Radhanath Swami expressing words of gratitude:
I am very grateful to have this wonderful opportunity to be with all you again, in Shri shri Radhagopinath temple. This is the longest duration of time I’ve been away from temple, since the day it began in 1986. So grateful to be with you again, thank you.
Trying to see Krsna wherever we are
A few days ago somebody asked me, that we read in this book Journey Home that you are sitting on a rock in the middle of the Ganges for one month just drinking water, eating a carrot & recently we saw you on main network television show; what is it like going from rock to television? What was it like once you were sitting on rock in the middle of Ganges fasting & now you sitting on major network of American television? So I thought about it for about two seconds & then revealed my realisations, that in reality all it is; is just sitting on two different rocks in two different locations of the river of life. And then I meditated on Srila Prabhupada; at one time he was sitting in his room in Shri RadhaDamoder temple in, in the seva kunja where Krsna performed his divine Rasa Lila. Immersed in his bhajans, Translating Srimad Bhagvatam, writing purports right a few feet away from Samadhi of Srila Rup Go swami & a little later he was on the Ship Jaladuta in the middle of the ocean & he was travelling around the world; sometime speaking to heads of state, audiences of tens and thousands. But Srila Prabhupada, whatever the situation he was simply serving his gurudev, he was simply trying to please Krsna through his pure loving service. And there is a story in New York City; one devotee worked really hard to have biggest programme in history of Srila Prabhupada’s mission at that time. Instead of little tiny store front they actually rented out a size of a hall & advertised & only a few people came. Beyond the few devotees that were there, the audience only filled one row; out of many many sits. And Srila Prabhupada spoke with the same enthusiasm, with the same empowerment as he would if were ten & thousands of people there. Devotees afterwards apologized, that it was such a failure; supposed to be such a big programme & no one came. And Srila Prabhupada said, oh! No one? You did not see? Narada Muni was there & started listing all the others great saints & devas that were there. Nobody saw. Now whether Srila Prabhupada was actually seeing them physically with his eyes or whether he was relaying to us, that we are always being observed by Krsna, by our gurus, by our whole parampara in whatever we do; whether we are sitting on a rock or whether we are preaching to millions of people.
Radhanath Swami on Sincere service attracts Krsna’s heart
saàsiddhir hari-toñaëam
Krsna is pleased by the sincerity of our service attitude. Not by the physical situation. And whatever there service attitude is; Srila Prabhupada explained; that place is transformed by a devotee desire into Shri Vrindavan Dhaam. Vrindavan is the holiest place in whole Brahma’s creation, its location where lord Krsna, Shri Radha rani are performing their nityä Lila; their eternal past times, is there just about ninety miles south east of New Delhi. It is not this material, it is the spiritual world. The Yamuna, the Govardhana, the gopas, the gopis. It is said that Krsna never takes his step out of Vrindavan. Whether we can see that Vrindavan is dependent on our sincere service attitude.
Premäïjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
When one’s eyes are anointed with the salve of prema, spiritual love then we could see Vrindavan. Otherwise we see the outer appearance. We see all the sewage & all the garbage that is thrown around Vrindavan today; that’s not Vrindavan. That’s the stuff on the outer surface. Vrindavan is the ever pure transcendental spiritual world that is manifested within this world. But where ever devotees are sincerely serving with unselfish love, without egoism that place is Vrindavan. A Krsna manifest within the consciousness of that devotee is spiritual world.
By pure Bhakti, we can turn our house into Dhaam
Srila Prabhupada in one beautiful purport speaking on a subject, he gives the example of Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur. We know he was a great acharya, who was a grahasta. His beloved wife Bhagawati, a paramahamsa lady. The two of them had ten children’s & he worked a government job. We have seen photos of him in some of his occupational wardrobes, which are quite amazing. Sometime we see him just wearing a simple dhoti, tilak holding his japa beads & other time we see him dressed as a royal judge or magistrate in the British court. Bhaktivinod in his writing, he tell us when he comes to his home & sees his family together serving Shri Shri Radha & Krsna; he sees, he not just seeing or believing, he sees his house transformed into Goloka Vrindavan. It factually is Goloka Vrindavan. That is the beauty of Bhakti, there is no material considerations that can impede us from the complete union with the lord through devotion. All it is required, is our sincerity.
