sudhaya

<font color="blue"> SUTRA 6 </font color> TEXT divi va bhuvi va mamastu vaso narake va narakantaka prakamam avadhirita-saradaravindau caranau te marane 'pi cintayami SYNONYMS divi-in the abode of the demigods; va-or; bhuvi-on the earth, the home of human beings; va-or; mama-my; astu-may be; vasah-residence; narake-in hell; va-or; naraka-antaka-O killer of the demon Naraka; prakamam-however You desire; avadhirita-which have defied; sarada-of the fall season; aravindau-the lotus flowers; caranau-the two feet; te-Your; marane-at the time of death; api-even; cintayami-may I remember. TRANSLATION O Lord, killer of the demon Naraka! Let me reside either in the realm of the demigods, in the world of human beings, or in hell, as You please. I pray only that at the point of death I may remember Your two lotus feet, whose beauty defies that of the lotus growing in the Sarat season. PURPORT As stated before, a pure devotee of the Lord has nothing to do with mundane religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, or salvation, nor is he concerned whether his standard of material existence is the highest or the lowest. To him, heaven and hell are of equal value. He is not afraid of going to hell for the service of the Lord, nor is he glad to live in heaven without the service of the Lord. In any circumstance his consciousness is fixed on the Lord's lotus feet, whose beauty defies the most beautiful lotus flower of the mundane world. The defiance is due to the transcendental position of the Lord's form, name, qualities, pastimes, and so on. The sruti mantras declare that although the Lord has no hands He can accept anything we offer Him with devotion, although He has no feet He can travel anywhere, and although He has no mundane eyes He can see anywhere and everywhere without hindrance. The Brahma-samhita describes each of His senses as omnipotent. The mundane eye can see but not hear, but His eyes can see, hear, eat, generate offspring, and so on. The sruti mantras say that He impregnates material nature with the seeds of living beings simply by casting His glance at her. He does not need any other kind of intercourse with mother nature to beget the living beings in her womb and become their father. Therefore any relationship the Lord has with His many devotees-whether fatherhood, sonhood, or any other-is not at all material. The Lord is pure spirit, and only when the living being is in his pure spiritual state can he have all sorts of relationships with Him. Philosophers with a poor fund of knowledge cannot conceive of these positive spiritual relationships between the Lord and the all-spiritual living beings, and thus they simply think in terms of negating material relationships. In this way such philosophers naturally adopt the concept of impersonalism. By contrast, a pure devotee like King Kulasekhara has complete knowledge of both matter and spirit. He does not say that everything material is false, yet he has nothing to do with anything material, from heaven down to hell. He fully understands the statement in the Bhagavad-gita that from the lowest planets up to Brahmaloka, the highest planet in the universe, there is no spiritual bliss, which the living beings hanker for. Therefore the pure devotee, being in full knowledge of spiritual life, simultaneously rejects material relationships and cultivates his spiritual relationship with the Lord. In other words, the spiritual knowledge a devotee possesses not only allows him to reject material existence, but it also provides him with an understanding of the reality of positive, eternal spiritual existence. This is the understanding King Kulasekhara expresses in this prayer.

<font color="blue">SUTRA 5* </font color> TEXT nastha dharme na vasu-nicaye naiva kamopabhoge yad bhavyam tad bhavatu bhagavan purva-karmanurupam etat prarthyam mama bahu matam janma-janmantare 'pi tvat-padambhoruha-yuga-gata niscala bhaktir astu SYNONYMS na-not; astha-special regard; dharme-for religiosity; na-nor; vasu-of wealth; nicaye-for the accumulation; na eva-nor even; kama-upabhoge-for sense enjoyment; yat-whatever; bhavyam-inevitable; tat-that; bhavatu-let it happen; bhagavan-O Lord; purva-previous; karma-my deeds; anurupam-according to; etat-this; prarthyam-to be requested; mama-by me; bahu matam-most desirable; janma-janma-birth after birth; antare-during; api-even; tvat-Your; pada-amboruha-of lotus feet; yuga-in the pair; gata-resting; niscala-unflinching; bhaktih-devotion; astu-may there be. TRANSLATION O my Lord! I have no attachment for religiosity, or for accumulating wealth, or for enjoying sense gratification. Let these come as they inevitably must, in accordance with my past deeds. But I do pray for this most cherished boon: birth after birth, let me render unflinching devotional service unto Your two lotus feet. PURPORT Human beings advance toward God consciousness when they go beyond the gross materialistic life of eating, sleeping, fearing, and mating and begin to develop moral and ethical principles. These principles develop further into religious consciousness, leading to an imaginary conception of God without any practical realization of the truth. These stages of God consciousness are called religiosity, which promises material prosperity of various degrees. People who develop this conception of religiosity perform sacrifices, give in charity, and undergo different types of austerity and penance, all with a view toward being rewarded with material prosperity. The ultimate goal of such so-called religious people is sense gratification of various kinds. For sense gratification, material prosperity is necessary, and therefore they perform religious rituals with a view toward the resultant material name, fame, and gain. But genuine religion is different. In Sanskrit such genuine religion is called dharma, which means "the essential quality of the living being." The sastras say that this essential quality is to render eternal service, and the proper object of this service is the Supreme Truth, Lord Krsna, the Absolute Personality of Godhead. This eternal, transcendental service of the Lord is misdirected under material conditions and takes the shape of (1) the aforementioned religiosity, (2) economic development, (3) sense gratification, and (4) salvation, or the attempt to negate all material variegatedness out of frustration. Genuine religion, however, does not culminate in either economic development, sense gratification, or salvation. The perfection of religion is to attain complete satisfaction of the spirit soul, and this is accomplished by rendering devotional service to the Lord, who is beyond the perception of the material senses. When the living being directs his eternal service attitude toward the eternal Supreme Being, such service can never be hampered by any sort of material hindrance. Such transcendental service is above even salvation, and therefore it certainly does not aim at any kind of material reward in the shape of name, fame, or gain. One who engages in the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Being automatically attains detachment from material name, fame, and gain, which are aspired for only by those who do not understand that this name, fame, and gain are merely shadows of the real thing. Material name, fame, and gain are only perverted reflections of the substance-the name, fame, and opulences of the Lord. Therefore the pure devotee of Lord Vasudeva, enlightened by the transcendental service attitude, has no attraction for such false things as religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, or salvation, the last snare of Maya. The purpose of performing real religion is to attain attachment for hearing and chanting the messages of the kingdom of God. Materialistic people are attached to ordinary newspapers on account of their lack of spiritual consciousness. Real religion develops this spiritual consciousness and also attachment for the messages of God, without which all labor in the performance of religious rites is only a waste of energy. Therefore one should not practice religion with the aim of improving one's economic welfare, nor should one use one's wealth for sense gratification, nor should the frustration of one's plans for sense gratification lead one to aspire for salvation, or liberation from material conditions. Instead of indulging in sense gratification of different grades with the fruits of one's labor, one should work just to maintain the body and soul together, with the aim of inquiring into the ultimate aims and objects of life. In other words, one should inquire into the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases, namely, the impersonal Brahman, the localized Paramatma, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A person who attains the highest stage of spiritual realization-realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead-automatically prays as King Kulasekhara does here. Only one who renders devotional service to the Lord can attain this stage of indifference to the false and temporary assets of material nature. Such devotional service is not a mental concoction of depraved persons but is an actual process of God realization characterized by full cognizance and detachment and based on the Vedic literature. So-called devotional practices that have no reference to the rules and regulations set down in such books of Vedic literature as the sruti, the smrti, the Puranas, and the Pancaratras are not bona fide. The self-realized souls advise us to reject such pseudodevotional practices, which simply create a disturbance on the path of spiritual realization. Only by sincerely engaging in the service of the Lord according to the injunctions of scripture can one gradually become a qualified devotee of the Lord, and it does not matter whether it takes many repetitions of birth and death, life after life.

<font color="blue"> SUTRA 4* </font color> TEXT naham vande tava caranayor dvandvam advandva-hetoh kumbhipakam gurum api hare narakam napanetum ramya-rama-mrdu-tanu-lata nandane napi rantum bhave bhave hrdaya-bhavane bhavayeyam bhavantam SYNONYMS na-not; aham-I; vande-pray; tava-Your; caranayoh-of the lotus feet; dvandvam-to the pair; advandva-of release from duality; hetoh-for the reason; kumbhipakam-the planet of boiling oil; gurum-most severe; api-either; hare-O Hari; narakam-hell; na-not; apanetum-to avoid; ramya-very beautiful; rama-of the fair sex; mrdu-soft; tanu-lata-of creeperlike bodies; nandane-in the pleasure gardens of heaven; na api-nor; rantum-to enjoy; bhave bhave-in various rebirths; hrdaya-of my heart; bhavane-within the house; bhavayeyam-may I concentrate; bhavantam-on You. TRANSLATION O Lord Hari, it is not to be saved from the dualities of material existence or the grim tribulations of the Kumbhipaka hell that I pray to Your lotus feet. Nor is my purpose to enjoy the soft-skinned beautiful women who reside in the gardens of heaven. I pray to Your lotus feet only so that I may remember You alone in the core of my heart, birth after birth. PURPORT There are two classes of men: the atheists and the theists. The atheists have no faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, while the theists have various degrees of faith in Him. The atheists are faithless on account of their many misdeeds in their present and past lives. They fall into four categories: (1) the gross materialists, (2) the immoral sinners, (3) the number-one fools, and (4) those who are bewildered by maya despite their mundane erudition. No one among these four classes of atheist ever believes in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, what to speak of offering prayers unto His lotus feet. The theists, on the other hand, have faith in the Lord and pray to Him with various motives. One attains such a theistic life not by chance but as a result of performing many pious acts in both the present life and the past life. Such pious men also belong to four categories: (1) the needy, (2) those who have fallen into difficulty, (3) those who are inquisitive about the transcendental science, and (4) the genuine philosophers. The philosophers and those who are inquisitive are better than those in categories (1) and (2). But a pure devotee is far above these four classes of pious men, for he is in the transcendental position. The needy pious man prays to God for a better standard of life, and the pious man who has fallen into material difficulty prays in order to get rid of his trouble. But the inquisitive man and the philosopher do not pray to God for amelioration of mundane problems. They pray for the ability to know Him as He is, and they try to reach Him through science and logic. Such pious men are generally known as theosophists. Needy pious men pray to God to improve their economic condition because all they know is sense gratification, while those in difficulty ask Him to free them from a hellish life of tribulations. Such ignorant people do not know the value of human life. This life is meant to prepare one to return to the absolute world, the kingdom of God. A pure devotee is neither a needy man, a man fallen into difficulty, nor an empiric philosopher who tries to approach the Divinity on the strength his own imperfect knowledge. A pure devotee receives knowledge of the Divinity from the right source-the disciplic succession of realized souls who have followed strictly the disciplinary method of devotional service under the guidance of bona fide spiritual masters. It is not possible to know the transcendental nature of the Divinity by dint of one's imperfect sense perception, but the Divinity reveals Himself to a pure devotee in proportion to the transcendental service rendered unto Him. King Kulasekhara is a pure devotee, and as such he is not eager to improve himself by the standards of the empiric philosophers, distressed men, or fruitive workers of this world. Pious acts may lead a mundane creature toward the path of spiritual realization, but practical activity in the domain of devotional service to the Lord need not wait for the reactions of pious acts. A pure devotee does not think in terms of his personal gain or loss because he is fully surrendered to the Lord. He is concerned only with the service of the Lord and always engages in that service, and for this reason his heart is the Lord's home. The Lord being absolute, there is no difference between Him and His service. A pure devotee's heart is always filled with ideas about executing the Lord's service, which is bestowed upon the pure devotee through the transparent medium of the spiritual master. The spiritual master in the authoritative line of disciplic succession is the "son of God," or in other words the Lord's bona fide representative. The proof that he is bona fide is his invincible faith in God, which protects him from the calamity of impersonalism. An impersonalist cannot be a bona fide spiritual master, for such a spiritual master's only purpose in life must be to render service to the Lord. He preaches the message of Godhead as the Lord's appointed agent and has nothing to do with sense gratification or the mundane wrangling of the impersonalists. No one can render devotional service to an impersonal entity because such service implies a reciprocal personal relationship between the servant and the master. In the impersonal school the so-called devotee is supposed to merge with the Lord and lose his separate existence. Pure devotees like King Kulasekhara are particularly careful to avoid a process that will end in their becoming one with the existence of the Lord, a state known as advandva, nonduality. This is simply spiritual suicide. Out of the five kinds of salvation, advandva is the most abominable for a devotee. A pure devotee denounces such oneness with the Lord as worse than going to hell. As His separated expansions, the living beings are part and parcel of the Lord. The Lord expands Himself into plenary parts and separated parts to enjoy transcendental pastimes, and if a living being refuses to engage in these transcendental blissful pastimes, he is at liberty to merge into the Absolute. This is something like a son's committing suicide instead of living with his father according to the rules the father sets down. By committing suicide, the son thus sacrifices the happiness he could have enjoyed by engaging in a filial loving relationship with his father and enjoying his father's estate. A pure devotee persistently avoids such a criminal policy, and King Kulasekhara is guiding us to avoid this pitfall. The king also says that the reason he is praying to the Lord is not to be saved from the Kumbhipaka hell. Laborers in gigantic iron and steel mills suffer tribulations similar to those in the Kumbhipaka hell. Kumbhi means "pot," and paka means "boiling." So if a person were put into a pot of oil and the pot were set to boiling, he would have some idea of the suffering in Kumbhipaka hell. There are innumerable hellish engagements in the modern so-called civilization, and by the grace of the Lord's illusory energy people think these hellish engagements are a great fortune. Modern industrial factories fully equipped with up-to-date machines are so many Kumbhipaka hells, and the organizers of these enterprises regard them as indispensable for the advancement of economic welfare. The mass of laborers exploited by the organizers directly experience the "welfare" conditions in these factories, but what the organizers do not know is that by the law of karma they will in due time become laborers in similar Kumbhipaka hells. Intelligent persons certainly want to be saved from such Kumbhipaka hells, and they pray to God for this benediction. But a pure devotee does not pray in this way. A pure devotee of Narayana looks equally upon the happiness enjoyed in heaven, the transcendental bliss of becoming one with the Lord, and the tribulations experienced in the Kumbhipaka hell. He is not concerned with any of them because he is always engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. By the grace of the Lord, even in the Kumbhipaka hell a pure devotee can adjust the situation and turn it into VaikunTha. The Bhagavad-gita and all other revealed scriptures say that the Lord accompanies every living being in His localized aspect of Paramatma, the Supersoul. Therefore even a living being destined to reside in the Kumbhipaka hell is accompanied by his eternal companion, the Lord. But by His inconceivable power the Lord remains aloof from these hellish circumstances, just as the sky remains separate from the air although seemingly mixed with it. Similarly, the pure devotee of the Lord does not live anywhere in this material world, although He appears to live among mundane creatures. Actually, the devotee lives in VaikunTha. In this way the Supreme Lord bestows upon His pure devotee the inconceivable power that allows him to stay aloof from all mundane circumstances and reside eternally in the spiritual world. The devotee does not want this power consciously or unconsciously, but the Lord is careful about His devotee, just as a mother is always careful about her little child, who is completely dependent on her care. A pure devotee like King Kulasekhara refuses to associate with beautiful soft-skinned women. There are different grades of women on different planets in the universe. Even on the earth there are different types of women who are enjoyed by different types of men. But on higher planets there are women many, many millions of times more beautiful than the women on this planet, and there are also many pleasure abodes where they can be enjoyed. The best of all of these is the Nandana Gardens on Svargaloka. In the Nandana Gardens-a "Garden of Eden"-those who are qualified can enjoy varieties of beautiful women called Apsaras. The demigods generally enjoy the company of the Apsaras in the same way that the great Mogul kings and nawabs enjoyed their harems. But these kings and nawabs are like straw before the demigods of Svargaloka, which lies in the third stratum of the universe. The inner tendency to enjoy is in the core of every living being's heart. But in the diseased state of material existence the living being misuses that tendency. The more he increases this diseased, conditioned state, the longer he extends his period of material existence. The sastras advise, therefore, that a living entity should accept only those sense-enjoyable objects necessary for the upkeep of the material body and reject those that are just for sense gratification. In this way he will reduce the tendency for sense enjoyment. This restraint cannot be imposed by force; it must be voluntary. Such restraint automatically develops in the course of one's executing devotional service. Thus one who is already engaged in devotional service need not restrain his senses artificially. A pure devotee like King Kulasekhara, therefore, neither desires sense enjoyment nor exerts himself to restrain his senses; rather, he tries only to engage himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, without any stop.

