by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Only when someone realizes the insignificance of his own ability to support himself, the worthlessness of his proud self-conception and the ineffectiveness of his own endeavours, can he surrender himself and accept the path of receiving help from above (avarohavada)...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

With what attitude should we chant the name of Śrī Bhagavān? • How will we recognize a messenger from Vaikuṇṭha and the authenticity of his message? • By what means can we gain the courage to surrender our very self?

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The living entity is not created; rather he is an eternal entity. Nor is the living soul inert, rather he is conscious. The independence that a living entity possesses has not been granted by anyone. Independence is innate in his existence and he only experiences distress due to misusing his independence...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

❝It is essential to have full confidence in Bhagavan. It is equally essential to have similar firm determination to perform hari-bhajana, the process of devotional service. I must receive His grace. I must not go astray. I must always go on chanting His name. God will undoubtedly help me if I am bona fide.❞...

By Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Śrī Kṛṣṇa personally always wants His devotees to accept Him in the mode of consort-hood – indeed, He admits every servant of His who has truly got the capacity to approach Him in any of these most exalted moods and positions – and yet...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

❝Devotion to God is attained by associating with those who serve both Him and His devotees. They have made service to God the very essence of their life. They have made the narrations of the names, appearance, attributes and sports of God the mainstay of their existence and they are always engaged in discoursing about them.❞...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

But just as in this world, the perverted reflection of the transcendental plane, we find that a single man considers himself to be the father of one person, the son of another and the physician of someone else, in the transcendental realm, also, we find that the same, one Absolute appears in manifold aspects....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Our consciousness possesses a two-fold potentiality. It becomes cognizant of material categories, but it is open to the influence of the spiritual as distinguished from the mundane. Lord Caitanya is our only support and the source of our animation. He is the only object of our worship. As a matter of fact, every activity of ours owes its possibility and existence to His initiative and works as a natural result of His own activities....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

❝Factually, our restricted perspective in relation to the phenomenal domain should not be imposed on the Personality of a thoroughly Independent Integer. The Personality of Godhead is to be humbly approached, not subjected to our sensuous inspection, as though He were an accused in the court. We should accept that all existences are, and ought to be, His own. This method of approach is known as unalloyed theism.❞...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

❝The Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya has asked all sections of the people of this world not to tamper with or mutilate the Absolute Truth with their crippled attempts to regulate Him, but rather to approach Him with an absolutely clean and sincere heart, in which His own feature will be revealed.❞...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The servants of Śrīla Gurudeva are Vaiṣṇavas. Only those who have taken shelter of the lotus feet of a bona-fide guru by accepting initiation (dīkṣā) from him are Vaiṣṇavas. One’s guru-bhakti is the gauge for determining the level of his kṛṣṇa-bhakti, or his vaiṣṇavatā (his standing as a Vaiṣṇava)....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Service to the devotees promises more than service to the Lord Himself. The association of the bhaktas is even more beneficial than the association of the Lord. The living place of the bhakta, the abode of śrīla gurudeva, is more favourable for śuddha-bhajana (pure, loving devotional service) than the abode of the Lord.