Krsna is pleased by our sincere desire to please our guru maharaj
At the time of Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu there was a tremendous emphasis on ritual, on caste, on perfect execution of different rights, scholarships. And the lord he excelled better than anybody in his manifestation of doing all those things. He was a Brahman, he was a sanyaasi, and he was the most learned scholar. As far as his pronunciation of Sanskrit & mantras; he is Nimäi Paëòita. He is a scholar among scholars. What it would takes twelve years for a top level Sanskrit teacher to teach a student; lord Caitanya could accomplish the same thing in a couple of weeks. But yet lord explains, it is not dependent on this material qualifications or disqualifications. Our spiritual advancement is simply dependent on pleasing Krsna. And Krsna is pleased by the sincerity of our hearts. In a few days some of us will be going to South India for the yatra. Please raise your hands & say hari bol if you are coming for yatra. There in Shri Rangam is the famous story of that Brahman, who is practically illiterate. He would sit in the court yard, where all the great Paëòita scholars would assemble everyday to recite scriptures & discuss. And he would sit alone to recite Bhagavad Gita every day. But because his recitation was so inadequate as far as proper pronunciation or even proper understanding; nobody took him so seriously. Sometime he was ridiculed; sometime he was looked down upon. So why would he always come there? Why didn’t he just stay home & do it? Where the whole world didn’t know, wouldn’t understand how illiterate he really was. But he would come there every day & recite all the seven hundred verses of Bhagavad Gita. All the greatest scholars on earth with their reciting Vedas; lord Caitanya came to that place….
vedaiç ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedänta-kåd veda-vid eva cäham
Krsna tell us in Gita, that Krsna is the knower of Vedas; he is the compiler of Vedanta, by all the Vedas Krsna is to be known. That is the goal to know Krsna.
räga-dveña-vimuktais tu
viñayän indriyaiç caran
ätma-vaçyair vidheyätmä
prasädam adhigacchati
By following the rules, the regulations, by following the principles the Vedas give us; the whole purpose is to please Krsna & when we please Krsna we receive his mercy, his ‘kripa’. And that mercy is the only thing that can lift us beyond the suffering of birth & death, that mercy alone can give us the realisation of who really are & how to love God.
daivé hy eñä guëa-mayé
mama mäyä duratyayä
mäm eva ye prapadyante
mäyäm etäà taranti te
Material existence is very very difficult to overcome, these three modes of the material nature, satva guna, raja guna, tamo guna hoe they are interacting with each other, how they are activated by time & how they affect the mind & the senses, & how they incriminate the ego & so many selfish activities… insurmountable. For a small child to climb the top of Mount Everest & then climb down the other side & then go through the entire Himalayan range & then come down, walk to the Bay of Bengal, & then swim across to Los Angeles California through all the connecting oceans. That’s millions of time easier than trying to disentangle oneself from the ropes of the three modes of material nature…. Egoism & greed & selfishness, passion. But Krsna says one who takes shelter of me… Taking shelter means to receive mercy… easily cross beyond it.
mayädhyakñeëa prakåtiù
süyate sa-caräcaram
Krsna is the controller of material existence. So Krsna does not consider our material qualifications or disqualifications. He considers our sincerity. Shi Caitanya Mahaprabhu came into that courtyard & all the great scholars who were perfectly reciting in rhymes, in rhythm & pronunciations all of the different Vedas; he did not acknowledge them. He went to that one simple illiterate Brahman who was struggling through the Gita. It probably took him a really long time every day, most of the day to struggle through. Lord Caitanya asked him; what he was doing? He said actually I do not know Sanskrit properly, I don’t how to read or recite’ but my guru dev gave me the instruction that every day I should sit here & recite the whole Gita. So whatever anybody else may think I’m trying to please my guru… Doesn’t matter. Krsna explains in Gita, the Gita he was reading; one should not be attached to fame or infamy, success or failure, victory or defeat, honour or dishonour, pleasure or pain….
mäträ-sparçäs tu kaunteya
çétoñëa-sukha-duùkha-däù
ägamäpäyino ‘nityäs
täàs titikñasva bhärata
That all of these things, happiness and distress, and the other dualities they are coming & going winter and summer seasons. You can’t hold on to anything one should learn to tolerate them without being disturbed. On the path of Bhakti, we don’t tolerate by gritting our teeth & saying it will pass t will pass, I will tolerate. Tolerance means to fix our mind, to fix our words, & our actions on a higher principle…
vishaya vinivartante
niraharasya dehinah
rasa-varjam raso ‘py asya
param drishtva nivartate
That we can rise above all these dualities; when we experience a higher taste. That higher taste is Krsna’s mercy. The love of Krsna & that grace is accessed by our sincere service attitude.
