One who is sufficiently intelligent should use the human form of body from the beginning of life in Krishna Consciousness. How can we use our body, senses and mind in Krishna Consciousness ? We get a perfect example from the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam through Ambarish Maharaj.
Unless one is sufficiently protected by the Lord, he may fall down from his spiritual position; therefore one has to pray constantly to the Lord for protection and the blessing, to carry out one's duty.
For many life times we have been conditioned to be around with friends, relatives and our kith and kins. We have trained our minds to feel happy only in the presence of such relationships but in actuality this is due to the inherent sense of fear and insecurity within us.
Human life is meant for something else: “What I am? What is God? What is my relation with God? What is this material world? Why I am here? Where I have to go next?” So many things one has to learn. athato brahma-jijnasa. This is human life.
Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, the Personality of Godhead, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has been fulfilling everyone's desire since time immemorial.
We may be able to find a vaishnava who is para-duhkha-duhkhi, but it is extremely impossible to find a Vaishnava who is para-sukha-sukhi. This quality can appear only when one is completely non-envious and wide-hearted to give all glorifications to others.
The terms 'civilized man' is very important in the above quote, because during ancient pre-christian Vedic tradition whatever the civilized people do they do as an offering to lord Krishna - whether it is Saturnalia festival or anything else.
Hearing and chanting, we, as devotees do daily as part of our sadhana should not be mechanical, doing it just for the sake of doing it. If we do these activities daily with genuine taste towards them and with sincere feelings of gratitude and humility, then the Lord being pleased with our sincere endeavors will bestow His causeless mercy upon us.
As H.H Mahavishnu Maharaj has quoted , "Its not that one needs to recite Gita only on Gita Jayanthi day. One must follow it as regular daily practice." Maharaj himself is practical example for the above statement for he has been reciting Srimad Bhagavad Gita with love and devotion for at least 2 hours daily for the past 40 years .
Lust arises from the mode of passion. We should meticulously avoid rajo-guna if we wish to be free of lusty desires. Lust simple means doing any activity for our own sense enjoyment, whereas Love means doing the same activities for another person's enjoyment. Hence the simplest solution to get rid of this lust is to turn it into love, more specifically, into loving service to the Supreme Lord.
Praise feels like a bit of sunshine on a cold winter day. It gives us a lovely, warm feeling. It makes us feel good,sometimes so good that we take it easy after that (resting on our laurels). On the other hand, blame makes us feel sad and rejected. Sometimes we are so hurt by it and we rise hotly to our defense.
Ultimately it is the Krishna consciousness that matters, not where Krishna is. Krishna is there as soon as we think of Him. For general public it is not possible to think of Krishna anywhere and everywhere. They cannot see a stone and immediately think of Krishna .
We always believe that we have got so many sticks in the form of huge bank balance, huge property, higher education etc to support our lives. The point we miss here is that all these sticks are fallible if they are not supported by infallible Krishna.
The pure devotees of the Lord are extremely compassionate and they come to us seeing our abominable condition and pick us out of this condition by their awakening voices in the form of practical instructions from the scriptures. Having been blessed with the human form of life and a developed consciousness, if we do not open our ears to them, then we are behaving like a crow that insists on a strict diet of rubbish.
Lord Krsna can run faster than the mind. It is said in Isopanishad Mantra 4, anejad ekam manaso javiyo nainad devaa aapnuvan purvam arshat (Although fixed in His abode, the Personality of Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all others running). But while exhibiting His childhood pastimes in Vrindavan, Lord Krsna stole butter and when His mother found it out He started running away.
Till the time He is fulfilling our needs, all is ok but the moment we face a problem, then we start complaining. For eg., Before the birth of the child, it is Krishna who arranges for the milk in the mothers body. So, Krishna who is so kind that He is arranging everything for the child before its birth, how can He be so unkind after the birth ?
God's energy is beyond our conception, beyond our thinking jurisdiction, and is therefore called inconceivable (acintya). Who can argue this point? He pervades this material world and yet is beyond it. We cannot comprehend even this material world, which is insignificant compared to the spiritual world, so how can we comprehend what is beyond?
It is important for us to remember the simple and plain truth that we are not going to carry any of these temporary designations with us after our death. Remembering our last minute is the best way to cultivate sanity of thoughts in our life.
The Lord can be realized through the *aural reception* of the transcendental message, and that is the *only* way to experience the transcendental subject.As fire is kindled from wood by another fire, the divine consciousness of man can similarly be kindled by another divine grace.
Just like the doctors keep the hospital environment completely sterilized with antiseptics so that the infections of the patients will not spread over, Srila Prabhupada also had the best antiseptic method to avoid the infectious nature of this material world.
Cheerfulness is contagious and people around us will also be inspired to devotional service when we perform it in a joyful attitude. People who are not involved in devotional activities will surely be be-wildered when they go through the various pangs of maya - either in the form of troubles caused by other living entities or by diseases.
As long as we consider the Supreme Lord as the ultimate enjoyer, then we will use all the material resources available in His service. Whereas when we wrongly start assuming ourselves as the 'Lord', then immediately our aim of life is polluted by the thoughts of our own sense enjoyment.
Even if we take all precautions to protect ourselves against committing any sinsfor the Vaishnavas, the devotees of Vishnu, naturally do take all such precautionsstill, unconsciously we kill many ants and other insects while discharging even the most ordinary duties, such as walking from one place to another.
no one is put into difficulty, anxiety, fearfulness or dissatisfaction by a pure devotee of Krishna. Since a devotee is kind He does not act in such a way to put others into distress. But If one tries to put a devotee of the Lord into trouble or anxiety, the devotee is not disturbed because He being in Krishna Consciousness and engaged in devotional service, is not moved by such circumstances
Devotional service must always come first, because only that will attract the mercy and favor of the Lord. When devotional service is done sincerely, all other needs and necessities will be automatically taken care of by the Lord Himself. The Lord is the source of maintenance, not our puny self-efforts.
Maharaj asked me to write only the verse, translation and purport and request the sincere devotees to meditate and learn them by heart. He said, "If we can do that, Krishna will be in our pocket.", he said, "otherwise, we will reach a dead-end in our spiritual life after years of practice".
To put it frankly, as devotees following the regulative principles, we may not have the chance to watch other women or the mundane cinemas etc i.e., we may restrain ourselves from these distractions. Even after all our chanting and reading, given a chance we who claim as devotees too will engage ourselves in all these frivolous activities. Our real Krishna consciousness will be tested by what we do when we are put in such a tempting situation.
The word 'initiation' means to 'initiate' or the 'beginning'. It is not the end. Everyday we have to initiate ourselves by waking up early in the morning, Performing mangala arati, Chanting japa, Reading Bhagavatam etc. Every day we have to serve the Lord with love and enthusiasm because initiation is the beginning and not the end of our spiritual life.
From the above story, we learn that if good instructions are given to a foolish person, he does not take advantage of it. The bird gave good advise to the foolish monkeys. Thus, she got herself into trouble. We also see from the story, that when we give good advise to the fools, it makes them only more angry
Instead of wasting time deliberating about the problems with others, the devotee serves his worshipful Lord by using that problem as a means to intensify his prayers and devotional service to Krishna and move on with his devotional service. Otherwise, as His Holiness Mahavishnu Gosvami Maharaj warns us, we become haunted by our past calamities and become like ghosts!