Sound Bhakti

Prabhupāda encouraged everyone to write. The main forum for writing during Prabhupāda's time, since Prabhupāda was writing all the books, was the Back to Godhead magazine. He wanted devotees to make articles for that. He emphasized, and all that's there in the record—that writing is a way of consolidating your realizations. If you write essays or books, then you have to do deep research, and you a...

I quoted Prahlāda Mahārāja. We quote him again, but that was his, his mood: that even though Nṛsiṁhadeva was personally present, he said, 'Yeah, but I just serve my guru one-pointedly.' And we see, even in the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, Jayananda Prabhu was famous for having one-pointed attention on serving Prabhupāda. It's palpable. If you see somebody who is like, 'That's their only interest,' th...

Prabhupāda explains that if you appreciate and render service to those who are dear to Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will be very accepting. Therefore, we follow the footsteps of Prahlāda Mahārāja, who, even in his prayers to Nṛsiṃhadeva—who's present before him—says that, "First I worship my spiritual master, I serve Him." That's the mood of those who are in the disciplic line: they consider themselves dāsa-...

If you have been instrumental in creating the world by your speech and what you're listening to, you can uncreate it. Wouldn't you like to have an undo button, like 'undo whatever you've done,' or an uncreate button? If you don't like what you've created, uncreate it. You can reverse the process. And that's what happens with transcendental sound. Instead of cohorting with the material energy—talki...

We're all doing something very serious. It's a serious lifetime we're engaged in here. It's very high stakes. Because when you're given something to invest, and you're fully aware of it, then there's some responsibility there. If someone squanders what they're given by a benevolent person, they're known as a miser. They don't spend it properly, or they lose it haphazardly—then they're foolish. So,...

Verse for discussion: https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/2/3/17/ If we look towards Kṛṣṇa in this lifetime, even though we're still within the material modes of nature, if we're utilizing our time to glorify Kṛṣṇa, then we won't be affected by the external circumstances. Kṛṣṇa mentions in the Bhagavad Gītā that such a person is never disturbed or concerned with the external goings-on of the senses...

Ayur means life span. Harati means taking away. So every day the sun is taking away our āyuḥ, except for somebody who's engaged in harikathā. āyur harati vai puṁsām udyann astaṁ ca yann asau (SB 2.3.17) To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom lit...

Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! he Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! he Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! rakṣa mām Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa! pāhi mām That is, “O Lord Kṛṣṇa, please protect Me and maintain Me.” He also chanted: Rāma! Rāghava! Rāma! Rāghava! Rāma! Rāghava! rakṣa mām Kṛṣṇa! Keśava! Kṛṣṇa! Keśava! Kṛṣṇa! Keśava! pāhi mām That is...

Everything matters, and especially what matters is our personal touch, the personal touch in general, and also our extending ourselves personally. We are persons. I thought about that this morning; I felt kind of enlivened. I was woken up. I was thinking, "What's going on?" And I looked at myself in the mirror and I go, "What's going on is you are a person, and therefore you can recognize that you...

Bhūri-dā janāḥ means the most munificent, the person who is giving the best, the best giver in the world. That's what we're coming to in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, because here we start with Kṛṣṇa saying in the Bhagavad Gītā, "Be fully Kṛṣṇa conscious" (Chapter 12). If you can't do that, practice thinking of Kṛṣṇa through the rules and regulations. If you can't do that, then just try to work for Kṛṣṇa...

The best way is to, as Prabhupada said, train your eyes to spot offenses and take the ten offenses as very important. Don't take it as rote, that it's something we recite early in the morning before we start chanting. Instead, look into it and see how you can integrate those prohibitions into your lifestyle. And that's the only blockade between us and śuddha-nāma. As Bhaktivinoda points out in the...

In the beginning of this narration, simply by remembering the spiritual master, the devotees of the Lord, and the Personality of Godhead, I have invoked their benedictions. (CC Adi 1.20) To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collecti...

Most people's activities are impelled by the force of karma. We are forced to take birth, and what is the other end of that? If we're forced to take birth, then what comes after that? (Sorry to bring it up, I know it's a family show). We also are forced to die, and we don't know when. But Krishna appears by his own sweet will. This is one of the main truths of Janmashtami to understand. Why is it...