<font color="blue"> SUTRA 3* </font color> TEXT mukunda murdhna pranipatya yace bhavantam ekantam iyantam artham avismrtis tvac-caranaravinde bhave bhave me 'stu bhavat-prasadat SYNONYMS mukunda-O Lord Mukunda; murdhna-with my head; pranipatya-bowing down; yace-I respectfully beg; bhavantam-from You; ekantam-exclusively; iyantam-this much; artham-desire to be fulfilled; avismrtih-freedom from forgetfulness; tvat-Your; carana-aravinde-at the lotus feet; bhave bhave-in each repeated birth; me-my; astu-let there be; bhavat-Your; prasadat-by the mercy. TRANSLATION O Lord Mukunda! I bow down my head to Your Lordship and respectfully ask You to fulfill this one desire of mine: that in each of my future births I will, by Your Lordship's mercy, always remember and never forget Your lotus feet. PURPORT The world in which we live is a miserable place. It is, so to speak, a prison house for the spirit soul. Just as a prisoner cannot move or enjoy life fully, so the living entities who have been conditioned by the laws of material nature cannot experience their actual ever-joyful nature. They cannot have any freedom, because they must suffer four principal miseries-birth, old age, disease, and death. The laws of material nature impose this punishment upon the living entities who have forgotten the Lord and who are busy making plans for lasting happiness in this desert of distress. By the mercy of the Lord, the pure devotee knows all this very well. Indeed, his whole philosophy of life is based on this understanding. Advancement of knowledge means to understand the naked truth of this world and to not be deluded by the temporary beauty of this phantasmagoria. The material nature is not at all beautiful, for it is an "imitation peacock." The real peacock is a different thing, and one must have the sense to understand this. Those who are mad after capturing and enjoying the imitation peacock, as well as those who have a pessimistic view of the imitation peacock but lack any positive information of the real peacock-both are illusioned by the modes of material nature. Those who are after the imitation peacock are the fruitive workers, and those who simply condemn the imitation peacock but are ignorant of the real peacock are the empiric philosophers. Disgusted with the mirage of happiness in the material desert, they seek to merge into voidness. But a pure devotee does not belong to either of these two bewildered classes. Neither aspiring to enjoy the imitation peacock nor condemning it out of disgust, he seeks the real peacock. Thus he is unlike either the deluded fruitive worker or the baffled empiricist. He is above these servants of material nature because he prefers to serve the Lord, the master of material nature. He seeks the substance and does not wish to give it up. The substance is the lotus feet of Mukunda, and King Kulasekhara, being a most intelligent devotee, prays to gain that substance and not the shadow. A pure devotee of Lord Narayana, or Mukunda, is not at all afraid of any circumstance that may befall him. Despite all difficulties, therefore, such a pure devotee asks nothing from the Lord on his own account. He is not at all afraid if by chance he has to visit the hellish worlds, nor is he eager to enter the kingdom of heaven. For him both these kingdoms are like castles in the air. He is not concerned with either of them, and this is very nicely expressed by King Kulasekhara in Text 6. A pure devotee of the Lord like King Kulasekhara does not pray to God for material wealth, followers, a beautiful wife, or any such imitation peacocks, for he knows the real value of such things. And if by circumstance he is placed in a situation where he possesses such things, he does not try to artificially get out of it by condemnation. Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, a great associate of Lord Caitanya's, was a very rich man's son who had a beautiful wife and all other opulences. When he first met Lord Caitanya at PanihaTi, a village about forty miles from Calcutta, Raghunatha dasa asked permission from the Lord to leave his material connections and accompany Him. The Lord refused to accept this proposal and instructed Raghunatha dasa that it is useless to leave worldly connections out of sentimentality or artificial renunciation. One must have the real thing at heart. If one finds himself entangled in worldly connections, one should behave outwardly like a worldly man but remain inwardly faithful for spiritual realization. That will help one on the progressive march of life. Nobody can cross over the big ocean in a sudden jump. What was possible for Hanuman by the grace of Lord Rama is not possible for an ordinary man. So to cross the ocean of illusion one should patiently cultivate devotion to the Lord, and in this way one can gradually reach the other side. Although a pure devotee does not bother himself about what is going to happen next in his material situation, he is always alert not to forget his ultimate aim. King Kulasekhara therefore prays that he may not forget the lotus feet of the Lord at any time. To forget one's relationship with the Lord and thus to remain overwhelmed by material hankerings is the most condemned mode of life. This is exactly the nature of animal life. When the living entity is born in a species of lower animals, he completely forgets his relationship with the Lord and therefore remains always busy in the matter of eating, sleeping, fearing, and mating. Modern civilization promotes such a life of forgetfulness, with an improved economic condition for eating and so on. Various agents of the external energy make explicit propaganda to try to root out the very seed of divine consciousness. But this is impossible to do, because although circumstances may choke up a living being's divine consciousness for the time being, it cannot be killed. In his original identity the living entity is indestructible, and so also are his original spiritual qualities. One can kill neither the spirit soul nor his spiritual qualities. To remember the Lord and desire to serve Him are the spiritual qualities of the spirit soul. One can curb down these spiritual qualities by artificial means, but they will be reflected in a perverted way on the mirror of material existence. The spiritual quality of serving the Lord out of transcendental affinity will be pervertedly reflected as love for wine, women, and wealth in different forms. The so-called love of material things-even love for one's country, community, religion, or family, which is accepted as a superior qualification for civilized human beings-is simply a perverted reflection of the love of Godhead dormant in every soul. The position of King Kulasekhara is therefore the position of a liberated soul, because he does not want to allow his genuine love of God to become degraded into so-called love for material things. The words bhave bhave are very significant here. They mean "birth after birth." Unlike the jnanis, who aspire to merge with the impersonal Absolute and thereby stop the process of repeatedly taking birth, a pure devotee is never afraid of this process. In the Bhagavad-gita (4.9) Lord Krsna says that His birth and deeds are all divyam, transcendental. In the same chapter (4.5) the Lord says that both He and Arjuna had had many, many previous births, but that while the Lord could remember all of them, Arjuna could not. For the Lord there is no difference between past, present, and future, but for the living being who has forgotten the Lord there is a difference, on account of his being forgetful of the past and ignorant of the future. But a living entity who always remembers the Lord and is thus His constant companion is as transcendentally situated as the Lord Himself. For such a devotee birth and death are one and the same, because he knows that such occurrences are only ephemeral flashes that do not affect his spiritual existence. We may use a crude example to illustrate the difference between a devotee's death and an ordinary man's death. In her mouth the cat captures both her offspring and her prey, the rat. Such capturings may appear the same, but there is a vast difference between them. While the rat is being carried in the cat's mouth, his sensation is poles apart from that of the cat's offspring. For the rat the capture is a painful death strike, while for the offspring it is a pleasurable caress. Similarly, the death of an ordinary man is vastly different from a devotee's passing away from the active scene of material existence. The death of an ordinary man occurs against the background of his past good and evil deeds, which determine his next birth. But for a devotee the case is different. Even if the devotee has failed to perfect his devotional service, he is guaranteed to take birth in a good family-a family of learned and devoted brahmanas or a family of rich vaisyas (merchants). A person who takes birth in such a family has a good chance to practice devotional service and improve his spiritual condition. Unfortunately, in this iron age the members of well-to-do families generally misuse their wealth. Instead of improving their spiritual condition, they are misled by faulty association and fall victim to sensuality. To be saved from this faulty association, King Kulasekhara prays fervently to the Lord that he may never forget His lotus feet in any future birth. A devotee who perfects his devotional service certainly goes back to Godhead without a doubt, so for him there is no question of birth or death. And, as mentioned above, a devotee who does not achieve complete perfection is guaranteed to take his birth in a learned and well-to-do family. But even if a devotee is not given the advantage of good parentage, if he can attain the benediction of always remembering the lotus feet of the Lord, that is greater than any number of material assets. Constant remembrance of the Lord's name, fame, qualities, and so on automatically nullifies the reactions of all vices and invokes the blessings of the Lord. This constant remembrance of the lotus feet of the Lord is possible only when one engages in His active service. A pure devotee therefore never asks the Lord for wealth, followers, or even a beautiful wife. He simply prays for uninterrupted engagement in the Lord's service. That should be the motto of life for all prospective students in devotional service.