tåëäd api sunécena
taror api sahiñëunä
amäninä mänadena
kértanéyaù sadä hariù
To be humble like a blade of grass, tolerant like a tree, very happy to offer all respect to others & not to expect respect for oneself. This illiterate person obviously had these qualities as he was stumbling in most materially uncoordinated way through the Bhagavad Gita. And when he told Lord Caitanya, I don’t know what I’m doing really; as far as the reading, sometime I understand what I’m reading, sometimes I don’t understand what I’m reading. Sometime I say it right, sometime I say it wrong, I don’t even know the difference, but I’m trying to please my Guru. Lord Caitanya said, what are you thinking of when you are reading the Gita? Which part? He says as I’m reading, I only see one thing. I see this picture in my mind; there is Krsna who is Shamasundar, he has a beautiful dark complexion like a monsoon cloud, the essence of all beauty & he is standing on his chariot as the driver of his devotee Arjuna. The supreme master, the lord of all existence; he is taking the role of his own devotee. When I see this beautiful form of Krsna I’m in ecstasy. He gave that answer, when Lord Caitanya said, when you don’t understand Gita why are you crying?, why are there tears welling & flowing from your eyes? Why are your hairs standing on one end? And why are you trembling. And he gave this answer; I’m just seeing Krsna. Imagine even in his imperfect pronunciation Krsna was fully intimately manifesting in his heart. Caitanya Mahaprabhu embraced that Brahman & said you are the true knower of Bhagavad Gita. His sincerity. And through this story the lord wanted to show us that whoever we are, wherever we are, however we are, if ever we are, whatever your condition is there is no impediment to attaining the perfection of life, if we are humble & sincere. And part of that sincerity is to be genuinely grateful for the opportunity to serve in any situation & just to try to please Srila Prabhupada & great souls.
We need that strong determination to attract Krsna’s mercy
Little Dhruva Maharaj, he was orderly devastated by his step mother; when she insulted him with words that were like flaming arrows that pierced through his soft & tender heart, & he was only five year old. And father his would not acknowledge him. He felt not only humiliated; he was made to feel totally worthless, useless. And when his father didn’t say anything he felt betrayed & abandoned by the one person in his life, that he trusted the most. When you are five boy & you go through that; it’s traumatic. He looked up to his father, his father sheltered him & when he was in the most desperate condition in his whole life his father ignored him. So he ran to his mother. She said, Dhruva there is nothing I can do; your father really does not favour me. But your step said that, the only way you can sit on the thrown of your father is if you worship the supreme lord & by doing so die & take another birth in her womb, then only your father will acknowledge. What she is correct; you should worship the supreme lord. So little Dhruva, left home with such determination to find the supreme lord. He went into jungles. He was sincere. No impediment if you are sincere. How is that a five year old child going to survive in a jungle? It’s not like jungles today. Today every dangerous species is endangered. In those days there was no endangered species. There were millions of tigers, lions, panthers & wild elephants & lots of snake, scorpions, mosquitoes, spiders, poisonous plants… It’s a jungle & a five year old boy all alone, walking around even in the dark of night. But he had one thing; he had genuine sincerity. He wanted to find Krsna, Vishnu. So Krsna sent Narada Muni, his guru; who just happened to appear in that lonely dark jungle where there was not a single human being. Because he was sincere. And Narada Muni first tested him; said Dhruva don’t worry about these things, just go home, play, and go fast. Dhruva said I want Vishnu, I want Shri Krsna. He had a material motivation, but he was turning to Krsna for it. And Narada Muni told him go to Vrindavan; to the forest of Madhuban, to the bank of Yamuna & there chant the holy names of the lord constantly. Worship the beautiful form of the lord, no impediments. Narada Muni wanted him to worship the deity; he didn’t tell Dhruva take the express train to Jaipur & go to the Pandey Murtiwala & place an order for a deity. If you do that its very nice too. But if you want to do deity worship; Narada Muni said, don’t work all you have to do is just the mud on the bank of Yamuna, there is plenty of mud, there unlimited mud. Just make a deity there made out of mud. And this how you can worship him. And if you worship that little mud deity with love & devotion, Krsna will manifest himself accept our offerings. No material impediments. And he did; & ultimately Vishnu appeared to him & offered to him any benediction. You want a kingdom greater than your father, grandfather; I will give you.
