love for Krsna nor qualifications - we can think of all our disqualifications - somehow by the mercy of Lord Caitanya and His devotees, I’ve been given the opportunity to serve Him.’ That gives us a sense of self-worth.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 28

Everyone needs a sense of self-worth. There’s nothing wrong in having it. We need to feel wanted. Krsna wants everyone of us. Krsna has a connection with everyone of us. Krsna wants everyone of us to serve Him to be happy. If we are conscious of our identity as servants of Krsna, then we’ll feel that sense of self-worth, but if we forget that we are subordinate to Krsna and take credit for our activities, then we’ll lose connection with our devotional service.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

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