Niranjana Swami's Quote Of The Day

Topic

August 27

You have a future also and that future is as a soul. You have to think of the future, not just how much you can enjoy now. Those who understand the laws of nature and the purpose behind this world are intelligent - they think of the future. If you try to forget Krsna and simply become happy separate from Him, you should think of the future that will come - then you’ll want to call out and pray. That is the word of encouragement. Think now before it’s too late and before you have to ask yourself: “Why didn’t I do it?”

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 26

We need to take shelter to get a protection of someone who helps us to eradicate these motives, so that we can chant Hare Krsna in the proper state of mind thinking ourselves helpless and dependent, like a child crying for his mother. Prabhupada says that’s how we should chant, like a child. A child doesn’t know anyone except his mother. He gets nourishment from of his mother’s breast and thinks: “Now I have a shelter.” This is the state of mind that enables us to feel some connection with Krsna. By cultivating this state of mind while chanting Hare Krsna we may progress along the path of devotional service towards perfection, not towards an unfulfilled destiny. A devotee always feels hopeful to attain that perfection. Therefore, he goes on chanting and endeavoring with confidence.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 25

Does Krishna want the leaf, the fruit, the flower or the water? They are all His anyway. We may offer Him a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water but what makes Him inclined to accept it? It’s not because it’s a leaf. Imagine that we go out, pull off a leaf from the tree, throw it on the altar and say: “OK, Krsna, You asked for a leaf, there it is. Now, where is my reward?” Unfortunately, sometimes people do like that - they come in, take darsan of the Deity, drop a little donation in the box and go home waiting to see how it will be turned into a palace. But that’s not service, it’s mixed service. Some mixed motives are there. We should always be hankering for an opportunity to serve.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 24

Sometimes we say: “I want this so that I can use it for You. I can’t serve You unless I have this.” Which are we more interested in? Are we more interested in serving or in getting what we want so that I can use it for Krsna's service sometimes and call it ‘mine’? We shouldn’t make Krsna our servant; we pray to Krsna to be His servants. We should be praying for the service and then whatever help we need to do that service, we pray to Krsna: “Please help me so that I can do this service.” By giving us His help He is deciding what we need to do for service. We do not set the condition: “If I have this, I’ll serve.” Service is first and foremost that’s why we must think like that: “Please give me a service. Let that come down. Give me something to do for You. You give it to me. I don’t want to concoct, I don’t want to do something for myself and call it ‘for You’. That’s not a servant.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 23

When we chant Hare Krsna we pray: “Krsna, engage me in Your service.” To have an opportunity to serve for a devotee is the answer to his prayer. When the opportunity comes, we may not be able to recognize how Krsna gives it to us if we are not careful and if we have mixed motives. We may think while praying to Krsna: “Krsna, give me this service that I like.” That’s what Srila Bhaktisiddhanta is saying here. To chant the Lord’s name means to take His help but His help for what? If we consider Him our servant or expect Him to do our work, then there’s no question of living in the conception ‘I’m lower than the straw in the street’. In other words, if we are praying to Krsna ‘please give me this’, we are actually asking Krsna to become our servant.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 22

The desire can never be taken away from the soul, so how can the soul be desireless? We may try to obliterate our desire. That’s what the impersonalists try to do. They see that all their sufferings are connected with some previous desire and think: “I had so many desires which ultimately led to so much pain that it’s better for me not to exist - then I can be happy or at least I won’t be suffering." Thinking that happiness does not exist they define their pleasure as the absence of suffering. They say: “All my attempts for pleasure resulted in sufferings which were caused by my unfulfilled desires. Let me not exist. At least I won’t have to suffer.” When a devotee hears that, it’s very painful for him. A devotee doesn’t like such a concept - not to exist. First of all, he knows that’s not possible and he thinks: “If I don’t exist, how shall I serve Krsna, which is my only happiness?” Therefore, to hear such a philosophy is painful for a devotee.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 21

Perfection is not an inert state of being. It’s not that upon once having achieved it, there is something else that has to come next. That’s the nature of other types of perfection, or so-called perfection. Anyone who is looking for other types of perfections should know that when they are obtained, there’s still something else to be had. Even liberation is described to be incomplete perfection. Why is liberation incomplete perfection? Because even if one becomes liberated from this world after performing very severe austerities and penances, he will fall from this position unless he’s taken shelter of Krsna’s lotus feet and has fully engaged himself in favorable devotional service to Krsna.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 20

A devotee is someone who simply wants to satisfy the Lord’s desire and he is only interested in the opportunity to serve Him.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 19

Anyone who is hankering to establish a connection with the Supreme Lord can make a connection with Him by chanting His holy name.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

August 18

Krsna explained to Lord Brahma: "Anything you see if it has no connection with Me, you should know it’s my illusory energy." Unfortunately, the illusory energy is not as favorable for the healthy, spiritual well-being of a living being as Krsna’s spiritual energy. His spiritual energy is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge. Progress in life means to make progress towards the goal of coming under the shelter of that spiritual energy. That’s the definition of real progress. Any other progress which has no connection with Krsna will ultimately end in destruction. But any progress made in spiritual life is never lost.

May 15, 2011, Kishinev

Pages