by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

God is the best judge of how to look after us. We do not know how good shall come to us. We cannot examine the merits and demerits of things with our present faculties. It is not possible. We should always be ready to submit to Him unconditionally. All ideas apart from this are not regarded as bhakti by true religionists....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

In reality, it is impossible to serve effectively unless one is directly cognizant of the emotions deep within the heart of the person being served. Sometimes, the topmost servants may wait for the orders of their master, but other times, aware of the inner feelings of their worshipful lord, they may serve him without being ordered....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

If one has no desire at all to serve śrī guru and Śrī Kṛṣṇa, then where is the question of that desire increasing any further? If our consciousness (citta-vṛtti) remains absorbed in the lotus feet of śrī guru, then no matter where we live, our impulse to serve will swell. Otherwise, the inclination to gratify our senses and the urge to enter into mundane life will be all that swells in us....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The transcendental reflection of the āśraya-jātīya aspect in all the conscious cosmic manifestation is the manifestation of my gurudeva alone, in diverse forms. He who teaches us at every moment that we should engage in serving Bhagavān for our entire life is certainly śrī gurudeva. This very same gurudeva is reflected in the heart of every living being. He is present in every single entity in his āśraya-jātīya aspect....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The Lord says, “If you take the initiative to concoct your own path, then you are liable to receive instructions from sources that will prove to be ineffective in the long run, for I am immanent in the universe and there is no possibility of avoiding Me. I am the source of all existence, I am full of knowledge, and I am endowed with the infinity of bliss.”...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

When the Absolute wants something, we are morally bound to offer our services to Him and to attend to His needs. If He thinks that He is the Husband, all should be His wives. The soul should attire her body according to the taste of her Husband; she should apparel herself in such a way as to please her Master....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

It is essential that we exclusively serve that God-loving guru (bhagavat-bhakta guru) who is engaged in the service of Bhagavān twenty-four hours a day. And along with our service to śrī guru, it is necessary and beneficial for us to serve those Vaiṣṇavas who have guru-niṣṭhā – that is, unshakable faith in śrī guru and determined steadfastness in serving him. But it will be of no use to serve numerous others on the assumption that they, too, are lovers of God....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

We will be making a sad mistake if we think that the Lord, in the long run, may have nothing to confer upon us, and that by giving up what we have acquired we will only meet with difficulty. We forget that He is the Absolute. He is the emporium of everything....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

It is the enlightening potency of words which alone is able to destroy all those obstacles. Therefore, only when the deluding potency of words born of the ephemeral nature is resolved into the enlightening function do words prevent the individual soul from becoming severed from non-dual knowledge (advaya-jñāna), that is, from the Supreme True Entity....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Therefore, I say, those who wish to attain the lotus feet of Bhagavān, who want true peace and who want deliverance from material existence, will make serving śrī guru their life and soul, they will ceaselessly engage in that service and they will endeavour to please him even at the cost of their own life....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

We are now interested in the acquisition of all kinds of worldly facilities. We find it useful to study those sciences that deal with the objects we wish to acquire. But we need not remain confined to such investigation. We are fit to be attracted, also, by the science of supra-mundane reality. We are attracted by One who is existence, knowledge and bliss. He attracts us in different degrees, for He has given us the fitness to be attracted in different measures....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

That enjoying mood is but bait and a trap and will not lead us to the Absolute. Determining the true self will lead us there. We should first realize this: we are in need of receiving the divine boon, our own boon, of the self. As we are now in the human frame, we have the opportunity to know the fact of transcendence....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

No matter how many difficulties we must face, we pray that we may always be able to follow in the footsteps of the devotees of Bhagavān. When we realize our own ineptitude, humility (dainya) arises. That humility is the root of accepting guidance from Bhagavān’s devotees. Only when I truly admit my own incompetence shall I become capable of perceiving the beauty and the glories of the lotus feet of Bhagavān’s devotees....