by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Our taste for hearing harikatha and our inclination to serve Śrī Hari shall itself separate us from unfavourable association. And if we constantly beseech śrī guru and Gaurāṇga for their mercy while we read and discuss the spiritual books and periodicals of our great ācāryas, then we can achieve the same benefit we would achieve by listening to harikathā directly from the mouths of the devotees....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

It is enjoined that those who observe the Urjja-vrata during the months of Kārtika in the holy city of Mathurā practice strict asceticism. They must spend the whole day and night hearing discourses and chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa in the company of devotees. Such strict observance of the Kārtika vrata, when performed with faith in the company of pure devotees, produces the genuine inclination to serve Śrī Kṛṣṇa...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Savants of different ages and different countries have formulated many scholastic views in their efforts to answer, according to their whims, the great epistemological and cosmological questions. But these views have very little value when realization of the Absolute begins to play within the soul of the unalloyed servant...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Because human intellect is driven by the modes of passion and ignorance, it cannot penetrate deliberations of the mode of unalloyed goodness. So, when someone advises us to supplement pure bhakti with worldly disciplines in order to make it complete, it is to our benefit to not accept their advice. Such a mixture is detrimental to our true well-being. It is like mixing mortar into a deliciously sweet desert...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The writings of Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda provide the golden bridge by which the mental speculationist can safely cross the raging waters of fruitless empiric controversies that trouble the peace of those who choose to trust in their guidance for finding the Truth. As soon as the sympathetic reader is in a position to appreciate the sterling quality of Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda’s philosophy the entire vista of the revealed literatures of the world will automatically open out to his reclaimed vision...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

If his works are studied in the light of one’s own worldly experience their meaning will refuse to disclose itself to such readers. His works belong to the class of the eternal revealed literature of the world and must be approached for their right understanding through their exposition by the pure devotee...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

When the conception of being a fully protected and maintained maidservant of Sri Vrsabhanu-nandini appears in our heart, then no other worldly identifications, which are all insignificant in comparison, can overpower it...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Between subserviency and mastership, there should be an unbridgeable gulf of separation, one being separated from the other by the difference of functioning. But as nature abhors a vacuum, the very basis of thinking requires us to find out some principle of intermediacy between the two. Guru, or the principle of this intermediacy, is absolute master...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The author of the aphorisms detected within himself an apprehension that such insinuations might arise, so he undertook the task of furnishing a true interpretation that might check the potential exploiters, reveal their ridiculousness, and thus prevent them from diverting the people from the Absolute Truth....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

He knows nothing but śrī guru. Under all circumstances – while he is sleeping or dreaming or eating or engaged in bhajana – he is always thinking of śrī gurudeva, taking his guidance and following in his footsteps. He knows that śrī gurudeva, who is very dear to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is completely independent and is īśvara-vastu – an entity non-different from the Supreme Controller, Śrī Bhagavān....

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

It is important to know what service, or sevā, is. To provide pleasure to the object of our service is the sole meaning of the word sevā. Śrī Hari is the fountainhead and origin of all beings. We are all factually servants of Śrī Hari, and serving Him is our sole dharma, our constitutional function, activity and duty. By serving Him, everyone else is served. This is confirmed by the verse “yathā taror mūla-niṣecanena – by watering the root of a tree, all the branches and leaves are nourished.”...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

While regularly chanting the holy name, His form, qualities and pastimes shall be naturally realized... One need not endeavour to artificially remember them... For those who chant the holy names the egoistic gross and subtle bodies are removed and their eternal constitutional form is awakened. And śrī nāma alone awakens one’s eternal constitutional activities, thereby causing attraction to Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental pastimes... “Service to the holy name” includes any essential activities the practitioner must perform – such as maintaining the body – in order to continue chanting the holy names...