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by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
❝I am concerned about you – how your life can be happy and peaceful and how it, can be like a lamp-post, an ideal, that rises somewhat above standard of the common masses. Then thousands and lakhs of people can accept you as a role model and gain inspiration in their lives. Your life shouldn’t just be about taking birth, passed in full of gratification and dying. May your life be like the greatly learned Gārgī, Maitrāyī, Arundhatī, Anusūyā and Mīrā, and you may be able to spread the rays of [transcendental] light in the world. ... ❞
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by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Māhārāja
❝You must put all manner of worldly tasks aside and chant one lakh daily, perform pūjā and arcana of the deity, study various sacred texts, and go to the maṭha to take advantage of hearing śrī hari-kathā. This is the special purpose of Kṛṣṇa’s saṁsāra, Bhagavān’s saṁsāra. Many believe that one lakh (lakṣa) of nāma means setting one’s lakṣya (focus) and chanting. But that is a one-sided notion. Chanting a fixed amount of śrī nāma means chanting with a steady heart, crying and weeping anxiously. One must complete one’s fixed number of rounds in that manner [with absorption].❞ ...
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
❝Within this world, only those who attend to Śrī Bhagavān’s holy name (nāma), His abode (dhāma) and His desires (kāma) are truly worthy of adoration. No being can extricate himself from misunderstanding, which arises from māyā, without serving śrī nāma. The result of serving śrī nāma is that one will be freed from all forms of prejudice and will become settled in serving Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s desires (kāma).❞ ...
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by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Māhārāja
❝Only if one has a sense of attachment for Śrī Bhagavān is there significance and fulfillment in reading and writing. Nowhere is there a better perspective than that given by Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is why one must become thoroughly established in the conceptions of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the king of devotional literature, the essence of all Vedānta, and the natural commentary on the gāyatrī-mantra.❞ ...
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by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
❝Yaśodānandana and Devakīnandana are one from the perspective of tattva, but from the perspective of rasa, each has a speciality (vaiśiṣṭya). Devakīnandana may not wear peacock feather or carry a vaṁśī and a stick (for cow grazing), and He may not be adorned in the attire and mood (abhimāna) of a gopa, but He can at least experience separation (viraha). Whenever topics of Vraja are discussed in Mathurā and Dvārakā, then, through the medium of those narrations, Yaśodānanadana Gopī-vallabha Kṛṣṇa appears within in Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa [Devakīnandana]. ... ❞
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by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Māhārāja
❝ In the month of niyama-sevā, one must, in a regulative manner, perform various limbs of bhakti, knowing “sevā se niyama – service is that regulation.” Every day, it is absolutely obligatory to perform worship (pūjārcana), behold ārati, attend class and kīrtana, study various sacred books, recite Dāmodarāṣṭakam and various stavas and stotras.❞ ...
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
❝When Śrī Vārṣabhānavī-devī (Śrīmatī Rādhikā, the daughter of King Vṛṣabhānu) accepts someone as one of Her own – as a rūpānuga, or one of the followers of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī – then, only, is the full mercy of Kṛṣṇa accessible to him. He can only attain this fortune if he can become the kiṅkara of śrī guru, who is himself the best of the followers of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī.❞ ...
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by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Māhārāja
❝During the month of Kārtika, if one performs pūjā (worship) to please Śrī Rādhikā, Dāmodara Śrī Hari becomes pleased, because Ūrjeśvarī Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the presiding deity of this month. The possessor of all potencies, Dāmodara Śrī Kṛṣṇa, does not accept worship without His svarūpa-śakti (intrinsic potency), otherwise known as hlādinī-śakti. Likewise, Śrī Rādhā-devī, that antaraṅga (intimate) or parā-śakti (supreme energy) rejects everything in the absence of Her prāṇanātha (the Lord of Her life). That is precisely why the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas under the guidance of Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara and Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī have accepted only the worship of rādhāliṅgita-vigraha Yugala (the Divine Couple when Kṛṣṇa’s form is embraced by Śrī Rādhā).❞ ...
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by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
❝You have asked about the glories of the month of Kārtika. In the month of Kārtika many pastimes of Kṛṣṇa took place: (a) On the very first day of Kārtika, that is, on [Śāradīya-]pūrṇma, mahā-rāsa took place in Vaṁśivaṭa in Vṛndāvana, and the supremacy of Śrīmatī Rādhikā was established. (b) In this Kārtika month, Mother Yaśodā bound Kṛṣṇa to a grinding mortar with the rope of her love. Prior to this, in any of His other manifestations, no one was able to bind Kṛṣṇa. ... ❞
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by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Māhārāja
❝Even though Cāturmāsya-vrata is not mentioned among the sixty-four limbs of bhakti described in Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Śrīman Mahāprabhu personally observed Cāturmāsya-vrata while staying in Purī, Śrī Raṅgam, and other places, thus imparting to the living entities of the world instructions on the necessity of following this vrata.❞ ...
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by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
Who is a true guru? It is he who is constantly engaged in the service of Śrī Hari. And who is the truly learned man? It is he who, in the words of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is well conversant with actual knowledge of the jīva’s bondage and his deliverance from it (C.f. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.19.41). ...
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by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Māhārāja
❝It is natural that every sādhaka is eager to know about Śrī Rādhikā, because without serving Her, attaining the service of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is a distant prospect. However, the truth of who She is can only be preserved if She is revealed or described as She is. Otherwise, all we perceive are deceptions that assert truth to be false or falsehood to be truth.❞ ...
