By asking the hunter to break the bow Narada muni saved not only the hunter's sinful life but also the lives of so many living entities too. And he also stopped the accrual of grave sins in the hunter’s life. This is the unique quality of saintly personalities.

In this day and age of doubt and faithlessness, if our spiritual master makes such a statement to us, we will first check if he has sufficient bank balance, credit card, steady income etc. We may even get a letter of assurance from him. But the hunter had no such qualms.

Our spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj once made a very important observation to his disciple in this regard - "To the degree you are frank and reveal your mind to me, to that degree only my solution will work for you. Even though the solution is fool proof, if you reveal only 75% of your mind, my solution will work only 75%. If you reveal 100%, my solution will also work 100%."

Whenever our spiritual master was approached by his disciples (or even non-disciples), he would always say one thing - "I am like your father, you can approach me anytime like how the son or daughter approaches the father." He always was the first to extend his love to build the relationship with the living entities without any expectation or reciprocation from them.

We can observe how Narada muni did not speak big philosophy or gave the hunter detailed knowledge on the spiritual subjects. Nor did he force the hunter to surrender to him. He simply awakened the innocent heart of the hunter by giving him the sweet association of his own simple and innocent heart that was filled with unmotivated and unflinching loving devotion to the Lord.

Srila Prabhupada writes in the purport nicely, “A pure Vaiṣṇava is one who has no ulterior motive. He has totally dedicated himself to the service of the Lord. He does not have material desires, and he is not interested in so-called learning and philanthropic work.”

As a preacher we cannot succeed in conveying the message without opening the heart of the listener. As our spiritual master would often say, "Our mind is like a parachute. It works only when it is open", we can successfully pierce the transcendental knowledge into the listener's heart only when their heart is open to hearing the message.

Outwardly seeing, the animals have no relationship with Narada muni. They are not his property. Nor is he going to gain anything from them by saving them. And he is only helping the hunter to stop his sinful activities which the hunter himself is not bothered about. But still why he has to beg the hunter humbly?

The hunter whose nature is speaking bad language and harsh behavior wanted to chastise Narada muni for interfering in his hunting by approaching his path due to which the remaining animals fled away.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gives 61 different explanations of this verse. Out of the 61 different meanings, one particular meaning is, Even if a person is a hunter by profession, if he associates with a saintly person like Narada muni, he engages in Krishna bhakti. 

All His devotees worship Him in that way, by chosen words, and therefore the Lord is known as Uttamaśloka. No amount of chosen words is sufficient to enumerate the Lord’s glory, and yet He is satisfied by such prayers as the father is satisfied even by the broken linguistic attempts of the growing child."

And this is how from Bhagavad Gita, we should go to Srimad Bhagavatam. Easy way. Step by step you have to go. Suppose you want to climb to the second floor, then you have to climb step by step. You cannot jump on. If you try to jump on, you will break your head or neck whatever it is. So this is how, if you go step by step, these scriptures are very nicely, nicely arranged for our own elevation, spiritual elevation. And the same time, with the spiritual upliftment of our existence, they guide us every second of our existence. And anytime, the best approach is through the devotional service as we have seen.

There was Kamsa, and Kamsa was always remembering Krishna as the personified death. He knew that he going to be killed by Him. So he saw that personified death approaching him. mṛtyur bhoja-pater - mrtyu – he saw personified death in Krishna. Same Krishna appeared in different 6-7 situations. mṛtyur bhoja-pater virāḍ aviduṣāṁ and there were jnanis, there were knowledgeable people, where they are hankering after jnān.

Step by step you have to go. Suppose you want to climb to the second floor, then you have to climb step by step. You cannot jump on. If you try to jump on, you will break your head or neck whatever it is. So this is how, if you go step by step, these scriptures are very nicely, nicely arranged for our own elevation, spiritual elevation. And the same time, with the spiritual upliftment of our existence, they guide us for every second of our existence. And anytime, you should, the best approach is through the devotional service as we have seen.

By intense speech you just chant, Hare Krishna.  Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare He will have to answer. It depends upon how we approach.  ye yathā māṁ prapadyante / tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham - ye yathā māṁ prapadyante - The way you approach Him, He is definitely going to reciprocate. If you half heartedly approach, His reciprocation will be half hearted.

"I have a road number, I have a house, and I have phones also. So many lines, millions of lines, and the beauty of my lines is that I don’t employ the secretaries. I answer all the calls." "That’s wonderful," He (Narada) says.  "So, I can ring you and find you there. This you can do. So come on, give me Your address." So Narada muni took out his diary, digital diary, (laughter). He says, "Come on, Krishna, give me Your address."

You know once it so happened that, Narada muni wanted to see Krishna for some purpose you know. So he had a benediction, he could go without any material (vehicle) to all the planets, not only the material manifestation, but in the spiritual realm also. He roamed all planets to see Krishna. Morning started, roamed all over the material planets, couldn’t find Him.

