Bhakti Quotes

  This transcendental sound is to be received through the ears. The transcendental sound is meant to regulate the five senses, which are wrongly engaged in fostering the ambitions of the mind and injuring the purposes of the eternal soul. So aural reception is the first thing we should seek from the agent – the deputed messenger from the transcendental plane. The transcendental sound is transmitted through the lips of the messenger in the form of pure transcendence, which can regulate the senses. -  by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupād a Adapted from The Gaudiya Volume 27, Number 6 by the Rays of The Harmonist team https://www.purebhakti.com/resources/harmonist-monthly/63-year-4/1221-transcendence-is-at-sri-gurus-lotus-feet Rays of The Harmonist On-line, Year-4, Issue 2 “Transcendence Is At Śrī Guru’s Lotus Feet” by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License to ensure tha...

This transcendental sound is to be received through the ears. The transcendental sound is meant to regulate the five senses, which are wrongly engaged in fostering the ambitions of the mind and injuring the purposes of the eternal soul. So aural reception is the first thing we should seek from the agent – the deputed messenger from the transcendental plane. The transcendental sound is transmitted through the lips of the messenger in the form of pure transcendence, which can regulate the senses. Go on chanting the name, constantly repeat transcendental nomenclature, and you will find that energy is being injected into you. But this name should come to you from a good source, from a transcendental source, and not from any mundane source. The name should not be confused with the other sounds of this world. The transcendental sound regulates the senses and does not submit to the senses for scrutiny. When the Supreme Lord Śrī Caitanyadeva met Śrī Rūpa at Allahabad, He first of all transmit...

The conditioned soul is first called upon to utter the name of Kṛṣṇa. He should hear the name of Kṛṣṇa from an unconditioned soul who has no attachment whatsoever to the world, for it would suffice to follow the model set by such an unconditioned soul. The conditioned soul will then come to know that chanting is possible for him all twenty-four hours of the day, without using a single moment for any other purpose. If he is thereafter found to be impatient, if he is found to be hankering after a position in this mundane world, he will be a defaulter in chanting the name of Hari, the Transcendental Being. Kṛṣṇa, or Hari, has no mortal coil to be subjected to worldly assessment, as we have. He does not require any labour on our part, for chanting His Name with devotion involves no effort. So we should accept the views of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya in our transcendental march, in preference to any other advice. The true self, or unalloyed soul, should adopt a policy of not interfering with either...

  It is imperative for every human being to spend their whole day solely in spiritual discussions, yet our whole day is consumed in ordinary activities. Intelligent people must acknowledge that it is not the duty of any human being to spend their invaluable life in material sense gratification. Everyone ought to be concerned about and seek out their eternal welfare. Everyone should be selfish in this matter, but most people in this world are engaged in activities that bring about the opposite result. Children busy themselves in playing, the youth in family life, and the old in constantly protecting their property and in taking care of their body. This indicates indifference towards one’s true purpose. Hence, due to the desire to accumulate material gain, the people of this world remain indifferent to their own eternal gain. How unfortunate! Some say that there is no need to worry about one’s eternal welfare at the present, but this is not correct. If a person does not receive a pr...

Our purpose is to search for Kṛṣṇa. We have to consider in this connection two subjects: (1) Kṛṣṇa and (2) the search for Kṛṣṇa. The word kṛṣṇa has an ordinary meaning which is intelligible to all of us. This meaning is supported by history and the conditioned intellect of man, and this meaning leaves us ignorant of the Truth. We shall not accept this meaning. On the contrary we shall know the real, indivisible Truth Himself. There is a meaning which can enlighten us regarding the Truth. The ordinary meaning of the word kṛṣṇa is an entity which is different from Kṛṣṇa. It is something that is enveloped by the deluding energy of Kṛṣṇa. It is an object which is comprehensible to the other gross senses besides the ear. It is a product of our sensuous perception. We shall not defile the name Kṛṣṇa by accepting this meaning. -  by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupād a From The Gaudiya Volume 26, Number 5 Adapted by the Rays of The Harmonist team https://www.purebhakti.com/...