<font color="blue"> SUTRA 2*</font color> TEXT jayatu jayatu devo devaki-nandano 'yam jayatu jayatu krsno vrsni-vamsa-pradipah jayatu jayatu megha-syamalah komalango jayatu jayatu prthvi-bhara-naso mukundah SYNONYMS jayatu jayatu-all glories, all glories; devah-to the Personality of Godhead; devaki-nandanah-son of Devaki; ayam-this; jayatu jayatu-all glories, all glories; krsnah-to Lord Krsna; vrsni-of Vrsni (Lord Krsna's forefather); vamsa-of the dynasty; pradipah-the beacon light; jayatu jayatu-all glories, all glories; megha-like a new cloud; syamalah-who is blackish; komala-very soft; angah-whose body; jayatu jayatu-all glories, all glories; prthvi-the earth's; bhara-of the burden; nasah-to the destroyer; mukundah-Lord Sri Krsna. TRANSLATION All glories to this Personality of Godhead known as the son of Srimati Devaki devi! All glories to Lord Sri Krsna, the brilliant light of the Vrsni dynasty! All glories to the Personality of Godhead, the hue of whose soft body resembles the blackish color of a new cloud! All glories to Lord Mukunda, who removes the burdens of the earth! PURPORT The theme of this verse is that the Supreme Truth is the Supreme Person. That the Lord's bodily texture and color are described indicates that He is a person, for the impersonal Brahman cannot have a body that is as soft as anything or whose hue is visualized. The Personality of Godhead appeared as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki because for a very long time they performed severe austerities to have the Supreme Lord as their son. Satisfied by their penance and determination, the Lord agreed to become their son. From the description of the Lord's birth in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, we learn that the Lord appeared before Vasudeva and Devaki as Narayana, with four hands. But when they prayed to Him to conceal His divinity, the Lord became a small baby with two hands. In the Bhagavad-gita (4.9) the Lord promises that one who simply understands the mysteries of His transcendental birth and deeds will be liberated from the clutches of Maya and go back to Godhead. Therefore there is a gulf of difference between the birth of Krsna and that of an ordinary child. One may ask, Since the Supreme Lord is the original father of all living entities, how could a lady known as Devaki give birth to Him as her son? The answer is that Devaki no more gave birth to the Lord than the eastern horizon gives birth to the sun. The sun rises on the eastern horizon and sets below the western horizon, but actually the sun neither rises nor sets. The sun is always in its fixed position in the sky, but the earth is revolving, and due to the different positions of the revolving earth, the sun appears to be rising or setting. In the same way, the Lord always exists, but for His pastimes as a human being He seems to take birth like an ordinary child. In His impersonal feature (Brahman) the Supreme Lord is everywhere, inside and outside: as the Supersoul (Paramatma) He is inside everything, from the gigantic universal form down to the atoms and electrons; and as the Supreme Personality of Godhead (Bhagavan) He sustains everything with His energies. (We have already described this feature of the Lord in the purport to the previous verse, in connection with the name Jagan-nivasa.) Therefore in each of His three features-Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan-the Lord is present everywhere in the material world. Yet He remains aloof, busy with His transcendental pastimes in His supreme abode. Those with a poor fund of knowledge cannot accept the idea that the Lord appears in person on the face of the earth. Because they are not conversant with the intricacies of the Lord's transcendental position, whenever such people hear about the appearance of the Lord, they take Him to be either a superhuman being born with a material body or a historical personality worshiped as God under the influence of anthropomorphism or zoomorphism. But the Lord is not the plaything of such fools. He is what He is and does not agree to be a subject of their speculations, which perpetually lead them to conclude that His impersonal feature is supreme. The supreme feature of the Absolute Truth is personal-the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The impersonal Brahman is His effulgence, like the light diffused by a powerful fire. The fire burns in one place but diffuses its warmth and light all round, thus exhibiting its different energies. Similarly, by means of His variegated energies the Supreme Lord expands Himself in many ways. Persons with a poor fund of knowledge are captivated by one part of His energy and therefore fail to penetrate into the original source of the energy. Whatever astounding energies we see manifest in this world, including atomic and nuclear energies, are all part and parcel of His material, or external, energy. Superior to this material energy, however, is the Lord's marginal energy, exhibited as the living being. Besides these energies, the Supreme Lord has another energy, which is known as the internal energy. The marginal energy can take shelter of either the internal energy or the external energy, but factually it belongs to the Lord's internal energy. The living beings are therefore infinitesimal samples of the Supreme Lord. Qualitatively the living being and the Supreme Lord are equal, but quantitatively they are different, for the Lord is unlimitedly potent whereas the living entities, being infinitesimal by nature, have limited potency. Although the Lord is full with all energies and is thus self-sufficient, He enjoys transcendental pleasure by subordinating Himself to His unalloyed devotees. Some great devotees of the Lord cannot surpass the boundary of awe and veneration. But other devotees are in such an intense compact of love with the Lord that they forget His exalted position and regard themselves as His equals or even His superiors. These eternal associates of the Lord relate with Him in the higher statuses of friendship, parenthood, and consorthood. Devotees in a transcendental parental relationship with the Lord think of Him as their dependent child. They forget His exalted position and think that unless they properly feed Him He will fall victim to undernourishment and His health will deteriorate. Devotees in a conjugal relationship with the Lord rebuke Him to correct His behavior, and the Lord enjoys those rebukes more than the prayers of the Vedas. Ordinary devotees bound up by the formalities of Vedic rites cannot enter deep into such confidential loving service to the Lord, and thus their realization remains imperfect. Sometimes they even fall victim to the calamity of impersonalism. Vasudeva and Devaki are confidential devotees of the Lord in the mood of parental love. Even greater than them are Nanda and Yasoda, His foster parents in Vrndavana. The Lord takes great pleasure in being addressed as Devaki-nandana ("the son of Devaki"), Nanda-nandana ("the son of Nanda"), Yasoda-nandana ("the son of Yasoda"), Dasarathi ("the son of King Dasaratha"), Janaki-natha ("the husband of Janaki"), and so on. The pleasure one gives the Lord by addressing Him by such names is many, many times greater than the pleasure He enjoys when He is addressed as the Supreme Father, the Greatest of the Great, Paramesvara, or anything of that nature, which indicate volumes of awe and veneration. Therefore the names King Kulasekhara uses to glorify the Lord in this verse indicate his intimate transcendental relationship with the Lord. As explained above, all the names of the Lord are as powerful as the Lord Himself, but one can experience different transcendental mellows by chanting His different transcendental names. For example, the sastra (scripture) states that there are one thousand principal names of Lord Visnu, the Personality of Godhead. But if a person utters the name Rama only once, he gets the result of chanting one thousand names of Visnu. And if somebody once chants the name Krsna, he achieves the results obtained by chanting the name Rama three times. In other words, uttering the name Krsna once is equal to uttering three thousand other names of Visnu. Therefore King Kulasekhara, knowing how pleased the Lord is to be addressed by a name indicating His transcendental relationships with His intimate devotees, and knowing also the potency of the name Krsna, has chosen to glorify the Lord by addressing Him as Devaki-nandana and Krsna. The king also addresses Him as Vrsni-vamsa-pradipa ("the brilliant light in the Vrsni dynasty") because millions of generations of the Vrsni dynasty became sanctified by the Lord's appearance within it. The sastras state that a family in which a pure devotee is born is sanctified for one hundred generations of ancestors and descendants. And the sastras also state that every place within a radius of one hundred miles from where a devotee is born becomes sanctified. If a devotee can sanctify the place and family of his birth so extraordinarily, then what to speak of how completely the Lord can sanctify the place and family in which He chooses to take His birth. The Lord's birth on the face of the earth is certainly very mysterious, and therefore it is difficult for ordinary men to believe in His birth. How can the all-powerful Lord take birth, seemingly like an ordinary man? The matter is explained in the Bhagavad-gita (4.6), where the Lord says, ajo 'pi sann avyayatma bhutanam isvaro 'pi san prakrtim svam adhisThaya sambhavamy atma-mayaya "Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, by My transcendental potency I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form." From the sastra we learn that the Lord takes birth not only in the family of human beings but also in the families of demigods, aquatics, animals, and so on. One may argue that an ordinary living being is eternal and unborn like the Lord and also takes birth in different species of life, and so there is no difference between the Lord and an ordinary living being. The difference is, however, that while an ordinary living being changes his body when he transmigrates from one species of life to another, the Lord never changes His body: He appears in His original body, without any change. Also, while there is a vast difference between the ordinary living entity and his body, there is no difference between the Lord and His body because He is pure spirit. In other words, there is no distinction between His body and His soul. The word avyayatma in the above verse from the Bhagavad-gita clearly indicates that the Lord's body is not made of material elements. He is all spirit. Birth and death apply only to the material body. The body of the ordinary living being is made of material elements and is therefore subject to birth and death. But the Lord's body, being all spiritual and thus eternal, neither takes birth nor dies. Nor can the Lord be forced to take birth in some particular family due to His past deeds, as an ordinary living being is. The Lord is the supreme controller of the material elements, and being endless and beginningless, He exists in all times-past, present, and future. And because He is absolute, He has nothing to do with vice and virtue. In other words, for Him "vices" and "virtues" are one and the same; otherwise the Lord would not be the Absolute Truth. Since the Lord appears by His internal potency, His incarnations in different species of life are not the creation of the external potency, Maya. Therefore those who think that the Supreme Lord appears in different forms by accepting a body made of material elements are wrong; their vision is imperfect because they do not understand how the Lord's internal potency works. The Vedas inquire, Where does the Supreme Lord stand? And the reply is immediately given: He stands on His internal potency. So the conclusion is that although the Lord may seem to assume a material body when He takes birth, like an ordinary being, in fact He does not, for there is no difference between Him and His body. Thus He remains the Absolute Truth in all His appearances in different species of life. In other words, the living being and the Supreme Lord appear in this material world under different circumstances. One can easily understand these different circumstances if one understands how the Lord's different potencies work. As explained before, the Lord has three kinds of potency, namely, internal, marginal, and external. We have wide experience of the external, or material, potency, but we generally fail to inquire about the actions and reactions of the other two potencies. A simple example will help us understand how the Lord's potencies work. Consider three identities: God, a man, and a doll. The doll consists of material energy, the man is a combination of material and spiritual energy, and God consists wholly of spiritual energy. The doll is all matter, internally and externally. Man is externally matter but internally spirit. And God is all spirit, both internally and externally. As the doll is all matter, so God is all spirit. But the man is half spirit and half matter. Thus the body of God and the body of a living being are differently constituted. Because the Lord's body is pure spirit, it never deteriorates, and therefore He is called avyayatma. His body is absolute, beginningless, unborn, and eternal, while the material body of the living being is relative and therefore temporary-it undergoes birth and death. The living being himself, of course, is eternal, and if He so desires he can realize his eternality by merging into the body of the Absolute Truth or being reinstated in his constitutional position as an eternal servant of the Lord. If he does not do so, then his eternality is still maintained, but he remains ignorant of it. The conclusion is that the Personality of Godhead appears in His original body, without any change, and this is made possible by His inconceivable potency. We should always remember that nothing is impossible for the omnipotent Lord. If He so desires, He can transform material energy into spiritual energy. Indeed, if he so desires He can bring the entire spiritual nature within the material nature, without the spiritual nature being affected by the material modes in any way. The Lord's different potencies remain tightly under His control. In fact, the Lord actually has only one potency-namely, the internal potency-which He employs for different purposes. The situation is similar to how one uses electricity. The same electricity can be used for both heating and cooling. Such contradictory results are due to the expert handling of a technician. In the same way, by His supreme will the Lord employs His one internal potency to accomplish many different purposes. That is the information we get from the srutis (Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.8): parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. The present verse of the Mukunda-mala-stotra states that the color of the Lord's body is blackish, like that of a new cloud. Also, His body is very soft. Softness of the body is a sign of a great personality. The sastras state that the following bodily features indicate a great personality: a reddish luster in seven places-the eyes, the palms, the soles, the palate, the lips, the tongue, and the nails; broadness in three places-the waist, the forehead, and the chest; shortness in three places-the neck, the thighs, and the genitals; deepness in three places-the voice, the intelligence, and the navel; highness in five places-the nose, the arms, the ears, the forehead, and the thighs; and fineness in five places-the skin, the hair on the head, the bodily hair, the teeth, and the fingertips. All these features are present in the body of the Lord. The Brahma-samhita confirms that the color the Lord's body is blackish, like that of a new cloud. But this blackish color is so beautiful that it surpasses the beauty of millions of Cupids. So this blackish color does not correspond to any blackish color in the material world. Such descriptions of the Lord's body are not imaginary; rather, they are the statements of those who have seen the Lord with their supernatural vision. This supernatural vision is bestowed upon devotees like Brahma and upon those who follow the footsteps of pure devotees like him. But upstarts and unbelievers cannot have any access to this transcendental vision, for they lack the required submission to the will of the Lord.

