Wisdom and Guidance
Suffering
Anyone who can see that this unfavorable condition of life is also another favor of Kṛṣṇa… Tat te ‘nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇaḥ (SB 10.14.8). ‘Even there is some suffering, it is not given by Kṛṣṇa. I am suffering on account of my past misdeeds, and Kṛṣṇa is so kind that I would have suffered many hundred thousand times more than the present suffering, but Kṛṣṇa is adjusting the whole thing by little suffering.’ This is the vision of devotee.”
(760208 – Lecture SB 07.09.01 – Mayapur)
Devotees should always be happy with all the dealings of their master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A devotee may be put into difficulty or opulence, but he should accept both as gifts of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and jubilantly engage in the service of the Lord in all circumstances.
(CC Adi 12.37 purport)
The Lord says “I put My devotee into difficulty, and thus the devotee becomes more purified in exchanging transcendental bhāva with Me.” Placing the devotee into material troubles necessitates delivering him from the illusory material relations. The material relations are based on reciprocation of material enjoyment, which depends mainly on material resources. Therefore, when material resources are withdrawn by the Lord, the devotee is cent percent attracted toward the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Thus the Lord snatches the fallen soul from the mire of material existence. Tribulations offered by the Lord to His devotee are different from the tribulations resulting from vicious action.
(SB 1.9.19)
Charity
When they give in charity, they give something broken. (laughter) Kana goruke . . . kana goru bamanke dan. (Blind cow . . . offering a blind cow to a dwarf.) In India there is a . . . charity is given to the brāhmaṇas. So a man saw that his cow is blind: “All right, give it in charity.” (laughter) So . . . (chuckles) charity means . . . (chuckles) Charity should be the first-class thing if it is really charity. But nowadays people give in charity just for name, “Oh, I am giving something.”
This charity . . . there are . . . you have read Bhagavad-gītā. There are three kinds of charity: sattvic, rajasic, tamasic. Sattvic, charity in goodness, is with due consideration that “Here should be given the charity.” Just like the Vedic injunction is to give charity to the Brahmins. Why? That is the worthy place, to give charity in the hands of Brahmins and Vaiṣṇava. Real Brahmin. I don’t say caste Brahmin. Because they will employ whatever you give them in the service of the Lord. Therefore charity, that is sattvic charity. There is no question of profit or name. But “Charity should be given here. Here is something, God’s service.” That is sattvic.
And rajasic means for the sake of name: “Oh, people will say I am so charitable.” That is rajasic. And tamasic, one who does not know where the money is going . . . just like in the Bowery Street some, that drunkard comes and polishes the motorcar, and somebody gives five dollars, and he immediately goes to drink. That means this charity means give him impetus for drinking. So if charity creates such drunkard, oh, that is very dangerous. He has to suffer, the man who is giving in charity.
Therefore in charity also there must be consideration. It must be sattvic. So anyway, it has come here. So it is sattvic. Whatever his mind may be, anyway, he has given to this temple; so it is sattvic.
(680202 – Lecture CC Madhya 06.254 – Los Angeles)
Humility
In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, the word dainya (humility) is explained as follows: “When unhappiness, fearfulness and the sense of having offended combine, one feels condemned. This sense of condemnation is described as dīnatā, humility. When one is subjected to such humility, he feels physically inactive, he apologizes, and his consciousness is disturbed. His mind is also restless, and many other symptoms are visible.”
(CC Madhya 2.35 purport)
Greatest Gift
Our movement is the greatest gift to the human race. They may not immediately appreciate it, but time will come and history will give evidence that this movement saved the human society from being fallen into barbarianism
(691113 – Letter to Jayasri written from London)
Foundation of our movement
I am glad to note the publishing work you are doing, and I look forward to receiving the books printed. I am pleased that you are personally seeing to the translation how it is done. Actually these books are the foundation stone of our movement. Whatever we are is resting on these books, so far reading them and distributing them. This should be our only motto.
(741031 – Letter to Hrdayananda written from Bombay)
They are now feeling the weight of this movement. Formerly they thought these people come and go, but now they see we are staying. Now we have set fire. It will go on, it cannot be stopped. You can bring big, big fire brigades but the fire will act. The brainwash books are already there. Even if they stop externally, internally it will go on. Our first class campaign is book distribution. Go house to house.
(761030 – Letter to Tamala Krishna written from Vrndavana)
Service
So some way or other, if you try to serve Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is so kind. Even if you have gone with a bad purpose, Kṛṣṇa will accept your service. Kṛṣṇa is so kind. So why should we serve so many others? And if you serve Kṛṣṇa, then others’ service will be automatically done. The society’s service, the family’s service, the country’s service, social service, political service, any service—that will be complete. Why? Because Kṛṣṇa is the root. Kṛṣṇa is the root. If you pour water on the root of the tree, the water will approach everywhere in the tree. That is injunction of the śāstra.
(740327 – Lecture BG 04.07 – Bombay)
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to engage a person in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Just like the temple is Kṛṣṇa’s. You wipe out the floors, you decorate it, collect flowers, engage your eyes to hear about Kṛṣṇa, engage your tongue for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. So engage your eyes to see the Deity, engage your legs to go to the temple. In this way, if you engage your senses, present senses for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then it becomes gradually purified and you . . . Kṛṣṇa becomes revealed. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva.
(680611 – Lecture – Montreal)
Following in the footsteps of Nārada Muni, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is rendering service to humanity by giving everyone a chance to come in contact with Kṛṣṇa. If one is fortunate, he becomes intimately related with this movement. Then, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, one’s life becomes successful. Everyone has dormant kṛṣṇa-bhakti—love for Kṛṣṇa—and in the association of good devotees, that love is revealed.
(CC Madhya 19.151)
Serve Krsna to the best of your capacity and when you are 24 hours engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord that is the highest stage of transcendental bliss or Krsna Consciousness.
(700619 – Letter to Sandini written from Los Angeles)