  Question 5: What is real independence? Answer: Endeavouring to become the Lord of this world is abhakti – the antithesis of transcendental devotion. The desire to become the Lord or to become independent, by worldly calculations, is in reality the desire for servitude and dependence. Independence in this world is but a veiled form of subservience. However, desiring to become the loyal subject, or servant, of the Supreme Lord, He who is the embodiment of sat, cit and ānanda, is the factual cause of attaining the most complete independence. As long as the living being holds fast the rope of Bhagavān’s mercy, he should be known by the term sevaka (servant). The inhabitants of this material plane who fancy themselves as self-dependent, and who thus afford themselves a mood of indifference, are truly dependent on others. But those who are subservient to the Supreme Lord are genuinely independent. When one achieves true independence, he is overwhelmed by the joyful realization, “I am e...

"The moment I deviate from śrī guru, the moment I become forgetful of he who keeps me attracted to his lotus feet at every single moment, I will, without a doubt, diverge from the Truth. And when I am thus separated from śrī guru, countless misgivings and deficiencies will engulf me. I shall simply spend my time bathing when I’m hot and bundling up when I’m cold. In other words, I will become more anxious to arrange for my own comfort than to serve śrī gurudeva. If at the beginning of every year, every month, every day and every moment, I do not remember my gurudeva, who saves me from absorption in that which has no connection to my constitutional nature or are separate from kṛṣṇa-bhakti, then I will definitely fall into greater and greater difficulty. I will try to present myself as guru and will be swallowed up by the ill-mentality of believing that others should worship me as such. This alone is dvitīya abhiniveśa – infatuation with the worthless purposes of our unnatural state...

  "While living on this earth, we do not get the direct association of many devotees from the transcendental realm. But because the conversations and pastimes of the devotees who were present during the manifest pastimes of Śrīman Mahāprabhu perpetually exist in the form of sacred texts (granthas) and sound vibration (śabda), or words, we do not feel so much pain in our worldly troubles. If we live in this world in the midst of the discussion and message of the transcendental world, our reflections on that message will keep us aloof from worldly pain. No matter where you find yourself, that divine harikathā will never abandon you . To be sure, you will even remember Bhagavān and comprehend the topic of bhakti within all the things of this world." - by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupād a Translated from Śrīla Prabhupādera Patrāvalī* by the Rays of The Harmonist team https://www.purebhakti.com/resources/harmonist-monthly/65-year-2-special-editions/1100-the-mean...

"You are not hearing enough harikathā from the lips of the devotees, who are inclined toward serving Śrī Bhagavān and who are rapt in hari-bhajana. Because of this, you do not appreciate your good fortune. However, the fact that you constantly remain inclined to serve Śrī Hari keeps you aloof from adverse association. When you are on your own, you should always read the Gauḍīya and the devotional literatures written by other Vaiṣṇavas. This will, in itself, enable you to reap the benefit of listening to harikathā from the lips of the devotees. " - by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Translated from Śrīla Prabhupādera Patrāvalī* by the Rays of The Harmonist team https://www.purebhakti.com/resources/harmonist-monthly/65-year-2-special-editions/1100-the-means-of-attaining-welfare-when-sdhu-saga-is-far-away Rays of The Harmonist On-line, Year 2, Special On-line Edition “The Means of Attaining Welfare When Sādhu-saṅga is Far Away” by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasva...

"Worldly people, cherishing the duplicity of their hearts, generally announce one thing publicly while concealing something quite different. And the funny part of it is that they are anxious to show the public that the duplicity of their hearts is liberality or the virtue of reconciling opposites. These double-tongued men brand the creeds of men who are candid and who do not adopt duplicity themselves as sectarian, bigoted and so forth. We should only associate with those candid fellows, not with the others." - by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Adapted from The Gaudiya, Volume 25, Number 2 by the Rays of The Harmonist team https://www.purebhakti.com/resources/harmonist-monthly/37-year-1/1010-our-only-duty-is-to-serve-krsna Rays of The Harmonist On-line, Year 1, Issue 12 by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada , is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License  to ensure that it is always freely available. You...

Indeed, among all spiritual practices, saṅkīrtana is the best and foremost means of attaining the grace of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Other types of sādhana, or devotional practices, are only worthy of being called sādhana if they favourably assist the performance of saṅkīrtana; otherwise they should be known as obstructions to actual sādhana. Whether one is a child or an old or young man, male or female, learned or illiterate, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, pious or sinful – regardless of the condition of life someone may be in – there is no spiritual practice for him other than śrī kṛṣṇa-nāma-kīrtana. Kirtana is called saṅkīrtana when many people perform it together. But will it be worthy of the name saṅkīrtana if some worthless people, without any ardour for Śrī Bhagavān's service, come together to shout in unison? It will be true hari-saṅkīrtana when we join the saṅkīrtana of true devotees who are serving Śrī Bhagavān according to the principles established in the Vedas and ...