<font color="red"> Mukunda - mala - stotra </font color> Verse Contents Introduction About the Present Edition Using a Sanskrit edition published by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in 1895, Srila Prabhupada began translating the Mukunda-mala-stotra in the late 1950's. But after completing six verses with commentary, he suspended it to work on the Srimad-Bhagavatam. He never resumed it. Here you will find those six verses for which Srila Prabhupada has given us his translations and Bhaktivedanta purports. <font color="blue"> SUTRA 1* </font color> TEXT sri-vallabheti vara-deti daya-pareti bhakta-priyeti bhava-lunThana-kovideti natheti naga-sayaneti jagan-nivasety alapinam prati-dinam kuru mam mukunda SYNONYMS sri-vallabha-O beloved of Laksmi (the Supreme Lord's consort); iti-thus; vara-da-O bestower of benedictions; iti-thus; daya-para-O causelessly merciful one; iti-thus; bhakta-priya-O You who are very dear to Your devotees; iti-thus; bhava-the repetition of birth and death; lunThana-in plundering; kovida-O You who are expert; iti-thus; natha-O Lord; iti-thus; naga-sayana-O You who sleep on the serpent bed (of Ananta Sesa); iti-thus; jagat-nivasa-O resort of the cosmos; iti-thus; alapinam-reciter; prati-dinam-every day; kuru-please make; mam-me; mukunda-O Mukunda. TRANSLATION O Mukunda, my Lord! Please let me become a constant reciter of Your names, addressing You as Sri-vallabha ["He who is very dear to Laksmi"], Varada ["the bestower of benedictions"], Dayapara ["He who is causelessly merciful"], Bhakta-priya ["He who is very dear to His devotees"], Bhava-lunThana-kovida ["He who is expert at plundering the status quo of repeated birth and death"], Natha ["the Supreme Lord"], Jagan-nivasa ["the resort of the cosmos"], and Naga-sayana ["the Lord who lies down on the serpent bed"]. PURPORT A devotee of Godhead is he who glorifies the Personality of Godhead under the dictation of transcendental ecstasy. This ecstasy is a by-product of profound love for the Supreme, which is itself attained by the process of glorification. In this age of quarrel and fighting, the process of chanting and glorification recommended here by King Kulasekhara is the only way to attain perfection. Persons who are infected with the disease of material attachment and who suffer from the pangs of repeated birth and death cannot relish such recitation of the Lord's glories, just as a person suffering from jaundice cannot relish the taste of sugar candy. By nature sugar candy is as sweet as anything, but to a patient suffering from jaundice it tastes as bitter as anything. Still, sugar candy is the best medicine for jaundice. By regular treatment with doses of sugar candy, one can gradually get relief from the infection of jaundice, and when the patient is perfectly cured, the same sugar candy that tasted bitter to him regains its natural sweetness. In the same way, glorification of the transcendental name, fame, attributes, pastimes, and entourage of the Personality of Godhead tastes bitter to those who are suffering from the infection of material consciousness, but it is very sweet to those who have recovered from this infection. All mundane philosophers, religionists, and people in general, who are constantly suffering from the threefold miseries of material existence, can get freedom from all such troubles simply by chanting and glorifying the holy name, fame, and pastimes of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord, the Absolute Truth, is all spirit, and therefore His name, fame, and pastimes are nondifferent from Him. All of them are identical. In other words, the holy name of the Lord is the Lord Himself, and this can be understood by realization. By chanting the holy names of the Lord, which are innumerable, one can actually associate with the Lord personally, and by such constant personal touch with the all-spiritual Lord, one will become spiritually self-realized. This process of self-realization is very suitable for the fallen souls of this age, when life is short and when people are slow in understanding the importance of spiritual realization, prone to be misled by false association and false spiritual masters, unfortunate in every respect, and continuously disturbed by innumerable material problems. King Kulasekhara, an ideal pure devotee of the Lord, shows us by his own realization how to offer prayers to the Lord. Since he is a maha-jana, an authority in the line of devotional service, it is our prime duty to follow in his footsteps in order to achieve the highest devotional platform. He first addresses the Lord as Sri-vallabha, "He who is very dear to Laksmi." The Lord is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His consort, Laksmi, is a manifestation of His internal potency. By expanding His internal potency, the Lord enjoys His spiritual paraphernalia. In the highest spiritual realization, therefore, the Lord is not impersonal or void, as empiric philosophers conceive Him to be. Although He is not of the material world, He is much more than simply a negation of material variegatedness. He is positively the supreme enjoyer of spiritual variegatedness, of which Laksmi, the internal potency, is the fountainhead. King Kulasekhara next addresses the Lord as Varada, "the bestower of benedictions," because it is He alone who can deliver to us the actual substance-spiritual bliss. When we detach ourselves from His association, we are always in the midst of want and scarcity, but as soon as we get in touch with Him, our gradual endowment with all bliss begins. The first installment of this bliss is the clearance of the layer of dust that has accumulated in our hearts due to millions of years of material association. As soon as the dust of materialism is brushed aside, the clear mirror of the heart reflects the presence of the Lord. And as soon as we see Him we are automatically freed from all kinds of aspirations and frustrations. In that liberated state, everything is blissful in relation with the Lord, and one has no desires to fulfill and nothing to lament over. Thus, following the benediction, full spiritual bliss comes upon us, ushering in full knowledge, full life, and full satisfaction with our whole existence. King Kulasekhara next addresses the Lord as Dayapara, "He who is causelessly merciful," because there is no one but the Lord who can be a causelessly merciful friend to us. He is therefore also called Dina-bandhu, "the friend of the needy." Unfortunately, at times of need we seek our friends in the mundane world, not knowing that one needy man cannot help another. No mundane man is full in every respect; even a man possessing the greatest riches is himself needy if he is devoid of a relationship with the Lord. Everything is zero without the Lord, who is the digit that transforms zero into ten, two zeros into one hundred, three zeros into one thousand, and so on. Thus a "zero man" cannot become happy without the association of the Lord, the supreme "1." The supreme "1" always wants to make our zero efforts valuable by His association, just as a loving father always wants an unhappy son to be in a prosperous position. A rebellious son, however, stubbornly refuses the cooperation of the loving father and thus suffers all sorts of miseries. The Lord, therefore, sends His bona fide representatives to all parts of the material creation, and sometimes He even comes Himself to reclaim His fallen sons. For this purpose He also exhibits the actual life in the transcendental world, which is characterized by relationships with Him in servitorship, friendship, parenthood, and consorthood. All relationships in the material world are but perverted reflections of these original relationships. In the mundane world we experience only the shadow of the reality, which exists in the spiritual world. The all-merciful Lord is always mindful of our difficulties in the mundane world, and He is more eager to get us to return home, back to Godhead, than we are eager to go. He is by nature merciful toward us, despite our rebellious attitude. Even in our rebellious condition we get all our necessities from Him, such as food, air, light, water, warmth, and coolness. Yet because we have detached ourselves from Him, we simply mismanage this paternal property. The leaders of society, despite all their materialistic plans, are misleaders, for they have no plan to revive our lost relationship with the Lord. His bona fide devotees, however, try their utmost to broadcast the message of our transcendental relationship with Him. In this way the devotees work to remind the fallen souls of their actual position and to bring them back home, back to Godhead. Such stainless servants of Godhead are very dear to Him. They receive such special favor from the Lord for their compassionate work that they can even go back to Godhead in this very lifetime and not be forced to take another birth. The Lord is therefore next addressed as Bhakta-priya, meaning "He who is very dear to His devotees" or "He who is very affectionate to His devotees." In the Bhagavad-gita (9.29) the Lord very nicely describes His sublime and transcendental affection for His devotees. There the Lord declares that although He is undoubtedly equally kind to all living beings-because all of them are part and parcel of Him and are His spiritual sons-those who are especially attached to Him by love and affection, who regard nothing dearer than Him, are particularly dear to Him. An example of such a pure devotee is Lord Jesus Christ, who agreed to be mercilessly crucified rather than give up preaching on behalf of God. He was never prepared to compromise on the issue of believing in God. Such a son of God cannot be other than dear to the Lord. Similarly, when Thakura Haridasa was told to give up chanting the holy name of God, he refused to do so, with the result that he was flogged in twenty-two marketplaces. And Prahlada Maharaja persisted in disagreeing with his father, the great atheist Hiranyakasipu, and thus voluntarily accepted the cruelties his father inflicted upon him. These are some examples of renowned devotees of the Lord, and we should simply try to understand how dear such devotees are to Him. The Lord has emphatically declared that no one can vanquish His devotee under any circumstances. A good example is Ambarisa Maharaja. When the great mystic yogi Durvasa deliberately attempted to take the life of Ambarisa, the Lord suitably punished Durvasa, even though he was a powerful yogi who could approach all the demigods and even the Lord Himself. Sometimes, even at the risk of having to cross many stumbling blocks, a devotee relinquishes all family connections and homely comforts for the Lord's service. Can the Lord forget all these sacrifices of His bona fide devotee? No, not even for a moment, for the relationship between the Lord and His devotee is reciprocal, as He clearly says in the Bhagavad-gita (9.29): "Whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend-is in Me-and I am also a friend to him." A devotee is never as eager to see the Lord as he is to render service to Him. Yet the Lord does appear before His devotee, for He is just like an affectionate father, who is more eager to see his son than the son is to see him. There is no contradiction in such a quantitative difference in affection. Such a disparity exists in the original reality-between the Lord and His devotees-and is reflected here not only in the relations between parents and children in human society but even in the animal kingdom. Parental affection is exhibited even among lower animals because originally such affection in its fullness exists in God, the original father of all species of living beings. When a man kills an animal, God, the affectionate father, is perturbed and is pained at heart. Thus the slaughterer of the animal is suitably punished by the material energy, just as a murderer is punished by the government through police action. By the mercy of the Lord, a devotee develops all the good qualities of God, for a devotee can never remain in the darkness of ignorance. A father is always anxious to impart knowledge and experience to his son, but the son can choose whether to accept such instructions. A submissive devotee becomes automatically enlightened in all the intricacies of knowledge because the Lord, from within, dissipates his ignorance with the self-illumined lamp of wisdom. If the Lord Himself instructs the devotee, how can he remain foolish like the mundane wranglers? A father is naturally inclined to act for the good of his son, and when the father chastises his son, that chastisement is also mixed with affection. Similarly, all the living entities who have lost their place in paradise due to disobedience to the Supreme Father are put into the hands of the material energy to undergo a prison life of the threefold miseries. Yet the Supreme Father does not forget His rebellious sons. He creates scriptures for them like the Vedas and Puranas in order to revive their lost relationship with Him and awaken their divine consciousness. Intelligent persons take advantage of the knowledge contained in these scriptures and thus attain the highest perfection of life. For His devotees, the Lord personally descends to this world to give them relief and save them from the insane acts of miscreants. It is foolish to try to impose the limits of an ordinary living being upon the unlimited potency of Godhead and obstinately maintain that the Supreme Lord cannot descend. To mitigate His devotees' material pangs, He descends as He is, yet He is not infected by material qualities. As soon as a person agrees to surrender unto the Lord, the Lord takes complete charge of him. Satisfied with the activities of such a devotee, He gives him instruction from within, and thus the devotee becomes pure and advances on the path back to Godhead. The Lord is expert at guiding such a pure devotee, who is not at all anxious for material superiority. A pure devotee does not wish to possess material wealth, nor does he want to have a great following, nor does he desire a beautiful wife, for by the mercy of the Lord he knows the insignificance of material happiness. What he very sincerely desires at heart is to continue in the loving service of the Lord, even at the risk of taking birth again. When a neophyte devotee deviates from the path of pure devotion and wants to simultaneously enjoy sense gratification and discharge devotional service, the all-merciful Lord very tactfully corrects the bewildered devotee by exhibiting before him the real nature of this material world. In the material world all relationships are actually mercenary but are covered by an illusory curtain of so-called love and affection. The so-called wives and husbands, parents and children, and masters and servants are all concerned with reciprocal material profit. As soon as the shroud of illusion is removed, the dead body of material so-called love and affection is at once manifest to the naked eye. The Lord expertly removes the shroud of illusion for the neophyte devotee by depriving him of his material assets, and thus the devotee finds himself alone in the midst of his so-called relatives. In this helpless condition he experiences the awkwardness of his so-called relationships with his so-called wife and children. When a man is financially ruined, no one loves him, not even his wife or children. Such a poverty-stricken devotee more perfectly fixes his faith in the Lord, and the Lord then delivers him from the fate of frustration. The entire cosmic creation is the Lord's expert arrangement for the delusion of the living beings who try to be false enjoyers. The living being's constitutional position is to be a servant of the Lord, but in the transcendental relationship the servant and the Lord are in one sense identical, for the Lord also serves the servant. The typical example is Sri Krsna's becoming the charioteer of His eternal servant Arjuna. Illusioned mundaners cannot understand the transcendental and reciprocal relationship between the Lord and His devotees, and therefore they want to lord it over material nature or cynically merge with the Absolute. Thus a living being forgets his constitutional position and wants to become either a lord or a mendicant, but such illusions are arrangements of Maya, the Lord's illusory potency. A false life either as a lord or a mendicant meets with frustration until the living being comes to his senses and surrenders to the Lord as His eternal servant. Then the Lord liberates him and saves him from repeated birth and death. Thus the Lord is also addressed here as Bhava-lunThana-kovida, "He who is expert at plundering the status quo of repeated birth and death." A sensible man understands his position as the eternal servant of the Lord and molds his life accordingly. The Lord is also addressed as Natha, the real Lord. One can attain the perfection of life only by serving the real Lord. The entire material atmosphere is surcharged with the false lordship of the living beings. The illusioned beings are all struggling for false lordship, and thus no one wants to serve. Everyone wants to be the lord, even though such lordship is conditional and temporary. A hardworking man thinks himself the lord of his family and estate, but actually he is a servant of desire and the employee of anger. Such service of the senses is neither pensionable nor terminable, for desire and anger are masters who are never to be satisfied. The more one serves them, the more service they exact, and as such the false overlordship continues until the day of annihilation. As a result, the foolish living being is pushed into degraded life and fails to recognize the Lord as the beneficiary of all activities, the ruler of the universe, and the friend of all entities. One who knows the real Lord is called a brahmana, but one who fails to know Him is called a krpana, or number-one miser. The Lord of the creative energy is called Ananta-sayana. The material energy is impregnated by the glance of this feature of the Lord and is then able to give birth to all organic and inorganic matter. Ananta-sayana sleeps on the bed of Sesa Naga, who has a form like a serpent but is identical with the Lord. Because He sleeps on a serpent bed, the Lord is also known as Naga-sayana. By His spiritual energy Sesa Naga sustains all the planetary globes upon His invisible hoods. Sesa Naga is popularly known as Sankarsana, or "that which keeps balance by the law of magnetism." In the scientific world this feature of the Lord is referred to as the law of gravitation, but factually this law, which keeps all the planets floating in space, is one of the energies of the Lord. All the universes are born with the exhalation of the Lord as He lies on Sesa Naga, and all of them are annihilated with His inhalation. Due to these functions of creation, maintenance, and annihilation, the Lord is celebrated by the name Jagan-nivasa, indicating that He is the supreme resort of all the universes. There are hundreds of thousands of other names of Lord Visnu, and each one of them is as powerful as the Lord Himself. One can constantly chant any name of the Lord and thereby constantly associate with Him. There are no hard and fast rules for chanting His names. At any time and any stage of life one can freely chant them, but we are so unfortunate that we are too misled even to adopt this simple process. This is the way of Maya, the Lord's misleading energy. However, one can avoid her ways simply by always remembering the lotus feet of the Lord. King Kulasekhara prays for this facility from Mukunda, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

adi 17.165-167 Mahaprabhu: Since you Muslims cannot bring killed cows back to life, you are responsible for killing them. Therefore you are going to hell; there is no way for your deliverance. Cow-killers are condemned to rot in hellish life for as many thousands of years as there are hairs on the body of the cow. There are many mistakes and illusions in your scriptures. Their compilers, not knowing the essence of knowledge, gave orders that were against reason and argument. -- who complied the Qu'ran, and its scriptures/?

Yes Listen to your mind, it has all the good qualifications of a log of stool, Listen to the stone-like mind, with your intelligence you tell it to chant, but the stone-mind will say NO. KICK IT! Whack it with a brroom stick, clean it!! Stupid fool, the mind knows better than KRSNA, or Archaryas, it is the best of People, it is above KRSNA, FOOL! FOOL! FOOL! Beat that mind into submission 1...2...3! Kick the livin daylights out of it, cage it in the Maha-Mantra, don't let it out, you'll know when mind is YOUR FRIEND. NOT YOUR ETERNAL ENEMY.

My son dislikes muslims even more than I do. Give him 400 atomic bombs, and he will finish all the Muslims. -- Hare Krsna! Alienating the entire Muslim population. Don't believe the hype, what you fink? The western world is Full to the barrels with Sense Gratificationists, who is worse? The Non-believer or the God-believer? Is Bush a Christian? Do Cows fly in the Sky? Just cause you white (gora) your auto by default a Christian? Yes? We should have compassion for the Night-Clubbers and Alcoholics who go out every Fri-Sats, as a pose to Muslims who try to follow, but are not able to? Where is the compassion? Are we not Vaishnavas? /images/graemlins/confused.gif Bhaja Nityananda

Parents? Family members? KRSNA?! Or the Mind? ANGER is never good.

<font color="blue"> From Teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabu </font color> Gopinatha Acarya then began to thank the Lord: "It is by Your grace only that Bhattacarya has been transformed from his stonelike position into such a devotee." Lord Caitanya then replied to Gopinatha Acarya that it was due to a devotee's favor that a stonelike man could be transformed into a mild, flowerlike devotee. Actually Gopinatha Acarya had sincerely wished that his brother-in-law, Bhattacarya, would become a devotee of the Lord. He had sincerely desired that the Lord favor Bhattacarya, and he was glad to see that his desire was fulfilled by Lord Caitanya. In other words, a devotee of the Lord is more merciful than the Lord Himself. When a devotee desires to show his mercy to a person, the Lord acts, and by His grace one becomes a devotee. TLC Ch. 26 www.vedabase.net

<font color="red">10. The Future of the Krsna Consciousness Movement </font color> The Krsna consciousness movement can save the world: Kirata, Huna, Andhra, Pulinda, PulkaSa, Abhira, Sumbha, Yavana and the Khasa races and even others who are addicted to sinful acts can be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord due to His being the supreme power. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him. The above-mentioned historical names are different nations of the world. Even those who are constantly engaged in sinful acts are all corrigible to the standard of perfect human beings if they take shelter of the devotees of the Lord. Jesus Christ and Hajrat Muhammad, two powerful devotees of the Lord, have done tremendous service on behalf of the Lord on the surface of the globe. And from the version of Srila Sukadeva Gosvami it appears that instead of running a godless civilization in the present context of the world situation, if the leadership of world affairs is entrusted to the devotees of the Lord, for which a worldwide organization under the name and style of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has already been started, then by the grace of the Almighty Lord there can be a thorough change of heart in human beings all over the world because the devotees of the Lord are able authorities to effect such a change by purifying the dust-worn minds of the people in general. The politicians of the world may remain in their respective positions because the pure devotees of the Lord are not interested in.political leadership or diplomatic implications. The devotees are interested only in seeing that the people in general are not misguided by political propaganda and in seeing that the valuable life of a human being is not spoiled in following a type of civilization which is ultimately doomed. If the politicians would, therefore, be guided by the good counsel of the devotees, then certainly there would be a great change in the world situation by the purifying propaganda of the devotees, as shown by Lord Caitanya.... ...A person, though he be even the most sinful man, can at once be purified by systematic contact with a pure Vaisnava.... So by the order of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the cult of Srimad-Bhagavatam or the Bhagavad-gita can be preached all over the world, reclaiming all persons willing to accept the transcendental cult. Such cultural propaganda by the devotees will certainly be accepted by all persons who are reasonable and inquisitive, without any particular bias for the custom of the country. Bhag. 2.4.18 The Krsna consciousness movement should be spread all over the world: The flood of love of Godhead swelled in all directions, and thus young men, old men, women and children were all immersed in that inundation. When the contents of the storehouse of love of Godhead is thus distributed, there is a powerful inundation which covers the entire land. In Sridhama Mayapur there is sometimes a great flood after the rainy season. This is an indication that from the birthplace of Lord Caitanya the inundation of love of Godhead should be spread all over the world, for this will help everyone, including old men, young men, women and children. The Krsna consciousness movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is so powerful that it can inundate the entire world and interest all classes of men in the subject of love of Godhead. Cc. Adi 7.25 Krsna consciousness will spread all over the world: The Krsna consciousness movement will inundate the entire world and drown everyone, whether one be a gentleman, a rogue or even lame, invalid or blind. When the five members of the Panca-tattva saw the entire world drowned in love of Godhead and the seed of material enjoyment in the living entities completely destroyed, they all became exceedingly happy. The more the five members of the Panca-tattva cause the rains of love of Godhead to fall, the more the inundation increases and spreads all over the world. The Krsna consciousness movement is not stereotyped or stagnant.... Here it is indicated that this process will spread and inundate the entire world with Krsna consciousness. Cc. Adi 7.26-28 The Krsna consciousness movement will save the Western countries: They [Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda] appeared on the horizon of Gauda-deSa to spread the science of Krsna consciousness, and it is predicted that as the sun and moon gradually move west, the movement They began five hundred years ago will come to the Western civilizations by Their mercy. Cc. Adi 1.102 Lord Caitanya's prediction that Krsna consciousness will spread all over the world is being realized: When people came to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to discuss the principles of various scriptures, the Lord defeated their false conclusions and established the predominance of devotional service to the Lord. With logic and argument He very politely changed their minds. We have been spreading this sankirtana movement in the Western countries, and in our recent tour of European cities like Rome, Geneva, Paris and Frankfurt, many learned Christian scholars, priests, philosophers and yogis came to see us, and by the grace of Krsna they agreed that this Krsna consciousness movement, the bhakti cult, offers the topmost conclusion. Following in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we are trying to convince everyone that the devotional service of the Lord is enjoined in every scripture.... It is not a question of being Christian, Mohammedan or Hindu. One should be purely religious and freed from all these material designations.... This argument appeals to all intelligent men, and consequently this Krsna consciousness movement is gaining ground throughout the world. Due to our solid logic and scientific presentation, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's prediction that Krsna consciousness will spread in every town and village throughout the world is gradually being realized. Cc. Madhya 25.20 The Krsna consciousness movement will gradually spread all over the universe: The sankirtana movement went on from one part of the town to another, as the Lord wandered everywhere performing kirtana. In this way He inundated the whole world by distributing love of Godhead. One may raise the question how all three worlds became inundated with love of Krsna since Caitanya Mahaprabhu performed kirtana only in the Navadvipa area. The answer is that Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna Himself. The entire cosmic manifestation results from the Lord's first setting it in motion. Similarly, since the sankirtana movement was first set in motion five hundred years ago by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's desire that it spread all over the universe, the Krsna consciousness movement, in continuity of that same motion, is now spreading all over the world, and in this way it will gradually spread all over the universe. With the spread of the Krsna consciousness movement, everyone will merge in an ocean of love of Krsna. Cc. Adi 13.32 The Krsna consciousness movement is spreading like wildfire and cannot be checked: Human life is meant for God realization, but unfortunately the materialistic civilization is stressing only the senses of the body, not understanding the living force within the body. As clearly stated in Bhagavad-gita (dehino 'smin yatha dehe [bg. 2.13]), within the body is the body's proprietor, the living force, which is more important. But human society has become so fallen that instead of understanding the living force within the body, people have become busy with external things. This is a discrepancy in human duties. Therefore Krsna has taken birth or taken shelter within the womb of the Krsna consciousness movement. Men of Kamsa's class, therefore, are very much afraid and are busy trying to stop this movement, especially in the Western countries. One politician has remarked that the Krsna consciousness movement is spreading like an epidemic and that if not checked immediately, within ten years it may capture governmental power. There is, of course, such potency in the Krsna consciousness movement. As stated by authorities (Cc. Adi 17.22), kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara: in this age, Krsna has appeared in the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. The Krsna consciousness movement is spreading like wildfire all over the world, and it will go on doing so. Men who are like Kamsa are very much afraid of the movement's progress and acceptance by the younger generation, but as Krsna could not be killed by Kamsa, this movement cannot be checked by men of Kamsa's class. The movement will go on increasing more and more, provided the leaders of the movement remain firmly Krsna conscious by following the regulative principles and the primary activities of chanting the Hare Krsna mantra regularly. Bhag. 10.2.20 If we preach, the Krsna consciousness movement will spread all over the world by the grace of the Lord: The Krsna consciousness movement has spread all over the world within a very short time (within five years), and mundane people are very astonished at this. However, by the grace of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we understand that everything is possible by the grace of Krsna. Why does Krsna have to take five years? In five days He can spread His name and fame all over the world like wildfire. Those who have faith and devotion to Krsna can understand that these things happen so wonderfully by the grace of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. We are simply the instruments. . . If the preachers in our Krsna consciousness movement are sincere devotees of Krsna, Krsna will always be with them because He is very kind and favorable to all His devotees. Just as Arjuna and Krsna were victorious in the Battle of Kuruksetra, this Krsna consciousness movement will surely emerge victorious if we but remain sincere devotees of the Lord and serve the Lord according to the advice of predecessors (the six Gosvamis and other devotees of the Lord).... Within the Society we must try to serve the predecessors by preaching Caitanya Mahaprabhu's cult and spreading His name and fame all over the world. If we attempt this seriously within the Society, it will be successfully done. There is no question of estimating how this will happen in the mundane sense. But without a doubt, it happens by the grace of Krsna. Cc. Madhya 4.79

