.

Krishna's servant-

You remain the beautiful maid servant of Krishna. That is your business, and you should dress yourself always very nicely so that Krishna by seeing you will be pleased. Don't try to be ugly before Krishna. Krishna does not like ugly gopis. We are transcendental artists, musicians, writers, so everything should be beautiful for Krishna. After all we are members of Krishna's family, just like Krishna had 16,000 wives and each wife has thousands of servants and maid-servants and all of them are very beautiful for serving Krishna and His Queens. So the servants of the gopis and queens cannot be ugly, they are as beautiful as the queens. In the Vaikuntha world there is no need of serving anything because everything is already clean and beautiful. It is so clean that just like a mirror when the maid-servants would sweep the floor they could see the reflections of their bodies. So remain always compact in Vaikuntha yajna, simply by thinking of the Glories of the Lord. Don't try to do anything artificially. That is sahajiya, which means a class of men that take everything very cheap. You want to perform sacrifice so continuously read our Vedic scriptures and perform the Vaikuntha yajna.> Letter to: Himavati -- Los Angeles 15 June, 1972

So whatever I demand from you, it is for Krishna's sake. Personally I am humble servant of Krishna as you are also, but I am deputed to accept your service just to transfer it to Krishna as via media. I shall try to do this service to you and Krishna throughout my life, and I am so proud to have such assistants as you are to help me in my mission to push on the Krishna Consciousness Movement. I do not know why I am attached to your country, but I strongly believe that if the American boys and girls would accept this philosophy, it would render the greatest service to the rest of the world. > Letter to: Dayananda -- Allston, Mass 1 May, 1969

Regarding your first question, what is the difference in full between the Spiritual Master, Krishna, and the devotee? The answer is that Krishna is the source of all energies of the spiritual and material creations, the devotee is the part and parcel servant of Krishna, and the Spiritual Master is the transparent via media for leading the conditioned souls back to home, back to Godhead. All living entities are the servants of Krishna, but the living entities who have fallen into this conditioned life are forgetful of their eternal relationship with the Lord. The role of the bona fide Spiritual Master is to lead the conditioned souls out of forgetfulness and back into pure consciousness of serving the Lord in transcendental loving service. In material consciousness one is identifying himself with his particular body, and he is forgetting that he is spirit soul, servant of Krishna. Then by the association and instructions of the purified servants of Krishna, the living entity gradually comes to remember that I am not part of this miserable material world, but I too am the eternal servant of Krishna, and my only business is to give pleasure to the Lord in pure Krishna Consciousness. In this way, such devotee becomes himself eligible to lead other back to the path of devotional service and thus he too may become a Spiritual Master. This process is called parampara, or the line of disciplic succession.> Letter to: Visala -- West Virginia 16 June, 1969

Prasadam

Because prasada is transcendental. It is not material thing. So one must have faith that it is not material. It cannot be infected by any material things. In this way prasada should be taken. It is called prasada-seva, not "prasada enjoyment." Seva means giving service. Prasada is as good as Krsna; therefore prasada should be respected as good as Krsna. As soon as one gets prasadam, immediately he touches on the head because it is Krsna, absolute. In this way we have to be trained up as it is prescribed in the sastras.
So those who are attached to Krsna consciousness movement and those who are attached to the service, they should take prasadam, first-class prasadam. Everyone likes the taste of the prasadam. I used to go in my household life to take prasadam in the temples and pay them. I used to do that. And I used to go... Especially in Sri Ramapur, there are two temples, one of Jagannatha and one of Radha-Vallabhaji. So it was very nice. On Sunday I used to go to take prasadam. So you should be habituated to prasadam as far as possible unless you are very sick, you cannot take. That is different. Otherwise you should take it. Sevonmukhe hi jihvadau. Then we will remember Krsna, and that will keep us fit and immune from all infection of material miserable condition.> Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.18 -- Denver, July 1, 1975

Take advantage of it. Come daily, see Krsna, think of Krsna, chant Hare Krsna, take Krsna's prasadam, and be happy. This is our movement. We want to see that everyone is happy. That is the Vedic vision. Sarve sukhino bhavantu. This is human life. Human life means paropakara. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission, to do others something auspicious. That is human life. The animal life means do..., "For my good, I will do harm to many others." That is animal life. So this is not life, the human life, that for our sense gratification, we are killing so many animals, we are doing so many mischievous things, we are cheating others. We can do that, but we are becoming more and more implicated. At the time of death the Yamaraja will come and take us to the hellish condition. Therefore foolish people they want to forget that there is next life. No, there is next life. We are discussing every day. Next life is there. We are every moment getting a different body. > Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.19 -- Denver, July 2, 1975