"What you expected, what you got from your Prabhupada, that is something more than wonderful. It is generally, cant be expected in a human form. So I told that saktyavesa. Some divine power came to work in his favour. It is not humanly possible. But still such quality must be found to, at least to a certain extend in a genuine way, that we can expect. Only in one generation that will be mutilated, that should not be possible.   A parallel institution will grow out. If it is not an institution, but there will be so many scattered guru’s and acharyas. It cannot but be. If they are not accommodating then many gurus will.. in a disorganized way. And any other centre is established to harmonize them, without seeking any power but only for propagation. For the good, meaning to propagate the cause of Swami Maharaj. It cannot but be. So many sincere souls that are ousted, they will try in their mild way, how to go on. In this way, many will go. And ultimately that may be the Divine Wi...

“I need not go through the Vedas, I need not read the dharmaśāstra and Mahābhārata for the amelioration of my troubles. Let persons who are too much afraid of worldly troubles read the Vedas and so on. I am not at all afraid of such things. I do not think that the pessimistic trend of my mind should engage me in reading these books. These are lifeless transactions. I want a living thing. I see that Nanda, as father, has got the privilege of nurturing and fostering child Kṛṣṇa from the very beginning. So it is better for me that I should have Nanda as my preceptor instead of these śāstras.”* The child Kṛṣṇa is found to be crawling in the corridor of Nanda’s house. I am also going to worship Him as His parent servitor. Therefore, the parent servitor should be my preceptor. I should not ask Him to be my friend, but instead, I should befriend Him. That is, I should render service to Him as a friend. I should also like to be known as His confidential friend, not a reverential friend. Flatte...

When the Transcendental Sound makes His appearance, we must not adopt a challenging mood and suppose that it also has a material face. The two types of sound – the transcendent and the mundane – are quite distinct from one another. Mundane sound is meant for entities that have phenomenal figure, odour, taste, and so on. Heat, for example, can be perceived by the sound it circumstantially produces. Yet although such sound expresses a feature of what seems to be, it need not actually coincide with the truly abiding substratum. So there is a distinct difference between the two types sound. All Transcendental Sounds move to reveal one object: the Absolute. Wherever any sound deviates from the Absolute, that which it indicates is liable to vanish. Absolute sound has His peculiar phase and should be welcomed at all costs. We are vitally interested in that thing. In the very definition of Transcendental Sound it is unveiled to us that the Transcendental Sound is identical with its object, its...

...First of all, we should examine our self. If we think we are the mind and the external body, the Transcendental Sound will have no effect on us, for that is the domain of mundane sound. The Transcendental Sound Himself will tell us that the external body is but a garment of the inner, astral body, and those bodies are the two coverings of the soul who, in his dormant condition, incorporates them, despite their inability to unveil his own real nature. The external body is perishable; the internal body is transformable. Our mind in the morning is different from our mind at noon and so on. It is changed by the passing of time. We cannot rely upon the mind or our mental speculation. All of us are busy making our mind control everything related to us. But this behaviour does not acknowledge the conception of the Absolute. Mental conceptions are always mutable. The property must not be confounded with the proprietor, and our external body is but our property. It is perishable and there i...

The idea of an organised church in an intelligible form, indeed, marks the close of the living spiritual movement. The great ecclesiastical establishments are the dikes and the dams to retain the current that cannot be held by any such contrivances. They, indeed, indicate a desire on the part of the masses to exploit a spiritual movement for their own purpose. They also unmistakably indicate the end of the absolute and unconventional guidance of the bona-fide spiritual teacher. The people of this world understand preventive systems, they have no idea at all of the unprevented positive eternal life. Neither can there be any earthy contrivance for the permanent preservation of the life eternal on this mundane plane on the popular scale. Those are, therefore, greatly mistaken who are disposed to look forward to the amelioration of the worldly state in any worldly sense from the worldly success of any really spiritual movement. It is these worldly expectants who become the patrons of the ...