<font color="red"> 9. Conditioned Souls Benefit From Hearing Vedic Literature- The following is a small sample of literally hundreds of statements in Srila Prabhupada's books stressing the importance of the conditioned soul's hearing Vedic literature.Krsna-katha </font color> Out of compassion, Krsna compiled the Vedic literature for the liberation of the conditioned souls: [Lord Caitanya said,] "The conditioned soul cannot revive his Krsna consciousness by his own effort. But out of causeless mercy, Lord Krsna compiled the Vedic literature and its supplements, the Puranas. The forgetful conditioned soul is educated by Krsna through the Vedic literatures, the realized spiritual master and the Supersoul.... In this way one can acquire real knowledge of his conditioned life and can come to understand how to attain liberation." Out of His causeless mercy and compassion, Krsna has compiled various Vedic literatures in His incarnation as Vyasadeva. Vyasadeva is a SaktyaveSa-avatara of Lord Krsna. He has very kindly presented these literatures to awaken the conditioned soul to his senses. Unfortunately, at the present moment the conditioned souls are guided by demons who do not care to read the Vedic literatures. Although there is an immense treasure-house of knowledge, people are engaged in reading useless literature that will give them no information on how to get out of the clutches of maya.... As the SaktyaveSa-avatara Vyasadeva, Krsna teaches the conditioned soul through Vedic literatures. Krsna externally appears as the spiritual master and trains the conditioned soul to come to Krsna consciousness. When his original Krsna consciousness is revived, the conditioned soul is delivered from the material clutches. Thus a conditioned soul is always helped by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in three ways-by the scriptures, the spiritual master and the Supersoul within the heart. Cc. Madhya 20.122-123 By hearing the transcendental pastimes of Krsna, one goes back home, back to Godhead: Following in the holy footsteps of Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, we have tried to present this book Krsna for being read and heard by the conditioned souls of this age. By hearing the pastimes of Lord Krsna, one is sure and certain to get salvation and be transferred back home, back to Godhead. It is recommended by Sukadeva Gosvami that as we hear the transcendental pastimes and activities of the Lord, we gradually cut the knots of material contamination. Therefore, regardless of what one is, if one wants the association of Lord Krsna in the transcendental kingdom of God for eternity in blissful existence, one must hear about the pastimes of Lord Krsna and chant the maha-mantra, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Krsna, Ch. 21 Hearing (and chanting) the Vedic literature will bring peace and prosperity to the world: O King, it is therefore essential that every human being hear, glorify and remember the Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead always and everywhere. And for hearing only, all the Vedic literatures are there, compiled by authorized persons like Vyasadeva, who is the powerful incarnation of Godhead. And as it is ascertained that the Lord is the Supersoul of everything, He should therefore be heard and glorified everywhere and always. That is the special duty of the human being. And the human being, when he gives up the process of hearing about the all-pervading Personality of Godhead, becomes victim to hearing rubbish.... It is said here that it is incumbent upon the human beings to hear because the scriptures like Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, etc., are made for that purpose. Living beings other than human beings have no capacity to hear such Vedic literatures. If the human society gives itself to the process of hearing the Vedic literature, it will not become victim to the impious sounds vibrated by impious men who degrade the standards of the total society. Hearing is solidified by the process of chanting. One who has perfectly heard from the perfect source becomes convinced about the all-pervading Personality of Godhead and thus becomes enthusiastic in the matter of glorifying the Lord. All the great acaryas, like Ramanuja, Madhva, Caitanya, Sarasvati Thakura or even, in other countries, Muhammad, Christ and others, have all extensively glorified the Lord by chanting always and in every place. Because the Lord is all-pervading, it is essential to glorify Him always and everywhere. In the process of glorifying the Lord there should be no restriction of time and space. This is called sanatana-dharma, or bhagavata-dharma. Sanatana means eternal, always and everywhere. Bhagavata means pertaining to Bhagavan, the Lord. The Lord is the master of all time and all space, and therefore the Lord's holy name must be heard, glorified and remembered everywhere in the world, and that will bring about the desired peace and prosperity so eagerly awaited by the people of the world. Bhag. 2.2.36 The purifying effect of krsna-katha: Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said: My dear King, your question is glorious because it is very beneficial to all kinds of people. To hear the answer to this question is the prime subject matter of hearing, and it is approved by all transcendentalists. The topics of Lord Krsna are so auspicious that they purify the speaker, the hearer, and the inquirer. They are compared to the Ganges waters, which flow from the toe of Lord Krsna. Wherever the Ganges waters go, they purify the land and the person who bathes in them. Similarly, krsna-katha, or the topics of Krsna, are so pure that wherever they are spoken, the place, the hearer, the inquirer, the speaker and all concerned become purified. Bhag. 2.1.1 The Krsna consciousness movement gives people a chance to hear about Krsna: By regular attendance in classes on the Bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact. Bhag. 1.2.18 All the great acaryas strongly recommend that people be given a chance to hear about the Supreme Lord. Then success is assured. The more we cleanse the dirt of material attachment from our hearts, the more we will be attracted by Krsna's name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and activities. This is the sum and substance of the Krsna consciousness movement. Bhag. 5.18.11 Readers of Krsna literature can attain the ultimate goal of human life: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is always full of six opulences-namely complete wealth, complete strength, complete fame, complete knowledge, complete beauty and complete renunciation. The Lord appears in different complete, eternal forms of incarnation. The conditioned soul has immense opportunity to hear about the transcendental activities of the Lord in these different incarnations. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said, janma karma ca me divyam [bg. 4.9]. The pastimes and activities of the Lord are not material; they are beyond the material conception. But the conditioned soul can benefit by hearing such uncommon activities. Hearing is an opportunity to associate with the Lord; to hear His activities is to evolve to the transcendental nature-simply by hearing. The conditioned soul has a natural aptitude to hear something about other conditioned souls in the form of fiction, drama and novel. That inclination to hear something about others may be utilized in hearing the pastimes of the Lord. Then one can immediately evolve to his transcendental nature. Krsna's pastimes are not only beautiful; they are also very pleasing to the mind. If someone takes advantage of hearing the pastimes of the Lord, the material contamination of dust, accumulated in the heart due to long association with material nature, can be immediately cleansed.... Conditional life is due to this contamination only, and as soon as it is cleared off, then naturally the dormant function of the living entity-rendering service to the Lord-awakens. By developing his eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord, one becomes eligible to create friendship with the devotees. Maharaja Pariksit recommended, from practical experience, that everyone try to hear about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. This Krsna treatise is meant for that purpose, and the reader may take advantage in order to attain the ultimate goal of human life. Krsna, Ch. 7 By hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam all miseries are uprooted, and the Supreme Lord is established within one's heart: Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavata Purana propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyasadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart. Bhag. 1.1.2

<font color="red">8. To Be Effective in Preaching, the Preacher Must Be Pure and Follow the Regulative Principles </font color> Success formula for book distributors: Follow the rules and regulations and chant sixteen rounds; follow in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya: Upon seeing the chanting and dancing of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Nityananda predicted that later there would be dancing and chanting in every village. This prediction of Sri Nityananda Prabhu is applicable not only in India but also all over the world. That is now happening by His grace. The members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness are now traveling from one village to another in the Western countries and are even carrying the Deity with them. These devotees distribute various literatures all over the world. We hope that these devotees who are preaching the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu will very seriously follow strictly in His footsteps. If they follow the rules and regulations and chant sixteen rounds daily, their endeavor to preach the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu will certainly be successful. Cc. Madhya 7.82 For a preacher to have potency, he must be pure: Our Krsna consciousness movement is meant for this purpose. We want to create pure devotees so that other people will benefit by their association. In this way the number of pure devotees increases. Professional preachers cannot create pure devotees.... Only a pure devotee can convert others to pure devotional service. It is therefore important for all the preachers in our Krsna consciousness movement to first become pure devotees and follow the regulative principles, refraining from illicit sex, meat-eating, gambling and intoxication. They should regularly chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra on their beads, follow the devotional process, rise early in the morning, attend mangala-arati and recite Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita regularly. In this way, one can become purified and free from all material contamination.... To make a show of devotional service will not help one. One must be a pure devotee following the devotional process; then one can convert others to devotional service.... If a preacher behaves properly in devotional service, he will be able to convert others. Otherwise, his preaching will have no effect. Cc. Madhya 24.98 Spiritual strength to preach the Krsna consciousness movement is derived from following the orders of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu: That order [of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu] is still existing, and anywhere and everywhere, in all parts of the world, one can execute it. That order is to become a spiritual master under the direction of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by following the regulative principles, chanting daily at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, and preaching the cult of Krsna consciousness all over the world. If we adhere to the order of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we shall get spiritual strength without a doubt, and we shall be free to preach this cult of the Hare Krsna movement and not be hampered by anyone. Cc. Adi 17.126 For a preacher to have potency he must be a pure Vaisnava: Our preachers who are preaching Krsna consciousness all over the world should follow in the footsteps of Narada Muni and become purified by following the four principles and chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. This will make them fit to become Vaisnavas. Then when they speak to sinful people about the teachings of this Krsna consciousness movement, people will be affected and take the instructions.... we should follow in the footsteps of Narada Muni and become pure Vaisnavas. A pure Vaisnava is one who has no ulterior motive. He has totally dedicated himself to the service of the Lord. He does not have material desires... Cc. Madhya 24.252 ISKCON preaching success formula: Stick to the regulative principles and preach sincerely according to the instructions of the acaryas: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to preach the sankirtana movement of love of Krsna throughout the entire world, and therefore during His presence He inspired the sankirtana movement. Specifically, He sent Rupa Gosvami to Vrndavana and Nityananda to Bengal and personally went to South India. In this way He kindly left the task of preaching His cult in the rest of the world to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The members of this Society must always remember that if they stick to the regulative principles and preach sincerely according to the instructions of the acaryas, surely they will have the profound blessings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and their preaching work will be successful everywhere throughout the world. Cc. Adi 7.171 The devotee is fully protected by following Lord Caitanya's orders: If one simply follows the instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, under the guidance of His representative, and chants the Hare Krsna mantra, teaching everyone as far as possible the same principle, the contamination of the materialistic way of life will not even touch him. It does not matter whether one lives in a holy place like Vrndavana, Navadvipa or Jagannatha Puri or in the midst of European cities where the materialistic way of life is very prominent. If a devotee follows the instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he lives in the company of the Lord. Wherever he lives, he converts that place into Vrndavana and Navadvipa. This means that materialism cannot touch him. This is the secret of success for one advancing in Krsna consciousness. Cc. Madhya 7.129 Preaching ability is based on detachment and wisdom: To disseminate transcendental knowledge one must retire from mundane activities on the strength of enlightenment in knowledge in terms of Vedic wisdom. Bhag. 3.7.3 To push on the Krsna consciousness movement, the regulative principles must be followed: Unless one is firmly fixed in the regulative principles, one may perform mischievous acts, even if one is a member of the Krsna consciousness movement. We therefore advise our disciples to strictly follow the regulative principles; otherwise the most important movement for the upliftment of humanity will be hampered due to dissension among its members. Those who are serious about pushing forward this Krsna consciousness movement should remember this and strictly follow the regulative principles so that their minds will not be disturbed. Bhag. 5.14.35 If we follow the rules and regulations (of devotional service) we can elevate others: When a person is advanced in spiritual consciousness or Krsna consciousness, he naturally becomes very sympathetic toward all living entities suffering in the material world. Naturally such an advanced person thinks of the suffering of the people in general.... If one is actually sympathetic to fallen, suffering humanity, he should try to elevate people from material consciousness to spiritual consciousness.... By the grace of Krsna, we may raise a person to spiritual consciousness if we ourselves follow the rules and regulations. If we give up our own spiritual activities and simply become concerned with the bodily comforts of others, we will fall into a dangerous position. Bhag. 5.8.9 Qualifications for effective preaching: If a devotee is qualified, sincere and serious about Krsna consciousness and if he follows the instructions of a bona fide spiritual master, as Prahlada Maharaja did when preaching the instructions he had received from Narada Muni, his preaching is effective. Bhag. 7.8.1 One who chants sixteen rounds and preaches is "fit to become a spiritual master for the entire world": [sanatana Gosvami to Haridasa Thakura] "Some behave very well but do not preach the cult of Krsna consciousness, whereas others preach but do not behave properly. You simultaneously perform both duties in relation to the holy name by your personal behavior and by your preaching. Therefore you are the spiritual master of the entire world, for you are the most advanced devotee in the world." Sanatana Gosvami clearly defines herein the bona fide spiritual master of the world. The qualifications expressed in this connection are that one must act according to the scriptural injunctions and at the same time preach. One who does so is a bona fide spiritual master.... The members of the Krsna consciousness movement chant a minimum of sixteen rounds a day, which can be done without difficulty, and at the same time they must preach the cult of Caitanya Mahaprabhu according to the gospel of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. One who does so is quite fit to become a spiritual master for the entire world. Cc. Antya 4.102-103

