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- Views: 1876
by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
“Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī prays, “O Śrīmatī Rādhike, You are adorned with such good qualities. When will I receive the good fortune to serve You?”
What does sevā (service) mean here? If we fan someone, the air should reach that person, shouldn’t it? Why do we fan someone? Why do we take that trouble? Is it not hard work to do so? So why do we do that? If we massage someone’s feet or if we cook for them, it is laborious, so why do we do such service? It is because there is some gain in it.” ...
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- Views: 1465
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
If we disregard, or ignore, the devotees of God for elevating ourselves, we will be cast into the prison of three dimensions and spring towards [our materiality’s] inflation instead of contraction. ...
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- Views: 2056
by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
“Aho, this is the only hari-kathā that can deliver one from the cycle of birth and death. Only from this hari-kathā can I receive kṛṣṇa-prema, not from anywhere else. Oh, how beautiful his hari-kathā is! How glorious this place is, where Bhagavān’s līlā-kathā is being spoken.” In this way, he’ll extol the qualities of hari-kathā. He’ll repeatedly offer praṇāma to the listeners, thinking, “They are blessed to be able to hear such hari-kathā.” ...
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
Our best friends are the servants of God with whom we ally. Yet I shall also speak about service to Hari with such friends of mine who possess lesser power to understand and have thus taken up the duties of kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śudras – if they are not antagonistic. ...
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- Views: 1957
by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
What does nṛpa gāḍha-karṇah mean? To hear hari-kathā with extreme craving, thirst and hunger, drinking each and every word through our ears. This is how it should be. What will happen by doing this? Hunger, thirst, distress, misery, etc., whatever is there will go away; it will end. ...
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- Views: 1664
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
The worship of mūrtis of God prepared from imagination may be called idolatry, but God’s sat-cid-ānanda body is not such a thing. His body and soul are not different from each other. ...
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- Views: 2197
by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
How can one know Bhagavān? Only by His mercy can one know Him. How can one attain that mercy? ...
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- Views: 1756
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
In this mundane plane, pūjā is often performed with an eye on personal gain – we desire something in return for our reverential act. ...
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- Views: 2003
by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
One should offer [tell] the topics on one’s mind to the sādhus and śrī guru, whom one is to consider his bandhus, or well-wishing friends [guardian angels]. One should inquire from them only and one should hear only from them. We should have at least one such bandhu, parama-bāndhava (utmost well-wisher), to whom we can open our heart. ...
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- Views: 1723
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
Rather than listening to Bhāgavata discourses spoken by liberated paramahaṁsa Vaiṣṇavas, those who make a fuss of listening to the Bhāgavatam from professional orators or others whose discourses are full of tendencies that are harmful to the culture of true well-being, do so for sensuous gratification through poetic, literary, grammatical and other such false appreciations. ...
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- Views: 1759
by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
Having taste for hari-kathā is a sign of immense good fortune. This is why you have such eagerness to hear hari-kathā from my mouth as well. However, aside from one or two stories, I do not know any hari-kathā. ...
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- Views: 2040
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
It is, as it were, as a hand attached to the body of God, who is all existence, all intelligence, all bliss. With His hand, God rubs His own feet. The hand of God is His own limb. In this case God is serving Himself. God Himself appears as the Guru in order to teach how to serve Himself. ...