The popular saying is that a housewife teaches the daughter-in-law by teaching the daughter. Similarly, the Lord teaches the world by teaching the devotee.
For real preaching to take place we have to somehow separate the personality from the message. People like to glorify personality for two reasons. One because of what they are getting from the other person (love, adoration, companionship whatever)
Regarding spiritual master's relationship with disciples, we should always use our common sense. Should never unnecessarily complicate the matter. Spiritual Master - the term itself explains the relationship. It is fully and completely spiritual, transcendental to all mundane matters and particularly to reactions arising from the millions of mixtures of three modes of material nature.
It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita by the Lord Himself that He gives His instruction from within the heart of a pure devotee who is constantly engaged in the service of the Lord.
'A devotee is never as eager to see the Lord as he is to render service to Him. Yet the Lord does appear before His devotee, for He is just like an affectionate father, who is more eager to see his son than the son is to see him
Thanks for sharing that nice realization. Though most of know these things it is refreshing to hear the realizations of devotees. The world puts it that; great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and the foolsh minds discuss people.
Tie of affection in terms of material relation is the relation of maya because the relations of the body or the mind are due to the influence of the external energy. Relations of the soul, established in relation with the Supreme Soul, are factual relations
"As the chariot of air carries an aroma from its source and immediately catches the sense of smell, similarly one who constantly engages in devotional service, in Krsna consciousness can catch the Supreme Soul, who is equally present everywhere".
Just as breathing of fresh air is essential for the healthy upkeep of the body. The intake of air carrying the sound vibrations of Srimad Bhagvatam verses is essentail for the healthy upkeep of the soul.
Devakinandan Prabhu quoted a very important sloka wherein it says that 'Krsna has his hand in everything, without exception'. An obvious question that this raises is how do we reconcile this fact with the other fact that we are all independent.
Thank you for starting and maintaining the "Grantharaj " I am inspired to discuss with you. If we can transcribe some of Mahraj's lectures and make a small book, that might be very nice to read and distribute.
As soon as you think bad, and you speak bad, then you loose your own existence. That is why we should completely avoid this. Krsna sees everything. Who are we to judge anybody ? Who are we to criticize anybody ? That is the point to be understood.
I would love to help in the transcribing of the tapes! I think the books are a great idea! Gurudeva has instructed me that he thinks I should live in Alachua, and this summer I am planning the move - maybe being closer will make it more practical for me to help
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Hari, the congregational chanting of whose holy names destroys all sinful reactions, and the offering of obeisances unto whom relieves all material suffering.
My dear Lord, You are glorified by the selected verses uttered by great personalities. Such glorification of Your lotus feet is just like saffron particles.
It was most inspiring reading Subadrah Mataji's touching realizations of Maharaj. Just now Maharaj spoke to me and I would like to take this opportunity to share some of the beautiful pointers he gave which would inspire us in our struggle to gain a stable footing in our spiritual lives.
Before Gurudeva came to San Diego at the end of summer, 1994, I had been praying especially intensely for Radharani to send me a bonafide Spiritual Master. I hadn't had much luck with other Gurus and had been coming to the temple since I was 16(25 years ago).
Nice to hear you Prabhuji! From what I understand in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the backbone of the preaching success in that area is not so much the bhakti-vrksas, but the children's programmes and weekly get together programme
Prabhu, thank you for the messages and updates, it's very enlivening to know the effort devotees in all parts of the world take to please Sri-Sri Radha-Krsna and the great acaryas in our line... from your message, we see how potent the bhakti-vrksha program is..
Gurudev arrived in Abu Dhabi on 26th March 2002. On Gaur Purnima day, Gurudev gave diksa to two long standing disciples, Santosh Agarwal and Rupali Mataji, who have been heading the congregation in Abu Dhabi since 1996.
In Vraja-bhumi everybody walks behind the cows, vraja means to walk and jana everybody in general. Then he says that this walking will keep one in good shape and will remove the fat from the body. So once Maharaja and one of his servants were in a supermarket to find out some yoghurt and other things