A devotee never aspires for material benedictions from lord
Dhruva said I don’t want those things; now that I see you all of my desires are fulfilled, I want nothing else. Dhruva expressed his only desire was to be the servant of the servant of the servant. I came looking for broken glass, but I found a jewel, the most precious jewel of the opportunity to serve the lord with love. There is nothing else that can compare in value to the opportunity to serve the lord with love & that opportunity is there for everyone. If we just sincerely open our heart to receive it. Devotees are not impressed by the poverty or wealth in material sense in any way; what impresses us is devotion. It’s the only wealth for the soul, it’s the only true opulence & even if we in a completely depilated state in our death bed; that supreme wealth is there for us if we just open our heart to receive it. And that wealth is eternal; it is not only determined not by material qualifications or disqualifications, it cannot be hampered or obstructed even by death. When Kuvera asked Dhruva later on I will give you anything you like; Dhruva said I only want to be he servant of the servant of the servant of the lord. And when ultimately after ruling the world for many years, Vishnu sent an aeroplane to take Dhruva back to the spiritual world.
Being grateful
If we are humble; we will be grateful even to our enemies
Now this is Satya yuga thousands of years had passed; since that dramatic experience when he was five year old. But the symptom of a great devotee is their gratitude; they never forget. Never forget anyone who ever helped them. Dhruva was thinking in his mind how, could I go back to spiritual world when my mother is still here. After all she is the one who told me to go to forest to worship Krsna. She helped me in my spiritual life. Now Narada Muni gave him all the detail instructions; Narada Muni’s grace was really the key to his Krsna consciousness. His mother just loved him & wanted to help him & just said your step mother is right, the only hope is to worship the lord, that’s all she said. But it was through that motherly love that he was inspired to go to forest & enabled him to meet his guru. So he was thinking of her with such gratitude & just the thought; Vishnudutas said look up there. And he saw his mother was on an aeroplane going back to the spiritual, world even before him. Such gratitude tens & thousands of years later he remembered that, even in his perfected state. And also it was very interesting when that aeroplane came to bring him to Vaikuntha he didn’t just jump on & said I’m out of here. He went to every one of the sages in the forest & bowed down to them, served them humbly & offered his prayers of gratitude to them. This is interesting because they were not going to godhead; he was. If he had the slightest false ego; he would have been thinking, you guys are still here; I’m going. He could have said, when I’m back in the spiritual world I will pray for you & give blessings so that you can come also. He humbly went each & every one of them & bowed down & offered prayers, offered gratitude; it’s by your mercy that I have this benediction. He was pride less & grateful; especially to his mother who wasn’t even a sage.
Glorification of Mothers
Srila Prabhupada glorifying great mothers of history
And it’s interesting how, in our Vaishnav literature mothers play such a significant role. Our beloved Srila Prabhupada, he gave so many thousands of lectures; among them during his very life, physical life within this world there were two special books compiled from his lectures. Because he would do lecture series in different places. I think you all know those two lecture series that came out in books; one was the, “Prayers of Queen Kunti” & the other was “Teachings of Lord Kapila Dev” & they both all about mothers. Kunti Devi was the mother of Pandavas, who suffered terribly observing the plight of her children for so many years & when everything was restored, & her children were set in a glorious position by Krsna; Kunti Devi offered heartfelt prayers of pure unalloyed devotion to Krsna. Srila Prabhupada did a whole lecture series glorifying the love of this mother for God & for her children in such a spiritual state & had it put into a book. And Kapila Dev It was Devahuti asking him questions, his mother & he is replying to her questions. Devahuti, what kind of mother she was? She was a princess, the daughter of Swayambhuva Manu, so beautiful; when she was playing with her little boy on roof her palace, demigods flying overhead would see her & become so intoxicated by her beauty that they were fall off their aeroplanes onto the ground. Can you imagine if you go to the most beautiful bollywood actresses, do you see any demigod lying on the ground? They don’t even look in their direction. What to speak of the rest of us! Devahuti who had father Swayambhuva Manu decided it was time for her marriage he was considering the most important in this life is beyond this life; the liberation of her soul. Let me marry her to a self realised soul, Kardama Muni. She moved from the palace to the jungle. She faithfully served her husband & she did it with such devotion that Krsna irresistibly wanted to be her child. Such a loving personality, I want to be the child of this person. So Kardama Muni arranged a nice aerial aeroplane for them to have nice environment & Kapila Dev was born; Kardama Muni left home. And it was just Kapila dev & his mother Devahuti. Kapila Dev is a very special incarnation; because as far as the scriptures go he really didn’t do anything. He just talked. There is no record of him doing anything; I’m sure he did but he didn’t have any interest in the authors of Vedas. To examine the different avatars,