Your genius is that you make the impossible possible through creativity, compassion, and unshakable faith. In the words of your spiritual master, you have devised ways to organize, empower, and unite devotees in their service. The Bhadra campaign is your gift to the Vaiṣṇava world, a visionary plan to flood households with the jewel of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam sets by a date blessed by the scriptures the...

The crane's superpower is focus, 'cuz fish are fickle and they come and go very quickly. And you have to, in order to observe them, wait until they come near. So, the crane is able to stand and wait and focus and keep his or her mind on the task at hand, which is to catch a fish. So, this is one of the tenets of raising the mind to sattva, or the higher mode of nature, is to practice focus. There'...

You remain committed to your service, and you encourage me in mine. 'Your seva will save you' is more than just a phrase to you; it's a core principle that you live by. Your natural curiosity and eagerness to learn have made you knowledgeable in many areas. Even when you cannot delve deeply into a subject, you learn enough to use it meaningfully in service to Śrīla Prabhupāda. You are never withou...

All of you are taking Harinām initiation today. You may also say, 'Why is it that we take an initiation into a free mantra? I can get this downtown Palo Alto at Lytton Plaza. They just have to go and find the youth Harinām kīrtan and hang around, right?' "They're not selling it down there. They're just giving it away free, and Lord Caitanya gave it away free. 'Why do I have to take all these vows?...

We'll chant some of the Brahma-saṁhitā. Because in 1975, during an initiation ceremony in Chicago, Illinois, which we had the pleasure of being present for, Rohiṇī Kumar Prabhu, one of the founders of ISV, had organized a group of us to chant the Brahma-saṁhitā and the Puruṣa-sūkta in 1998. And Prabhupāda was present at an initiation, and afterward, he made it a point to tell the leaders there tha...

Lord Caitanya said 'devotee Vaidya.' The Vaishnava, is a doctor. Doctors got a little black bag. Doctors used to make home calls, and Lord Chaitanya says, 'What does he have in that little bag?' That little black bag? The doctor, the Vaishnava doctor, has hymns and instructions—two things to cure the disease of Maya. And it requires this personal touch. Somebody's going to knock on the door. Other...

I thank everybody for congregating here around The Holy Names and giving full attention. This is where we get strength, personally and also as a family, also as a community, also as a movement. It all comes from good japa. Any kind of adjustment you might feel in your life, you could trace it back to japa because: māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya k...

What is the ideal attitude for a practitioner eager to advance in devotional service? Śrīla Prabhupāda uses three adjectives to define it: strict, serious, sincere. To be strict means to be rigorous with oneself in following one’s chosen method of practice. Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī, for example, was so strict in his daily routine that Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Antya-līlā 6.309) compares his de...

There is also a saying that it's impossible to understand the mindset of a pure devotee, so there is not always an exact, clear answer. And one of the ways the Bhagavatam also teaches us is because when do you ever get a completely clear answer when you're making decisions absolutely this and not that? Maybe when it's "take the Krishna consciousness," but then come all kinds of other decisions: Sh...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, the great commentator from antiquity says something that’s just so relatable and so enlivening, and it’s included in the first part of the purport that explains the commentaries of the great ācāryas, both Śrīla Sridhara Swami and Śrīla Vishwanatha Cakravartī Thākura. He gives this analogy. He says, "The son of a rich man has a primary duty in life: that is to stay alive. That...

So he (Lord Brahmā) says, "jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām." Jīvanti means "to live"—if all you do is somehow or other stay alive. Jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ, just so you can attend the Bhāgavatam class, that's all you do. What do you do? Just try to stay alive all day long so the next day I can go to the Bhāgavatam class. That's all you do. "Yeah, that's al...

Kṛṣṇa says in the 11th Canto of the Bhāgavatam, "mat-bhaktyā pūjābhyadhikā- better than worshiping Me is worshiping My devotees." This theme is illustrated in the story of Śrutadeva and Bāhulāśva. Kṛṣṇa, along with great sages, goes on a chariot to visit these two devotees. Śrutadeva is poor, and Bāhulāśva is a wealthy king. Kṛṣṇa then expands Himself so He can go to both of their houses at the sa...