<font color="red">7. The Preacher Should Practice Tolerance </font color> Devotees must humbly tolerate opponents while preaching: Vaisnavas must meet many opponents while preaching the glories of the Lord, but Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu recommends that they not become angry while preaching. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given this formula: ... "One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and should be ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly." Those engaged in preaching the glories of the Lord should be humbler than grass and more tolerant than a tree; then they can preach the glories of the Lord without difficulty. Bhag. 6.4.5 The preacher must practice tolerance (in meeting opposing elements): While engaged in preaching work he [the sadhu] has to meet with so many opposing elements, and therefore the sadhu, or devotee of the Lord, has to be very tolerant. Someone may ill-treat him because the conditioned souls are not prepared to receive the transcendental knowledge of devotional service. They don't like it; that is their disease. The sadhu has the thankless task of impressing upon them the importance of devotional service. Sometimes devotees are personally attacked with violence. Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Haridasa Thakura was caned in twenty-two marketplaces, and Lord Caitanya's principal assistant, Nityananda, was violently attacked by Jagai and Madhai. But still they were tolerant because their mission was to deliver the fallen souls. One of the qualifications of a sadhu is that he is very tolerant and is merciful to all fallen souls. Bhag. 3.25.21 The preacher should tolerate envious persons and go on preaching: When one is engaged in devotional service, he is often surrounded by envious people, and often many enemies come to try to defeat him or stop him.... The atheists are always prepared to harass a devotee; therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu suggested that one be very tolerant of these people. Nonetheless, one has to continue chanting the Hare Krsna mantra and preaching the chanting of this mantra because such preaching and chanting constitute the perfection of life. One should chant and preach about the urgency of making this life perfect in all respects. Bhag. 4.24.67 The preacher should be humble and tolerate impediments: Following the orders of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, one who preaches the glories of the Lord all over the world or all over the universe should be humbler than grass and more tolerant than a tree because a preacher cannot live an easygoing life. Indeed, a preacher must face many impediments. Not only is he sometimes cursed, but sometimes he must also suffer personal injury. For example, when Nityananda Prabhu went to preach Krsna consciousness to the two roguish brothers Jagai and Madhai, they injured Him and made His head bleed, but nevertheless, He tolerantly delivered the two rogues, who became perfect Vaisnavas. This is the duty of a preacher. Lord Jesus Christ even tolerated crucifixion. Bhag. 6.5.44 The preacher must tolerate inimical persons: [After discussing "enemies" of the Krsna consciousness movement-caste brahmanas and parents of devotees:] We have no business creating enemies, but the process is such that nondevotees will always be inimical toward us. Nevertheless, as stated in the Sastras, a devotee should be both tolerant and merciful. Devotees engaged in preaching should be prepared to be accused by ignorant persons, and yet they must be very merciful to the fallen conditioned souls. If one can execute his duty in the disciplic succession of Narada Muni, his service will surely be recognized. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (18.68-69): ya idam paramam guhyam mad-bhaktesv abhidhasyati bhaktim mayi param krtva mam evaisyaty asamSayah na ca tasman manusyesu kaScin me priya-krttamah bhavita na ca me tasmad anyah priyataro bhuvi "For one who explains the supreme secret to the devotees, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me. There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear." Let us continue preaching the message of Lord Krsna and not be afraid of enemies. Our only duty is to satisfy the Lord by this preaching, which will be accepted as service by Lord Caitanya and Lord Krsna. We must sincerely serve the Lord and not be deterred by so-called enemies. Bhag. 6.5.39 The devotee (preacher) accepts reverses as Krsna's mercy: When something is arranged by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one should not be disturbed by it, even if it appears to be a reverse according to his calculation. For example, sometimes we see that a powerful preacher is killed, or sometimes he is put into difficulty, just as Haridasa Thakura was. He was a great devotee who came into this material world to execute the will of the Lord by preaching the Lord's glories. But Haridasa was punished at the hands of the Kazi by being beaten in twenty-two marketplaces. Similarly, Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, and Prahlada Maharaja was put through so many tribulations. The Pandavas, who were direct friends of Krsna, lost their kingdom; their wife was insulted, and they had to undergo many severe tribulations. Seeing all these reverses affect devotees, one should not be disturbed; one should simply understand that in these matters there must be some plan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Bhagavatam's conclusion is that a devotee is never disturbed by such reverses. He accepts even reverse conditions as the grace of the Lord. One who continues to serve the Lord even in reverse conditions is assured that he will go back to Godhead, back to the VaikunTha planets. Bhag. 3.16.37 A preacher must tolerate the asuras and make them become devotees: It is the nature of demons to give devotees trouble, just as in the West, Lord Jesus Christ was crucified because he was preaching God consciousness.... Actually everyone in the material world is more or less an asura, an atheist. If one preaches, one has to learn to tolerate the asuras and speak in such a way that they can also become devotees. TLK Ch. 15, text 35

<font color="red">6. Preaching Is Based on Compassion </font color> The preacher's mood of compassion: One who identifies himself as a follower of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu should feel like Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who said, iha-sabara kon mate ha-ibe nistara: "How will all these yavanas be delivered?" Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was always anxious to deliver the fallen souls because their fallen condition gave Him great unhappiness. That is the platform on which one can propagate the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Cc. Antya 3.51 Impelled by knowledge and compassion, the devotee preaches: Whenever there is disease in any part of the body, the whole body takes care of the ailing part. Similarly, a devotee's oneness is manifested in his compassion for all conditioned souls. Bhagavad-gita says, panditah sama-darSinah: those who are learned see everyone's conditional life equally. (Bg. 5.18) Devotees are compassionate to every conditioned soul, and therefore they are known as aparakya-buddhi. Because devotees are learned and know that every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, they preach Krsna consciousness to everyone so that they may be happy. If a particular part of the body is diseased, the whole attention of the body goes to that part. Similarly, devotees care for any person who is forgetful of Krsna and therefore in material consciousness. The equal vision of the devotee is that he works to get all living entities back home, back to Godhead. Bhag. 4.7.53 Out of compassion for living entities, the sadhu preaches: The symptoms of a sadhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime. A sadhu, as described above, is a devotee of the Lord. His concern, therefore, is to enlighten people in devotional service to the Lord. That is his mercy. He knows that without devotional service to the Lord, human life is spoiled. A devotee travels all over the country, from door to door, preaching, "Be Krsna conscious. Be a devotee of Lord Krsna. Don't spoil your life in simply fulfilling your animal propensities. Human life is meant for self-realization, or Krsna consciousness." These are the preachings of a sadhu. He is not satisfied with his own liberation. He always thinks about others. He is the most compassionate personality towards all the fallen souls. One of his qualifications, therefore, is karunika, great mercy to the fallen souls.... He is merciful because he is the well-wisher of all living entities. He is not only a well-wisher of human society, but a well-wisher of animal society as well. It is said here, sarva-dehinam, which indicates all living entities who have accepted a material body. Not only does the human being have a material body, but other living entities, such as cats and dogs, also have material bodies. The devotee of the Lord is merciful to everyone-the cats, dogs, trees, etc. He treats all living entities in such a way that they can ultimately get salvation from this material entanglement. Bhag. 3.25.21 A Vaisnava shows compassion toward sinful, suffering entities: Prahlada Maharaja is the topmost example of a Vaisnava who is always compassionate toward sinful persons suffering a hellish life within this material world. Krsna is therefore known as para-duhkha-duhkhi krpambudhi, or one who is compassionate toward others' suffering and who is an ocean of mercy. Like Prahlada Maharaja, all pure devotees of the Lord come to this material world with full compassion to deliver the sinful. They undergo all kinds of tribulations, suffering them with tolerance, because that is another qualification of a Vaisnava, who tries to deliver all sinful persons from the hellish conditions of material existence. Vaisnavas are therefore offered the following prayer: vancha-kalpatarubhyaS ca krpa-sindhubhya eva ca patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah "I offer my respectful obeisances unto all the Vaisnava devotees of the Lord. They are just like desire trees who can fulfill the desires of everyone, and they are full of compassion for the fallen conditioned souls." The chief concern of a Vaisnava is to deliver the fallen souls. Bhag. 4.21.47 A bona fide devotee is aggrieved to see the fallen condition of the world: A bona fide devotee of Lord Krsna is always pained to see the fallen condition of the whole world. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura used to say, "There is no scarcity of anything within this world. The only scarcity is of Krsna consciousness." That is the vision of all pure devotees. Because of this lack of Krsna consciousness in human society, people are suffering terribly, being merged in an ocean of nescience and sense gratification. A devotee onlooker is very much aggrieved to see such a situation in the world. Cc. Adi 13.67 A devotee is not satisfied with his own salvation; out of compassion, he preaches to others, and Krsna gives him special protection: A Krsna conscious person should free himself from the clutches of maya, and he should also be compassionate to all others suffering in those clutches. The activities of the Krsna consciousness movement are meant not only for oneself but for others also. This is the perfection of Krsna consciousness. One who is interested in his own salvation is not as advanced in Krsna consciousness as one who feels compassion for others and who therefore propagates the Krsna consciousness movement. Such an advanced devotee will never fall down, for Krsna will give him special protection. That is the sum and substance of the Krsna consciousness movement. Bhag. 6.2.36-37 A devotee feels compassion for the fallen souls: Devahuti continued: My dear Lord, please also describe in detail, both for myself and for people in general, the continual process of birth and death, for by hearing of such calamities we may become detached from the activities of this material world.... My dear Lord, You are just like the sun, for You illuminate the darkness of the conditional life of the living entities. Because their eyes of knowledge are not open, they are sleeping eternally in that darkness without Your shelter, and therefore they are falsely engaged by the actions and reactions of their material activities, and they appear to be very fatigued. Lord Kapila was very satisfied by the request of His glorious mother because she was thinking not only in terms of her personal salvation but in terms of all the fallen conditioned souls. Bhag. 3.29.3,5,6 Feeling compassion for conditioned souls, the devotee preaches: A pure devotee of the Lord like Brahma and persons in his disciplic succession are always unhappy to see the perplexities of the conditioned souls, who are suffering the onslaughts of the threefold miseries which pertain to the body and mind, to the disturbances of material nature and many other such material disadvantages. Not knowing adequate measures for relieving such difficulties, suffering persons sometimes pose themselves as leaders of the people, and the unfortunate followers are put into further disadvantages under such so-called leadership. This is like a blind man's leading another blind man to fall into a ditch. Therefore, unless the devotees of the Lord take pity on them and teach them the right path, their lives are hopeless failures. Bhag. 3.9.8 Out of compassion, saintly people preach Krsna consciousness: Saintly people preach God consciousness or Krsna consciousness because they are anxious to save the general populace from the dangers of animalistic life. Bhag. 4.14.9 The Lord is satisfied with a preacher who is tolerant and merciful: The Lord is very satished with His devotee when the devotee greets other people with tolerance, mercy, friendship and equality. It is the duty of an advanced devotee in the second stage of devotional perfection to act in accordance with this verse.... Sometimes devotees are ill-treated by envious persons. It is advised that an advanced devotee should be tolerant; he should show complete mercy to persons who are ignorant or innocent. A preacher-devotee is meant to show mercy to innocent persons whom he can elevate to devotional service. Everyone, by constitutional position, is an eternal servant of God. Therefore, a devotee's business is to awaken everyone's Krsna consciousness. That is his mercy.... His general view should be to see every living entity as part of the Supreme Lord. Different living entities appear in different forms of dress, but according to the instruction of the Bhagavad-gita, a learned person sees all living entities equally. Such treatment by the devotee is very much appreciated by the Supreme Lord. Bhag. 4.11.13 Devotees, out of compassion, are kind to the ignorant mass of people and therefore preach (and are blessed by the demigods): Pure devotees, out of compassion for the fallen souls, are krpalu, very kind to people in general; they distribute this Bhagavata knowledge all over the world. A kindhearted devotee is called dina-natha, protector of the poor, ignorant mass of people. Lord Krsna is also known as dina-natha or dina-bandhu, the master or actual friend of the poor living entities, and His pure devotee also takes the same position of dina-natha. The dina-nathas, or devotees of Lord Krsna, who preach the path of devotional service, become favorites of the demigods.... the demigods are automatically pleased with him and offer all the blessings within their capacity. Bhag. 4.12.51 Out of compassion for materialists, devotees preach Krsna consciousness: The duty of those who follow in the footsteps of Prahlada Maharaja is to teach the entire world how to be Krsna conscious and thus be really happy.... Materialistic persons are engaged in striving for temporary benefits, whereas persons advanced in spiritual knowledge, such as Prahlada Maharaja, are not interested in the materialistic way of life. Instead, they want to be elevated to an eternal life of knowledge and bliss. Therefore, as Krsna is always compassionate to the fallen souls, His servants, the devotees of Lord Krsna, are also interested in educating the entire populace in Krsna consciousness. The mistake of materialistic life is understood by devotees, and therefore they smile upon it, considering it insignificant. Out of compassion, however, such devotees preach the gospel of Bhagavad-gita all over the world. Bhag. 7.5.55 Prahlada's prayer for delivering all conditioned souls: "O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material existence, for wherever I stay I am fully absorbed in thoughts of Your glories and activities. My concern is only for the fools and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families, societies and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them. My dear Lord Nrsimhadeva, I see that there are many saintly persons indeed, but they are interested only in their own deliverance. Not caring for the big cities and towns, they go to the Himalayas or the forest to meditate with vows of silence.... They are not interested in delivering others. As for me, however, I do not wish to be liberated alone, leaving aside all these poor fools and rascals. I know that without Krsna consciousness, without taking shelter of Your lotus feet, one cannot be happy. Therefore I wish to bring them back to shelter at Your lotus feet." Bhag. 7.9.43-44 Out of compassion great devotees travel and preach: Great unalloyed devotees of the Lord are compassionate towards the fallen, and therefore they travel all over the world with the mission of bringing souls back to Godhead, back to home. Such pure devotees of the Lord carry the message of Godhead in order to deliver the fallen souls, and therefore the common man who is bewildered by the influence of the external energy of the Lord should avail himself of their association. Bhag. 3.5.3 Preaching is based on compassion: O my Lord, persons who are bereft of the all-auspicious performance of chanting and hearing about Your transcendental activities are certainly unfortunate and are also bereft of good sense. They engage in inauspicious activities, enjoying sense gratification for a very little while. The Lord's pure devotees...take compassion upon such unfortunate persons and, in a missionary spirit, try to persuade them into the line of devotional service. Only by the grace of pure devotees can such unfortunate men be elevated to the position of transcendental service. Bhag. 3.9.7 Vasudeva Datta's prayer to save all living entities (exemplifying Vaisnava compassion): Vasudeva Datta told Caitanya Mahaprabhu, "My dear Lord, You incarnate just to deliver all conditioned souls. I have now one petition, which I wish You would accept.... My Lord, my heart breaks to see the sufferings of all conditioned souls; therefore I request You to transfer the karma of their sinful lives upon my head. My dear Lord, let me suffer perpetually in a hellish condition, accepting all the sinful reactions of all living entities. Please finish their diseased material life." When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu heard Vasudeva Datta's statement, His heart became very soft. Tears flowed from His eyes, and He began to tremble.... A Vaisnava is so liberal that he is prepared to risk everything to rescue conditioned souls from material existence.... He [Vasudeva Datta] was a most exalted personality who wanted to show mercy upon conditioned souls.... He was a Vaisnava-para-duhkha-duhkhi-very much aggrieved to see others suffer.... One who executes Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission must be considered to be eternally liberated. He is a transcendental person and does not belong to this material world. Such a devotee engaging in the deliverance of the total population is as magnanimous as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself...Such a personality factually represents Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu because his heart is always filled with compassion for conditioned souls. Cc. Madhya 15.160, 162-164 (Madhya: 6, pp. 82-85) Impelled by compassion, the devotee preaches: When a Vaisnava sees mismanagement in the government, he feels great compassion in his heart and tries his best to purify the situation by spreading the Hare Krsna movement. Bhag. 6.2.3 Out of compassion, the devotee preaches: Vaisnavas, or devotees, are usually very compassionate upon conditioned souls. Without even being invited, a devotee will go from door to door to enlighten people and to bring them out of the darkness of nescience by injecting knowledge of the living entity's constitutional position as a servant of Lord Krsna. Such devotees are empowered by the Lord to distribute devotional consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, to the people in general. TLC Ch. 1 By the compassion and mercy of a devotee, the Lord delivers a conditioned soul: BhaTTacarya's brother-in-law, Gopinatha Acarya, and the devotees of the Lord were surprised to see the BhaTTacarya transformed into a great devotee. Gopinatha Acarya then began to thank the Lord: "It is by Your grace only that BhaTTacarya has been transformed from his stonelike position into such a devotee." Lord Caitanya then replied to Gopinatha Acarya that it was due to a devotee's favor that a stonelike man could be transformed into a mild, flowerlike devotee. Actually Gopinatha Acarya had sincerely wished that his brother-in-law, BhaTTacarya, would become a devotee of the Lord. He had sincerely desired that the Lord favor BhaTTacarya, and he was glad to see that his desire was fulfilled by Lord Caitanya. In other words, a devotee of the Lord is more merciful than the Lord Himself. When a devotee desires to show his mercy to a person, the Lord acts, and by His grace one becomes a devotee. TLC Ch. 26 Advanced devotees are compassionate and try to preach: When a person is advanced in spiritual consciousness or Krsna consciousness, he naturally becomes very sympathetic toward all living entities suffering in the material world. Naturally such an advanced person thinks of the suffering of the people in general.... If one is actually sympathetic to fallen, suffering humanity, he should try to elevate people from material consciousness to spiritual conscious.... By the grace of Krsna, we may raise a person to spiritual consciousness if we ourselves follow the rules and regulations. If we give up our own spiritual activities and simply become concerned with the bodily comforts of others, we will fall into a dangerous position. Bhag. 5.8.9 The preacher is the most compassionate personality towards all the fallen souls: His [a sadhu's] concern, therefore, is to enlighten people in devotional service to the Lord. That is his mercy. He knows that without devotional service to the Lord, human life is spoiled.... He is not satisfied with his own liberation. He always thinks about others. He is the most compassionate personality towards all the fallen souls. One of his qualifications, therefore, is karunika, great mercy to the fallen souls. Bhag. 3.25.21

