Year 16

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 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

❝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....❞

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...❞