Why you must hear from a pure devotee

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Srila Prabhupada- For a conditioned soul, therefore, it is very important to hear from the mouth of a pure devotee, who is fully surrendered to the lotus feet of the Lord without any material desire, speculative knowledge or contamination of the modes of material nature. Every one of us is kuyogī because we have engaged in the service of this material world, forgetting our eternal relationship with the Lord as His eternal loving servants. It is our duty to rise from the kuyoga platform to become suyogīs, perfect mystics.

(SB 4.20.25p)

You will be judged – unless you’re Krishna Conscious

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Srila Prabhupada- “You will be judged after your death, every one of us. Of course, if he takes Kṛṣṇa consciousness seriously, then the path is automatic. Automatically you go back to home, back to Godhead. There is no question of judgment. Judgment is for the criminals, the rascals who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious. But if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, even if you cannot finish the job in this life, even if you fall, still, you will be given another chance of human body, to begin where you ended, to begin from the point where you fell down.”

(Lecture — January 5, 1974, Los Angeles)

Mood of a devotee

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Srila Prabhupada- Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu also said:

na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ
kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye
mama janmani janmanīśvare
bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukyī tvayi

“O Lord of the universe, I do not desire material wealth, materialistic followers, a beautiful wife or fruitive activities described in flowery language. All I want, life after life, is unmotivated devotional service to You.” (Śikṣāṣṭaka 4)

By saying “life after life” (janmani janmani), the Lord referred not to an ordinary birth but a birth in which to remember the lotus feet of the Lord. Such a body is desirable. A devotee does not think like yogīs and jñānīs, who want to refuse a material body and become one with the impersonal Brahman effulgence. A devotee does not like this idea. On the contrary, he will accept any body, material or spiritual, for he wants to serve the Lord. This is real liberation.

(SB 9.13.9p)

Friendship with devotees

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Srila Prabhupada- He ( a devotee) should also make friendship with persons who are on an equal level with himself or who have the same understanding that he does. For a devotee, there is no point in making friendships with ordinary persons; he should make friendship with other devotees so that by discussing among themselves, they may elevate one another on the path of spiritual understanding. This is called iṣṭa-goṣṭhī.

(SB 3.29.17p)

The Only Secret of Success in Seeing the Supreme Lord

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Srila Prabhupada- If a disciple is very serious to execute the mission of the spiritual master, he immediately associates with the Supreme Personality of Godhead by vāṇī or vapuḥ . This is the only secret of success in seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Instead of being eager to see the Lord in some bush of Vṛndāvana while at the same time engaging in sense gratification, if one instead sticks to the principle of following the words of the spiritual master, he will see the Supreme Lord without difficulty.

(SB 4.8.51p)

Spiritual poverty : The only crisis that matters

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Srila Prabhupada- A devotee should also be compassionate to the poor. This does not refer to those who are poverty-stricken materially. According to devotional vision, a man is poor if he is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A man may be very rich materially, but if he is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is considered poor. On the other hand, many ācāryas, such as Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī, used to live beneath trees every night. Superficially it appeared that they were poverty-stricken, but from their writings we can understand that in spiritual life they were the richest personalities.

(SB 3.29.17p)

Bodhayantaḥ Parasparam: The Friendship of Devotees

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Srila Prabhupada- In Bhagavad-gītā there is reference to bodhayantaḥ parasparam , “discussing among themselves.” Generally pure devotees utilize their valuable time in chanting and discussing various activities of Lord Kṛṣṇa or Lord Caitanya amongst themselves. There are innumerable books, such as the purāṇas, Mahābhārata, Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā and Upaniṣads, which contain countless subjects for discussion among two devotees or more. Friendship should be cemented between persons with mutual interests and understanding. Such persons are said to be sva jāti, “of the same caste.”

(SB 3.29.17p )

Only in the association of devotees

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Unless one is associated with devotees, his devotional service does not mature ; it does not become distinct from material activities. The Lord says, satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ (SB 3.25.25). Only in the association of pure devotees can the words of Lord Kṛṣṇa be fully potent and relishable to the heart and ear .

(SB 4.9.11p)

Respecting Krishna’s hidden abode

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Jīva Gosvāmī, commenting on this verse, says that Kṛṣṇa, in His plenary expansion as Paramātmā, is situated in the moving and the nonmoving entities as the Supersoul, so any neophyte devotee who simply gives his attention to the arca-mūrti, the form of the Supreme Lord in the temple, and does not respect other living entities is uselessly worshiping the form of the Lord in the temple.

There are three kinds of devotees of the Lord, and the neophyte is in the lowest stage. The neophyte devotee gives more attention to the Deity in the temple than to other devotees, so Jīva Gosvāmī warns that this sort of mentality should be corrected.

A devotee should see that Kṛṣṇa is present in everyone’s heart as Paramātmā; therefore every body is the embodiment or the temple of the Supreme Lord, and as such, as one offers respect to the temple of the Lord, he should similarly properly respect each and every body in whom the Paramātmā dwells.

Everyone should therefore be given proper respect and should not be neglected.

(BG 9.11p)

Only one who executes his spiritual life under the direction of the spiritual master can achieve the mercy of Kṛṣṇa

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In spiritual life, one must conduct one’s whole life under the guidance of the guru. Only one who executes his spiritual life under the direction of the spiritual master can achieve the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ. If one desires to advance in spiritual life but he acts whimsically, not following the orders of the spiritual master, he has no shelter. Yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi.

(SB 7.12.11p)