<font color="red">5. One Who Preaches Krsna Consciousness Is Dear to Lord Krsna and Is Protected by the Lord </font color> The preacher is recognized by Krsna: If one gives the conditioned souls a chance to become Krsna conscious, all his activities are approved by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is extremely pleased.... Following the examples of the previous acaryas, all the members of the Krsna consciousness movement should try to benefit the conditioned souls by inducing them to become Krsna conscious and giving them all facilities to do so.... By such activities, a preacher or anyone who endeavors to spread Krsna consciousness is recognized by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As the Lord Himself confirms in Bhagavad-gita:... "For one who explains the supreme secret to the devotees, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me. There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear." Bhag. 6.4.44 A preacher in Brahma's party (Brahma-sampradaya) is very dear to the Lord: The creation of the material world is not blind or accidental. The living entities who are ever conditioned, or nitya-baddha, are thus given a chance for liberation under the guidance of His [Krsna's] own representative like Brahma. The Lord instructs Brahma in Vedic knowledge in order to diffuse this knowledge to the conditioned souls. The conditioned souls are forgetful souls in their relationship with the Lord, and thus a period of creation and the process of dissemination of Vedic knowledge are necessary activities of the Lord. Lord Brahma has a great responsibility in delivering the conditioned souls, and therefore he is very dear to the Lord. Brahma also does his duty very perfectly, not only by generating the living entities but also by spreading his party for reclaiming the fallen souls. The party is called the Brahma-sampradaya, and any member of this party to date is naturally engaged in reclaiming the fallen souls back to Godhead, back home. The Lord is very much anxious to get back His parts and parcels, as stated in the Bhagavad-gita. No one is more dear than the one who takes the task of reclaiming the fallen souls back to Godhead. Anyone...preaching the mission of the Lord in the line of the Brahma-sampradaya is always dear to the Lord, and the Lord, being satisfied with such a preacher of the authorized bhakti cult, shakes hands with him in great satisfaction. Bhag. 2.9.19 One who preaches is appreciated by and recognized by Krsna ...everyone should engage in preaching, following in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In this way one will be very much appreciated by Lord Krsna and will quickly be recognized by Him. Cc. Madhya 7.153 The preacher is very dear to the Lord: "Therefore, my dear young friends... show mercy to all living entities by enlightening them in devotional service, thus becoming their well-wishers." The Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (18.55), bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yaS casmi tattvatah: "One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service." Prahlada Maharaja ultimately instructed his class friends, the sons of the demons, to accept the process of devotional service by preaching the science of Krsna consciousness to everyone. Preaching is the best service to the Lord. The Lord will immediately be extremely satisfied with one who engages in this service of preaching Krsna consciousness. This is confirmed by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gita (18.69). Na ca tasman manusyesu kaScin me priya-krttamah: "There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear." If one sincerely tries his best to spread Krsna consciousness by preaching the glories of the Lord and His supremacy, even if he is imperfectly educated, he becomes the dearmost servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is bhakti. As one performs this service for humanity, without discrimination between friends and enemies, the Lord becomes satisfied, and the mission of one's life is fulfilled. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu therefore advised everyone to become a guru-devotee and preach Krsna consciousness (yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadeSa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]). That is the easiest way to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Bhag. 7.6.24 One who preaches (to try to relieve Lord Caitanya of His anxiety for the fallen souls) is most dear to the Lord: Everyone should adopt the cause of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to try to relieve Him from the anxiety He feels. This is actually service to the Lord. One who tries to relieve Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's anxiety for the fallen souls is certainly a most dear and confidential devotee of the Lord. Cc. Antya 3.52 The Lord is pleased with the preacher (who performs the highest welfare activity): It is said that great personalities almost always accept voluntary suffering because of the suffering of people in general. This is considered the highest method of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present in everyone's heart. Here is an explanation of how those engaged in activities for the welfare of others are very quickly recognized by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (18.68-69), ya idam paramam guhyam mad-bhaktesv abhidhasyati... na ca tasman manusyesu kaScin me priya-krttamah: "One who preaches the message of Bhagavad-gita to My devotees is most dear to Me. No one can excel him in satisfying Me by worship." There are different kinds of welfare activities in this material world, but the supreme welfare activity is the spreading of Krsna consciousness. Other welfare activities cannot be effective, for the laws of nature and the results of karma cannot be checked.... If one tries to spread Krsna consciousness all over the world, he should be understood to be performing the best welfare activity. The Lord is automatically very pleased with him. If the Lord is pleased with him, what is left for him to achieve? If one has been recognized by the Lord, even if he does not ask the Lord for anything, the Lord, who is within everyone, supplies him whatever he wants.... The best welfare activity is raising people to the platform of Krsna consciousness, since the conditioned souls are suffering only for want of Krsna consciousness.... All the Sastras conclude, therefore, that spreading the Krsna consciousness movement is the best welfare activity in the world. Because of the ultimate benefit this bestows upon people in general, the Lord very quickly recognizes such service performed by a devotee. Bhag. 8.7.44 The Lord is pleased by a compassionate devotee: Devahuti continued: My dear Lord, please also describe in detail, both for myself and for people in general, the continual process of birth and death, for by hearing of such calamities we may become detached from the activities of this material world.... My dear Lord, You are just like the sun, for You illuminate the darkness of the conditional life of the living entities. Because their eyes of knowledge are not open, they are sleeping eternally in that darkness without Your shelter, and therefore they are falsely engaged by the actions and reactions of their material activities, and they appear to be very fatigued. Sri Maitreya said: O best amongst the Kurus, the great sage Kapila, moved by great compassion and pleased by the words of His glorious mother, spoke as follows. Lord Kapila was very satisfied by the request of his glorious mother because she was thinking not only in terms of her personal salvation but in terms of all the fallen conditioned souls. The Lord is always compassionate towards the fallen souls of this material world, and therefore He comes Himself or sends His confidential servants to deliver them. Since He is perpetually compassionate towards them, if some of His devotees also become compassionate towards them, He is very pleased with the devotees. In Bhagavad-gita it is clearly stated that persons who are trying to elevate the condition of the fallen souls by preaching the conclusion of Bhagavad-gita-namely, full surrender unto the Personality of Godhead-are very dear to Him. Thus when the Lord says that His beloved mother was very compassionate towards the fallen souls, He was pleased, and He also became compassionate towards her. Bhag. 3.29.3,5,6 Brahmana-preachers of Krsna consciousness are worshipable, even by Krsna: As admitted by Lord Krsna in Bhagavad-gita (18.69), na ca tasman manusyesu kaScin me priya-krttamah. The brahmanas preach the cult of Krsna consciousness all around the world, and therefore, although they worship Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Lord also recognizes them as worshipable. The relationship is reciprocal. The brahmanas want to worship Krsna, and similarly Krsna wants to worship the brahmanas. Bhag. 7.14.42 Preaching activities satisfy the Lord: The demigods are called sakama devotees, or devotees with material desires in mind, while the pure devotees are called niskama devotees because they have no desires in their personal interests. The sakama devotees are self-interested because they do not think of others, and therefore they are not able to satisfy the Lord perfectly, whereas the pure devotees take the missionary responsibility of turning nondevotees into devotees, and they are therefore able to satisfy the Lord more than the demigods.... Sometimes the Lord Himself descends for missionary activities, as He did in the form of Lord Caitanya, but mostly He sends His bona fide representatives, and thus He shows His causeless mercy towards the nondevotees. The Lord is so satisfied with His pure devotees that He wants to give them the credit of missionary success, although He could do the work personally. This is the sign of His satisfaction with His pure niskama devotees, compared to the sakama devotees. Bhag. 3.9.12 By preaching, one attains the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya: If one wants to be recognized as a devotee by Krsna, he should take to preaching work, following the advice of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Then one will undoubtedly attain the lotus feet of Sri Krsna Caitanya, Lord Krsna Himself, without delay. Cc. Madhya 7.148 The devotees who, out of compassion, preach are as confidential to the Lord as Lord Brahma: A pure devotee of the Lord like Brahma and persons in his disciplic succession are always unhappy to see the perplexities of the conditioned souls, who are suffering the onslaughts of the threefold miseries which pertain to the body and mind, to the disturbances of material nature and many other such material disadvantages.... The devotees of the Lord who voluntarily take the responsibility of raising the foolish materialistic sense enjoyers are as confidential to the Lord as Lord Brahma. Bhag. 3.9.8 Preachers are very, very dear to Lord Krsna; their salvation is assured: In the Bhagavad-gita, Eighteenth Chapter, the Lord also states that one who is engaged in preaching Krsna consciousness is very dear to Him. A preacher has to face many difficulties in his struggle to preach pure Krsna consciousness. Sometimes he has to suffer bodily injuries, and sometimes he has to meet death also. All this is taken as a great austerity on behalf of Krsna. Krsna therefore has said that such a preacher is very, very dear to Him. If Krsna's enemies can expect salvation simply by concentrating their minds on Him, then what to speak of persons who are so dear to Krsna? The conclusion should be that the salvation of those who are engaged in preaching Krsna consciousness in the world is guaranteed in all circumstances. But such preachers never care for salvation, because factually one who is engaged in Krsna consciousness, devotional service, has already achieved salvation. Krsna, Ch. 29 Krsna takes the preacher back home, back to Godhead: For one who explains the supreme secret to the devotees, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me. There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear. Anyone...who tries sincerely to present Bhagavad-gita as it is will advance in devotional activities and reach the pure devotional state of life. As a result of such pure devotion, he is sure to go back home, back to Godhead. Bg. 18.68-69 Krsna is merciful to the preacher; He takes him back home, back to Godhead: My dear Arjuna, one who is engaged in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of previous activities and from mental speculation, who is friendly to every living entity, certainly comes to Me. A devotee situated in Krsna consciousness knows that only devotional service to Krsna can relieve a person from all the problems of life. He has personal experience of this, and therefore he wants to introduce this system, Krsna consciousness, into human society. There are many examples in history of devotees of the Lord risking their lives for the spreading of God consciousness.... Why such risk? Because they wanted to spread Krsna consciousness, and it is difficult.... Now, we can imagine how merciful Krsna is to those engaged in His service, risking everything for Him. Therefore it is certain that such persons must reach the supreme planet after leaving the body. Bg. 11.55 We are protected when we execute our duty to preach: Our actual duty is to carry out the supreme order of the Personality of Godhead. If we are fixed in our determination to carry out the supreme order of the Lord, we are always secure, regardless of where we are situated, whether in hell or in heaven.... The devotees in the Krsna consciousness movement are preaching all over the world in accordance with the order of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. They have to meet many karmis, but by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, they are unaffected by material influences.... A sincere devotee who engages in the service of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by preaching His cult all over the world will never be affected by visaya-taranga, material influences. On the contrary, in due course of time he will return to the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and will thus have perpetual association with Him. Bhag. 5.1.19 The Lord blesses the preacher: Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the father and inaugurator of the sankirtana movement. One who worships Him by sacrificing his life, money, intelligence and words for the sankirtana movement is recognized by the Lord and endowed with His blessings. All others may be said to be foolish, for of all sacrifices in which a man may apply his energy, a sacrifice made for the sankirtana movement is the most glorious. Cc. Adi 3.78 A preacher of Krsna consciousness is protected by Lord Nrsimhadeva: The Supreme Personality of Godhead in His transcendental form of Narahari, Nrsimhadeva, is always ready to kill the demons, who always create disturbances in the minds of honest devotees. To spread the Krsna consciousness movement, devotees have to face many dangers and impediments all over the world, but a faithful servant who preaches with great devotion to the Lord must know that Lord Nrsimhadeva is always his protector. Bhag. 7.8.51 Members of ISKCON should be assured of the Lord's protection and preach: In all kinds of danger, they [the members of the Krsna consciousness society] should be confident of their protection by the Visnudutas or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranaSyati, Bg. 9.31). Material danger is not meant for devotees. This is also confirmed in Srimad-Bhagavatam (SB 10.14 58). Padam padam yad vipadam na tesam: in this material world there are dangers at every step, but they are not meant for devotees who have fully surrendered unto the lotus feet of the Lord. The pure devotees of Lord Visnu may rest assured of the Lord's protection, and as long as they are in this material world they should fully engage in devotional service by preaching the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Krsna, namely the Hare Krsna movement of Krsna consciousness. Bhag. 6.3.18 One must constantly pray to the Lord for protection and the blessings to preach: Unless one is sufficiently protected by the Lord, he may fall down from his spiritual position; therefore one has to pray constantly to the Lord for protection and the blessing to carry out one's duty. Lord Caitanya also entrusted His missionary work to His devotees and assured them of His protection against the onslaught of material affection. The path of spiritual life is stated in the Vedas to be like the edge of a sharpened razor. A little inattentiveness may at once create havoc and bloodshed, but one who is a completely surrendered soul, always seeking protection from the Lord in the discharge of his entrusted duties, has no fear of falling into material contamination. Bhag. 3.9.24 The pure devotee-preachers are the most confidential servants of the Lord: ...devotees of the Lord are honored equally with the Lord because they are engaged in the most confidential service of the Lord, for they deliver out of the material world the fallen souls whom the Lord wants to return home, back to Godhead. Bhag. 1.1.15 Servants of God preach and thus become dear to the Lord: ...asuras are gradually rectified to God consciousness by the mercy of the Lord's liberated servitors in different countries according to the Supreme will. Such devotees of God are very confidential associates of the Lord, and when they come to save human society from the dangers of godlessness, they are known as the powerful incarnations of the Lord, as sons of the Lord, as servants of the Lord or as associates of the Lord.... Such servants of God are called mahatmas, or tirthas, and they preach according to particular time and place. The servants of God urge people to become devotees of the Lord.... The servants of God come to propagate God consciousness, and intelligent people should cooperate with them in every respect. By serving the servant of God, one can please God more than by directly serving the Lord. The Lord is more pleased when He sees that His servants are properly respected because such servants risk everything for the service of the Lord and so are very dear to the Lord. The Lord declares in the Bhagavad-gita (18.69) that no one is dearer to Him than one who risks everything to preach His glory. Bhag. 1.2.16 Preachers are most pleasing in the eyes of the Lord: ...confidential devotees of the Lord are very much dear to the Lord because they travel everywhere to preach the glories of the Lord in different capacities and try their utmost to convert the nondevotees of the Lord into devotees in order to bring them to the platform of sanity.... when one becomes a nondevotee or nonbeliever, it is to be understood that the person concerned is not in a sound condition of life. The confidential devotees of the Lord treat such illusioned living beings, and therefore they are most pleasing in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord says in the Bhagavad-gita that no one is dearer to Him than one who actually preaches the glories of the Lord to convert the nonbelievers and nondevotees. Bhag. 1.13.38 One should preach to relieve Lord Caitanya's anxiety for the fallen souls: "How will these yavanas be delivered? To My great unhappiness, I do not see any way." Haridasa Thakura replied, "My dear Lord, do not be in anxiety. Do not be unhappy to see the condition of the yavanas in material existence." These words of Haridasa Thakura are just befitting a devotee who has dedicated his life and soul to the service of the Lord. When the Lord is unhappy because of the condition of the fallen souls, the devotee consoles Him, saying, "My dear Lord, do not be in anxiety." This is service. Everyone should adopt the cause of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to try to relieve Him from the anxiety He feels. This is actually service to the Lord. One who tries to relieve Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's anxiety for the fallen souls is certainly a most dear and confidential devotee of the Lord. Cc. Antya 3.51-52

