Krishna and Balarama then returned to Their spiritual master and presented him with his son, requesting him to choose yet another favor. But Sandipani Muni replied that by having obtained disciples such as Them, all his desires were fulfilled. He thus instructed Them to return home.

Similarly Guru Maharaj in this ripe-age of 89, that too after paralytic attacks and so many ailments need not extend himself so much in preaching activities. Yet out of compassion he continues to travel all over the world, speaking Bhagavatam, teaching us how to study Bhagavatam, caring for each one us, talking to us personally, temple projects, school, goshala and the list goes on...Even to simply jott down what Gurudev does is mind boggling...then what to speak of his holiness, who is actually involved in all these services. The secret of Gurudev is that he always considers himself as instrument in Krishna's hands. Thats why he is able to things which are seemingly inconceivable for us.

In any case, this fire is representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. ...Unless the Supreme Lord helps him in digesting, there is no possibility of eating."

O King, a saintly person is just like water because he is free from all contamination, gentle by nature, and by speaking creates a beautiful vibration like that of flowing water. Just by seeing, touching or hearing such a saintly person, the living entity is purified, just as one is cleansed by contact with pure water. Thus a saintly person, just like a holy place, purifies all those who contact him because he always chants the glories of the Lord.

Recently we heard from one of our friend about an incident which happened in her son's school. The children of the school were so playful and naughty that they daily made the classrooms and rest-rooms filthy and dirty. This was causing lot of inconvenience and extra work for the house-keeping staff, who had to work hard to keep them clean every day, only to find them all in a shabby condition in the evening. In spite of repeated warnings from the teachers, the children didn't change their behaviour.

 We should simply surrender to Krishna. Generally when we meet someone we may go with some agenda - but that does not apply when we go and meet our Supreme Lord.  Instead of we serving Him, we always approach the Lord with our own agendas and want Him to serve us. Such attitude will only distance us away from Him.

The demoniac want to make a show of religion and advancement in spiritual science, although they do not follow the principles. They are always arrogant or proud in possessing some type of education or so much wealth. They desire to be worshiped by others, and demand respectability, although they do not command respect.

Although the mighty wind blows clouds and storms across the sky, the sky is never implicatedor affected by these activities. Similarly, the spirit soul is not actually changed or affected by contact with the material nature. Although the living entity enters within a body made of earth, water and fire, and although he is impelled by the three modes of nature created by eternal time, his eternal spiritual nature is never actually affected.

One day a Muslim person was on nature's call in the forest. In the mean time a wild boar started chasing him. The nude Muslim ran away cursing the boar with bad words out of fear. He reached the cliff of the mountain and had no option but to jump, so he jumped and died uttering the word Haram (Arabic bad word) and a spark from his body went towards Vaikuntha.

Every day we come across different kinds of people. There is no guarantee that we will meet only like minded people. Irrespective of the kind of people we meet we should continue with our devotional service - without being influenced by the behaviour of others. As Gurudev always insists that  "We may be in this material world - but we should not be of the material world.

Last month when I was in India, I went to one of my relatives whose main occupation is farming so I casually asked him how is the crop growth ? He said that it was very bad this time. I guessed that it was due to shortage of rain water. But he said that the whole soya-bean crop was destroyed by one kind of insect called "Unt Ali".

Three Things to be satisified : - Wife, Food and Wealth.  Three things not be satisfied - Study of scriptures, Chanting and Charity. This the secret of our eternal happiness. But we are not happy at all with the present position. We are always satisfied by chanting 16 rounds, charity we do, scriptures we study. We are never satisfied with wife, food and our wealth. In the above, one item is common for both. That is wealth.

Responsibilities have to be met whether we like it or not. We have to do it and then we fully well know that my children or wife or whoever are not dependent on me because I am not helping them to breathe. Their breathing is going on according to His dictation. So I am not the one looking after. That consciousness must be there. This whole sloka is about our consciousness. Not the actual performing of the job.

Our body is made of bones, flesh and blood. Why should we not love this body? Because this body is granted to you by Krishna and it is on lease. Material lease could be renewed but this lease is not going to be renewed. It only finishes. It is only one way. There is no return ticket. We don’t realize that this body is on non-renewable lease. That is why wasting time is no good and too much attachment is also no good. The body is going to drop down dead. So how can you get attached to it? If you get attached to the non-permanent things, misery is the result. 

The Supreme Personality Of Godhead, the son of Nanda Maharaja, is to be worshiped along with His transcendental abode, Vrindaavanaa. The most pleasing form of worship for the Lord is that which was performed by the Gopis of Vrindaavanaa. Srimad Bhagavatam is the spotless authority on everything, and pure love of God is the ultimate goal of life for all men. These statements, for which we have the highest regards, are the opinion of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Paartha, when a man gives up all varities of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purfied, finds satisfaction in self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.