pariträëäya sädhünäà
vinäçäya ca duñkåtäm
dharma-saàsthäpanärthäya
sambhavämi yuge yuge
The lord does amazing things. Narsiàha dev who is quite active, Varäha Dev was really active, went to the bottom of ocean, picked up the earth, beat up Hiranyakashipu & Hiranakya, & lord Ram Chandra so many beautiful activities & slaying Ravana & Kumbhakarna. And Parshuram, he was quite active; Matsya avatar, Vämanadev walked around three steps covered the universe when begging charity. But Kapila dev; the only record we have is he just talking to his mother, very very special incarnation. His mother with such a deep heart she knew, Kapila is going to leave soon too & her husband already left. But she wanted to know the truth; she wanted to understand the goal of life. So just as Arjuna was in desperation when he asked Krsna questions & Parikshit Maharaj was in desperation when he asked Sukadev go swami questions. Devahuti very sincerely asking her son questions. And that lecture series of Prabhupada came into a book “The Teachings of Lord Kapila” & Prabhupada was so proud of that book. Again the love of a mother for & son. Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, lord Caitanya we know so many stories, how he took sanyaas & he was heading for Vrindavan, but Nityänanda Prabhu, the first time he heard from lord Caitanya his plan to take sanyaas; he went to a secluded place & cried excessively thinking of the sorrow of mother Sachi, his mother. So as lord Caitanya going to Vrindavan, Nityänanda Prabhu rerouted him to Shantipur, so he can meet Sachi Devi & the devotees. And it was Sachi who said, please go to Puri & stay, & the lord did. And at one time he said, whatever devotion I have it is only due to my mother, Sachi Devi.
Radhanath Swami on Service & loving reciprocation is the best expression of gratitude
So I’m bringing these thoughts off from this particular perspective to illustrate the quality of gratitude. An ungrateful heart cannot carry the seed of Bhakti in such a way that it can grow. A grateful heart is a heart that is fertile in which that seed can grow without impediments & when we are sincere & grateful…. & gratitude is not just saying thank you; real gratitude is something very deep. It means to reciprocate; & if someone saves when you are in trouble real gratitude is not walking by & saying thank you for all you have done, but I’m too busy. Real gratitude means to reciprocate & give them in return everything you have. So gratitude to the spiritual master is not just thank you once a year; gratitude means, you have given me everything & if I’m grateful I want to give you everything, whatever I am. Srila Prabhupada showed his gratitude to Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur; & he did that by giving all of us Krsna consciousness & willing to anything & everything to do that. To be really grateful to someone, we want to actually do something connect them to Krsna, assist them in the service of Krsna. To value the gift we receive from others, on every level; anyone who helps us physically, emotionally a Vaishnav is grateful & especially to those who help us spiritually, the deepest gratitude. Lord Caitanya emphases on being humble like blade of grass, tolerant like a tree, offering all respect to others & not expecting for oneself than we can chant the name constantly. You know we actually become durable if we were grateful. Grateful heart can be extremely forgiving, because God has forgive me & vaishnavas have forgiven me; so far I’m really grateful for that; I can forgive anyone for anything.
Sometimes God teaches us how to be grateful
You have to be humble to be grateful. Grateful means I don’t deserve it; but it’s common, I’m really imbedded and to be grateful makes you humble. An ungrateful cannot be humble & an egoistic heart cannot be really grateful. So when you read the prayers of Srila Prabhupada on Jaladuta, when you read the prayers of Prahlad or Dhruva or Kunti or Narottam Das Thakur or Bhakti Vinoda Thakur, any of the great acharyas, the prayers of Gajendra defined these qualities of gratitude, of humility. It enables us to take shelter from our heart. Gajendra was in a very difficult situation, there was nothing but material impediments; he was caught in water in jaws of crocodile, there is nothing he can do. Serious impediment; he didn’t have a japa mala; he didn’t have sages or Rishis around him to speak the Bhagavad or Gita to him. He was just all alone, with some family members standing around, crying on the verge of death. But he became grateful. When I was failed, grateful for the opportunity to surrender to Krsna. He began to offer beautiful prayers; prayers of gratitude, prayers of devotion & Vishnu came. He wanted to offer something to lord Vishnu. But what’s he going offer? He is on the verge of death being eaten by a crocodile. But he just saw one lotus flower & plucked with his trunk & offered it to the lord. That was the perfection of his life; he went to godhead that day.