Heart of Gold-

The Lord is situated in everyone's heart. He is the controller of everything, He is the witness of all activities, and He is the original source of all living entities. Indeed, all living entities are parts of Him, for He is the origin of Maha-Visnu, who is the source of the living entities within this material world. The Lord can observe the activities of our senses, which can work and achieve material results because of His mercy. Although He is the original source of everything, He is untouched by any of His by-products. In this way He is like a gold mine, which is the source of gold in ornaments and yet is different from the ornaments themselves.   > SB 8.3 Summary



Overflowing with love

When the tent was filled to overflowing, the Maharaja led the Hare Krsna Band on stage for a three-hour concert of transcendental music. Between songs, he explained the philosophical concepts behind the lyrics -- karma, reincarnation, eternal life. The Maharaja explained, "Music is an expression of love. People try to love one another, but in the end they're frustrated. Everyone's singing, 'Oh, give me a love that lasts forever' -- but in the material world it never does. The ultimate love is the soul's love for Krsna and His love for all souls. The highest form of music expresses love for God. That music is a transmission of Krsna's tangible presence and loving pastimes."  > Beneath the Hare Krsna banner, festival goers find the sweet taste they came looking for, Sweetwater festival, BTG 1982.







Halava-

So yadrccha-labha, one who is advanced in Krsna consciousness, he will be happy simply having a little morsel of Krsna's prasadam. Yadrccha-labha. Actually when we distribute prasada, we distribute little, little halava, everyone is satisfied and everyone is accepting because it is krsna-prasadam. This consciousness.... They come here. There are many rich persons, also poor persons, they come here to take a little morsel of halava. Not that he is hungry, but he is conscious that "If I take little krsna-prasadam, I will be benefited."  > Bhagavad-gita 4.22 -- Bombay, April 11, 1974



Initiation-

Just like one small creeper, first of all to sow the seed and water it, then gradually it spouts and gradually, I mean to say, grows. Similarly, by the mercy of Krsna and His representative, guru, spiritual master, you get the seed of bhakti-lata, devotional service, and if you sow it in the heart, mali haya sei bija kare aropana. Just like if you take a seed, nice seed, and if you sow it, and pour water little, little, then it will grow and it will become a big tree or big creeper and give you the fruits. You'll enjoy it. Similarly, the bhakti-lata-bija is given by the spiritual master in cooperation with Krsna. That is initiation. This initiation arrangement means sowing the seed of devotional service. Now, if you get, if you think that after getting initiation, "I have become perfect. Now again, whatever nonsense I was doing, I shall go on doing it," then it will be useless. It will be useless. Suppose if you get a seed. If you don't take proper care, water it nicely, then it will not grow; it will be stunned there. You have to take, mali haya sei bija kar aropana sravana-kirtana-jale karaye secana [Cc. Madhya 19.152].
So this initiation means by the mercy of Krsna though His agent, the spiritual master, you are getting the seed of bhakti-lata.  Lecture > Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.16.35 -- Hawaii, January 28, 1974


Festival-

Krsna's face is decorated with ornaments, such as earrings resembling sharks. His ears are beautiful, His cheeks brilliant, and His smiling attractive to everyone. Whoever sees Lord Krsna sees a festival. His face and body are fully satisfying for everyone to see, but the devotees are angry at the creator for the disturbance caused by the momentary blinking of their eyes.> SB 9.24.65
The inhabitants of Vrndavana especially, such as the cowherd boys, the cows, the calves, the gopis and Krsna's father and mother, were never fully satisfied, although they saw Krsna's beautiful features constantly. Seeing Krsna is described here as nitya-utsava, a daily festival. The inhabitants of Vrndavana saw Krsna almost every moment, but when Krsna left the village for the pasturing grounds, where He tended the cows and calves, the gopis were very much afflicted because they saw Krsna walking on the sand and thought that Krsna's lotus feet, which they dared not place on their breasts because they thought their breasts not soft enough, were being pierced by broken chips of stone. By even thinking of this, the gopis were affected, and they cried at home. These gopis, who were therefore the exalted friends of Krsna, saw Krsna constantly, but because their eyelids disturbed their vision of Krsna, the gopis condemned the creator, Lord Brahma. Therefore the beauty of Krsna, especially the beauty of His face, is described here.> Purport SB 9.24.65


Steel framed-

Certainly that heart is steel-framed which, in spite of one's chanting the holy name of the Lord with concentration, does not change when ecstasy takes place, tears fill the eyes and the hairs stand on end.> SB 2.3.24
And the person who has never experienced the flavor of the tulasi leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing. Certainly that heart is steel-framed which, in spite of one's chanting the holy name of the Lord with concentration, does not change and feel ecstasy, at which time tears fill the eyes and the hairs stand on end."> Madhya 2.31

some devotees prefer the book, 

to get a copy, click email link on photo for information