"The Supreme Personality Of Godhead, the son of Nanda Maharaja, is to be worshiped along with His transcendental abode, Vrindaavanaa. The most pleasing form of worship for the Lord is that which was performed by the Gopis of Vrindaavanaa. Srimad Bhagavatam is the spotless authority on everything, and pure love of God is the ultimate goal of life for all men. These statements, for which we have the highest regards, are the opinion of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu."

In all our daily activities, we have a tendency to give much importance to ourselves, for the things we have done or we have accomplished with the thought in mind that that this task would not have been possible without me. In addition to this, we feel that our loved ones are being given protection because of our presence.

"Within the material world, one's material body is always subject to birth and decay. Similarly, the life air [praana] is harassed by hunger and thirst, the mind is always anxious, the intelligence hankers for that which cannot be obtained, and all of the senses are ultimately exhausted by constant struggle in the material nature.

Of the five great elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether), earth is the most harassed element. For eg, nobody plays with the fire. Infact all of us are afraid of it. Ether, we cannot even see it, so no question of misbehaving with it. But mother earth is tortured and exploited beyond limits by mankind. So much oil-drilling, atomic explosions etc are being carried out on the surface of the earth everyday.

Before leaving this material world to return to His eternal abode, Lord Krishna instructs His dearmost devotee Uddhava on the transcendental subject of self-realization. Most part of the 11th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is filled with the nectarean instruction given by the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna to His dear devotee and friend Uddhava. These instructions are well-known as the Uddhava Gita. Uddhava, in his discussion with Krishna, asks a lot of very honest questions and Krishna also replies with very powerful and practical answers.

We generally perform so many pious welfare activities in our lives.The main motive behind doing these services is to get a better living, earn more pious credit for ourselves. Even though that may not be seen explicitly, it is present inside in a subtle form. This we can prove with a simple test

We, the living entities are just the co-operators working under the direction of the Supreme Lord. We are bound in every respect to obey the orders of the Supreme and as such the number of breaths we take are also conditioned to obey the orders of the Supreme. However failing to obey the commands of the Lord can bring about a massive danger to our lives, in which we are trapped in the material condition of life.

Pure devotional service rendered to the Supreme Lord is spiritually so potent that simply by hearing about such transcendental service, by chanting its glories in response, by meditating on it, by respectfully and faithfully accepting it, or by praising the devotional service of others, even persons who hate the demigods and all other living beings can be immediately purified.

Daily we offer prayers to the Lord. But most of the times we do it mechanically and make it a ritual instead of understanding the spirit of the process. Spiritual activities - if not done with right mood and spirit will get diluted to be a ritual and so we must always keep a cautious check on us all the time. Most importantly we must always be "on-time" for every appointment with Krishna. Be it mangala-arati, offering bhoga or attending satsang  programmes and Bhagavatam class.

One day, when Gopal was returning home from the palace he had to pass through a forest. While he was walking under a haunted tree, he heard the voice of a Yaksha, who asked him if he would like to posses seven jars of gold. Gopal willingly accepted the offer. The Yaksha told Gopal that he would find the seven jars of gold in his house. Gopal ran home as fast his feet could carry him.

 We have a famous saying that even nectar when consumed in large quantities turns out to be poisonous to our body. If such is the case with nectar - then what to speak of these harmful mundane news ? Now-a-days, information is readily available to people through the so called advanced technologies in the form of internet, televisions and newspapers.  Media people - with the single motive of increasing their business and profits, increase the hype of anything and everything.

"My dear Lord Nrsimhadeva, I see that there are many saintly persons indeed, but they are interested only in their own deliverance. Not caring for the big cities and towns, they go to the Himalayas or the forest to meditate with vows of silence [mauna-vrata]. They are not interested in delivering others. As for me, however, I do not wish to be liberated alone, leaving aside all these poor fools and rascals. I know that without Krishna consciousness, without taking shelter of Your lotus feet, one cannot be happy. Therefore I wish to bring them back to shelter at Your lotus feet."

Since we are in illusion all the times, the three-fold miseries exists all the time and therefore we don't realize that it is temporary. Illusion means accepting something which is false, as truth. We accept so many things as truth but they do not stay truth always. We accept our youthful body as truth out of illusion that it will stay with us forever, but within few years we lose that youthful body and are given a old body.

Devotees like Ambarish Maharaj, Prahlad Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada and Guru Maharaj who are completely surrendered to Uttamashloka Krishna, engage all their senses perfectly in Lord's service. So even if we are not are able to use our senses in Lord's service all the time, simply by taking shelter of such pure devotees we will be able to increase our rati for Krishna.