If a devotee has the spirit of service, then he can survive any situation
So whether we are sitting on a rock in the Ganges, whether we are on television show, whether we are home taking care of our babies & there are so many babies these days it’s unbelievable. Almost every other day I get some messages of baby being born in congregation of Radhagopinath temple. Whatever expansion that we are to… our reach in colleges & everything else I don’t think is as much as our special department of baby production. As years go by we gone have to have major campus for Gopal garden. Whether mothers’ home taking care of babies, changing diapers…. different mothers have different techniques. I have seen in India; I remember in Himalayas taking bus to the Gangotri & the mother, just very lovingly take their little baby in both hands & stick them off the window of a moving bus. And the baby was trained; as soon as she put the baby out the window, the baby started passing urine & stool. Now you are laughing; but I was in the next seat behind & the wind was blowing in my direction. So I saw little speckles of… & salty moistures of…. & the mother saw, the stool & urine coming on me, & she just turned around & smiled. She smiled in such a way that you have been blessed. So everything in this world can be interpreted in different ways. I could have gone really mad & think I’m contaminated there is no shower there, I didn’t have a change of clothes. So why not; you can be happy or distressed; she looked at me like I was blessed, so I thought Himalayan matajis. I’m blessed; I’m really blessed, so I was very happy; of course as soon we got to Gangotri I bathed in the Ganges, but until then I was very happy; I was blessed by a Himalayan baby. So whether we are in office dealing with the economic crises of the world, whether we are sitting on a crowded Bombay train or whether we are trying to give a class in a temple where the sound is making all noise, sounds, whether living in an ashram overcrowded, whether one in perfect health doing all sorts of elaborate yoga asana, or whether we are in a ICU of a hospital. Whatever situation we are in; Prabhupada & Krsna has given us the key; where there is no impediment all Krsna wants to see is our sincere desire to please guru, to please the vaishnavas, & to please Radhagopinath; & to try to chant the holy names in that spirit. And when we create a community where there is such gratitude…. & such gratitude expressed through our sincere eagerness to serve; what gives substance to our service is very much our eagerness, we want serve, and we want to please people, which pleases Krsna. And when we please Krsna by pleasing Vaishnavas, by pleasing the condition soul by giving them the beauty of Bhakti.
Radhanath Swami on Eagerness to serve with love pleases Krsna
If you ask for water when you come to someone’s house & they say, ‘you know I have so much to do, & now you are asking me for water, here is water. If you want some more, get it yourself’. If someone gives you water like that, does it make you happy? So if we serve Krsna as if it is a job that we don’t like to do; does it make Krsna happy? Krsna is a person. But if you go to someone’s house; would you like water, we love to give you water, we will give you pomegranates, we will give you milk shake, we will give you whatever you like, please tell I want to give you something. “Give me water”. Ok, here is water, here is water, if you want more, and I will give you more; even if you don’t want more I will give you more. That makes you happy; doesn’t it? Because there is love in their eagerness to serve. So a grateful heart is one that wants to serve with eagerness, with care, with compassion & this is the most important principle of a spiritual community is the grateful, eager desire to serve each other knowing that Krsna accepts our service, through how we serve each other. Kanishta-adhikari is one who serves the deity very carefully, but doesn’t understand that Krsna wants us to serve each other. A higher level is to serve the deity carefully, but to know the greatest service that I can do for them
mad-bhakta-püjäbhyadhikä
Is to serve & to please the devotees. To inspire one another with faith, with hope. To inspire one another with an eagerness to hear Krsna’s past times, Krsna’s teachings & to come together to chant Krsna’s holy name,
“Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare”
Offering of prayers to Yamuna Mataji
And on subject of mothers, one of the foremost mother of our whole society, Yamuna Devi through her singing, selfless devotion to Srila Prabhupada very much nourished every single devotee within our society & this time she is in very ill health at Bhakti Vedanta hospital, so I request you yo kindly all leave her alone because she needs privacy. But at this particular time & throughout the days please with your very sincere hearts; let us all offer our gratitude to her & pray to Shri Shri Radhagopinath & to Srila Prabhupada to shower infinite blessings upon her & if it is their desire, we pray to restore her health once again. Let us take a moment to offer that.
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