We falsely think that we are in a group. The group cannot help you.  Your body has to be maintained by you, alone. If there is something wrong, you have to suffer alone. You have to enjoy alone, you have to suffer alone. And all the time, we are all alone. Nobody can help us in these things. We love our children very much. But something goes wrong with them, you cannot give them one breath. We may be miserable, but we can’t do anything. They have to suffer, on their own. And this point, those who understand, they make best use of the bad bargain.  And this is the bad bargain.

"Drink milk at the end of the day (at night) (as this will help you to sleep well), drink water at end of the night, i.e. early morning (as it will cleanse your system). Drink buttermilk at the end of the meal (which will help in digestion). If one does these, why does one require a Doctor (as one will not have any ailment) ?"

Our mind says, "yesterday you travelled so long, you are very tired, and just take rest." And we just, "ummmm, Really I am tired." So this is how, mind is very clever to give you the favourable arguments. And then it destroys you completely. Don't depend upon the mind. But intelligence, completely pure. As soon as intelligence is completely pure, by chanting our rounds very nicely, you instruct your mind always that, "you have to go to the temple, you have to read, you have to ………" Then mind will. And this way if you do, then bhaktim apy uttamāṁ labhet. That is Vaishnavism. 

We appointed the lawyers and we train the lawyers and solicitors and they have made the mess of the whole thing. And so much bureaucracy you know, just to go to the court, You have to spend thousands of dollars. Just to appoint the solicitor and this and that. In olden times, even now in Hawaii, those people just go to the elder ones, they think about their conditions, they decide and everything is over. No bureaucracy is involved. This is is vedic culture. And the more simple you are, in your dealings, then you have more time to devote for the devotional activities.

The maintenance of the body has got to be on our own and on our own itself, the secret is that we cannot maintain.  It’s just being maintained. I don’t know how, that is the point I’m conveying to you that we are not independent at all in any second of our existence. We have to depend upon Him.  Voluntarily if you depend, you’ll be happy.  If you don’t depend, then He has his stick to force you to depend, so there is no need of worrying.

There will be so many impediments, but our royal road should be completely clear in front of us. Whatever impediment is there then it’ll automatically go away and you just continuously chant and read, understand, come to the temple as often as you can and if you have devoted your life, you are very fortunate, you please serve Rahda-Vrndavanchanrda, and forget about all other things.  Everything will come in our way if it is going to happen.  We should not be worried unnecessarily.

It doesn't matter what ashram you belong to - you may be brahmana, you may be kshatriya, you may be vaishya, or you may be shudra, or maybe lower than that. Doesn't matter at all, what ashram you belong to, you may be brahmacari ashram, grhasta ashram, vanaprastha, or sannyasa, whatever it is, our aim is only one and that is to develop unflinching faith in the supremacy of the Lord. That is the only thing we want, and those who adhere to these instructions, they are successful in their material life also.

Lake is completely dirty and we can never imagine a beautiful flower coming out of the mud, but it does come out. The same way narakad api uttaramy aham - even if you are in a hellish condition, I pick you up. And this is our experience. We were in a hellish condition before we came to Prabhupada.

The human life is not meant for building one house in America. The human life is not meant to acquire some property on the whole planet. That is not the aim at all.  Falsely we are running after these things and because we are not purifying our aim of existence, we are in difficulty. The aim of existence is to develop unflinching faith, unflinching devotional service to the Lord.

Austerity, cleanliness, you take out the first letter. A is austerity, and C is cleanliness. And our A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. You'll never forget, you just remember his initials - A.C. and austerity and cleanliness, and then M for mercy and T for truthfulness. So without A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami we are empty

Whatever belongings you have, whatever you want, whatever you do, everything has got to be nicely clean completely. And Srila Prabhupada has taught us very nicely. He is extra clean, completely clean. And that's why he was able to get up at 1:00am and start immediately translating - because he's completely clean, inside out.

There is nothing with you. Nothing with you, because it doesn't belong to you. Whatever possessions we have, I may have a suitcase full of my clothes, but it is not here because it doesn't belong to me. If it really belongs to me, then it will accompany me always. Nothing belongs to me. Nothing.

 Everything has got to be very nicely organized. And this organization should start from our shaving kit. In our shaving kit, there are 12 razors, and we don't know what is working, you know? It's like a mad person, get up at 4:00, "Mangalarati time, mangalarati time", and he rubs this and rubs that, so many soaps are lying there. We don’t know, you please clean it!  One razor can be used, not 12.  Throw away the rest of the things.

When they started in the beginning it was in Bury Place in front of the museum and daily, twice, the harinam party will go on the Oxford Street and it so happened that one very rich parliamentarian from Mauritius was visiting London and they were in the Selfridges Building for shopping, everybody comes and goes for shopping, I don’t know what they shop, but they shop.