<font color="red"> 4. Krsna Consciousness Should Be Distributed to Everyone, Without Restriction </font color> The sankirtana movement should be preached without restriction: Not considering who asked for it and who did not, nor who was fit and who unfit to receive it, Caitanya Mahaprabhu distributed the fruit of devotional service. This is the sum and substance of Lord Caitanya's sankirtana movement. There is no distinction made between those who are fit and those who are not fit to hear or take part in the sankirtana movement. It should therefore be preached without discrimination. The only purpose of the preachers of the sankirtana movement must be to go on preaching without restriction. That is the way in which Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu introduced this sankirtana movement to the world. Cc. Adi 9.29 The preachers approach everyone impartially: ...vedanta-vadis, or the bhakti-vedantas, are impartial in distributing the transcendental knowledge of devotional service. To them no one is enemy or friend; no one is educated or uneducated. No one is especially favorable, and no one is unfavorable. The bhakti-vedantas see that the people in general are wasting time in false sensuous things. Their business is to get the ignorant mass of people to reestablish the lost relationship with the Personality of Godhead. By such endeavor, even the most forgotten soul is roused up to the sense of spiritual life, and thus being initiated by the bhakti-vedantas, the people in general gradually progress on the path of transcendental realization. Bhag 1.5.24 Krsna consciousness should be distributed to everyone, without discrimination: With great respect, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu requested Advaita Acarya, "Give Krsna consciousness, devotion to Krsna, even to the lowest of men [candalas]." This is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's order to all His devotees. Krsna-bhakti, devotion to Krsna, is open to everyone, even low-class men like candalas. One should follow this order in the disciplic succession stemming from Sri Advaita and Nityananda Prabhu and distribute Krsna consciousness without discrimination throughout the world. There are different kinds of men, beginning with the brahmana and going down to the lowest platform known as candala. Whatever one's position, everyone in this age of Kali needs to be enlightened in Krsna consciousness. That is the greatest need of the day. Everyone is acutely feeling the pangs of material existence.... everyone is feeling the resultant pinpricks of Kali-yuga brought about by human society's indulging in illicit sex, meat-eating, gambling and intoxication. Now is the time for the members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness to distribute krsna-bhakti all over the world and thus follow the orders of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The Lord has ordered everyone to become a guru (Cc. Madhya 7.128).... Everyone in every town and village should be enlightened by the instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Krsna consciousness should be distributed to everyone indiscriminately. In this way, the entire world will be peaceful and happy, and everyone will glorify Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as He desires. The word candala actually refers to a dog-eater, who is considered the lowest of men. Even candalas can be enlightened in Krsna consciousness due to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's benedictions. Krsna-bhakti is not the monopoly of a certain caste. Everyone is eligible to receive this great benediction given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Everyone should be given a chance to receive it and be happy. Cc. Madhya 15.41 The Krsna consciousness movement should be spread everywhere, to everyone, without restriction: In distributing love of Godhead, Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates did not consider who was a fit candidate and who was not, nor where such distribution should or should not take place. They made no conditions. Wherever they got the opportunity the members of the Panca-tattva distributed love of Godhead. ...here is an authoritative statement that in distributing love of Godhead one should not consider whether the recipients are Europeans, Americans, Hindus, Muslims, etc. The Krsna consciousness movement should be spread wherever possible... Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu desired that His name be spread in each and every town and village on the surface of the globe. Cc. Adi 7.23 Krsna-katha should be preached without restriction: There are two important krsna-kathas current in the world- Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam.... Lord Caitanya advised all His disciples to preach krsna-katha all over the world without discrimination because the transcendental value of krsna-katha can purify one and all from material contamination. Bhag. 3.5.10 Krsna consciousness should be distributed unconditionally: "Now please hear from me about the process of devotional service, which is applicable in any country, for any person, at all times and in all circumstances." The cult of bhagavata-dharma can be spread in all circumstances, among all people and in all countries.... Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu confirms that devotional service to the Lord-the cult of bhagavata-dharma, which is now being spread as the Hare Krsna movement-can be spread in every country, for every person, in any condition of life, and in all circumstances. Cc. Madhya 25.120

<font color="red">2B It Is the Duty of the Devotee to Preach </font color> Understanding the purpose of the Lord, the devotee preaches: Bewildered by the modes of material nature, the ignorant fully engage themselves in material activities and become attached. But the wise should not unsettle them, although these duties are inferior due to the performers' lack of knowledge. Men who are ignorant cannot appreciate activities in Krsna consciousness, and therefore Lord Krsna advises us not to disturb them and simply waste valuable time. But the devotees of the Lord are more kind than the Lord because they understand the purpose of the Lord. Consequently they undertake all kinds of risks, even to the point of approaching ignorant men to try to engage them in the acts of Krsna consciousness, which are absolutely necessary for the human being. Bg. 3.29 A brahmana must preach: These different orders of society and grades of spiritual advancement are conceived in terms of qualification. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that the four social orders and the four spiritual orders are created by the Lord Himself, in terms of different individual qualities. As the different parts of the body have different types of activities, so the social orders and spiritual orders also have different types of activities in terms of qualification and position.... one has to act according to his position, and by such activities one must either satisfy the Supreme Personality or else fall down from his position. For example, a brahmana who is born out of the head of the Lord has as his business to preach the transcendental Vedic sounds, or Sabda-brahma. Because the brahmana is the head, he has to preach the transcendental sound, and he also has to eat on behalf of the Supreme Lord. According to Vedic injunctions, when a brahmana eats it is to be understood that the Personality of Godhead is eating through him. It is not, however, that the brahmana should simply eat on behalf of the Lord and not preach the message of the Bhagavad-gita to the world. Actually, one who preaches the message of the Gita is very dear to Krsna, as is confirmed in the Gita itself. Such a preacher is factually a brahmana.... NOD Ch. 2 One who preaches the gospel of Bhagavad-gita is perfect in pure devotional service: Krsna wants everyone to surrender unto Him, and devotional service means preaching this gospel all over the world. The Lord says openly in Bhagavad-gita (18.69): na ca tasman manusyesu kaScin me priya-krttamah. One should preach the gospel of Bhagavad-gita for the benefit of all. Bhagavad-gita is spoken by the Lord so that human society can be perfectly organized from all angles of vision-politically, socially, economically, philosophically and religiously. From any point of view, human society can be reformed by the Krsna consciousness movement; therefore one who spreads this philosophy of Krsna consciousness for the benefit of all conditioned souls in the universe is perfect in pure devotional service. Cc. Madhya 19.167 Pure devotees preach and deliver conditioned souls: The Ganges water is celebrated as being able to eradicate all kinds of sinful reactions. In other words, when a person takes his bath in the Ganges, he becomes freed from all life's contaminations. The Ganges water is celebrated in this way because it emanates from the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Similarly, those who are directly in touch with the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and who are absorbed in the chanting of His glories are freed from all material contamination. Such unalloyed devotees are able to show mercy to the common conditioned soul. Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura has sung that the devotees of Lord Caitanya are so powerful that each one of them can deliver a universe. In other words, it is the business of devotees to preach the glories of the Lord and deliver all conditioned souls to the platform of Suddha-sattva, pure goodness. Bhag. 4.24.58 The greatest service is preaching a Vaisnava is recognized by his preaching work: "If one releases a conditioned soul or imprisoned person according to religious principles, he himself is also released from material bondage by the Supreme Personality of Godhead." The greatest service one can render to the Lord is to try to infuse devotional service into the heart of the conditioned soul so that the conditioned soul may be released from conditional life. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has said that a Vaisnava is recognized by his preaching work-that is, by convincing the conditioned soul about his eternal position.... It is the living entity's eternal position to serve the Lord; therefore to help one get release from material bondage is to awaken one to the dormant understanding that he is the eternal servant of Krsna. Cc. Madhya 20.6 The test of a Vaisnava is how many Vaisnavas he has made: Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura said that the position of a Vaisnava can be tested by seeing how good a touchstone he is-that is, by seeing how many Vaisnavas he has made during his life. A Vaisnava should be a touchstone so that he can convert others to Vaisnavism by his preaching, even though people may be fallen like the hunter. There are many so-called advanced devotees who sit in a secluded place for their personal benefit. They do not go out to preach and convert others into Vaisnavas, and therefore they certainly cannot be called sparSa-mani, advanced devotees. KanisTha-adhikari devotees cannot turn others into Vaisnavas, but a madhyama-adhikari Vaisnava can do so by preaching. Cc. Madhya 24.277 Performing daily rituals of devotional service is not enough-one must preach, and in such preaching not be concerned for success or failure: The favorable conditions for discharging devotional service are that one should be very enthusiastic in serving the Lord. The Lord in His form of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted the cult of devotional service to the Lord to be preached all over the world, in every nook and corner, and therefore a pure devotee's duty is to discharge this order as far as possible. Every devotee should be very enthusiastic, not only in performing his daily rituals of devotional service, but in trying to preach the cult peacefully by following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya. If he is not superficially successful in such an attempt, he should not be deterred from the discharge of his duty. Success or failure has no meaning for a pure devotee because he is a soldier in the field. Preaching the cult of devotional service is something like declaring war against materialistic life.... A devotee should see to the right discharge of devotional service under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master and should not stick only to the formalities. Under the direction of the bona fide spiritual master... one should see how much service is being executed, and not simply in the matter of rituals. Bhag. 2.8.21 Contrary to the order of Lord Caitanya, some of His modern so-called followers do not preach: It is the desire of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu that the benevolent activities of the sankirtana movement which was inaugurated five hundred years ago in Navadvipa be spread all over the world for the benefit of all human beings. Unfortunately, there are many so-called followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu who are satisfied simply to construct a temple, make a show of the Deities, collect some funds and utilize them for eating and sleeping. There is no question of their preaching the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu all over the world, but even though they are unable to do so, if anyone else does it they become envious. This is the condition of the modern followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The age of Kali is so strong that it affects even the so-called followers of Lord Caitanya. At least the followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu must come out of India to preach His cult all over the world, for this is the mission of Lord Caitanya. The followers of Lord Caitanya must execute His will with heart and soul, being more tolerant than the trees and humbler than the straw in the street. Cc. Adi 9.47 There must be an organized effort to turn nondevotees into devotees: ...the only reformation that is necessary in society is to make an organized effort to turn the citizens into devotees of the Lord, and thus all good qualities of the denizens of heaven will overtake them in their own way. Bhag. 1.11.19 The mission of all genuine devotees is to preach: All glories and success to Srila Narada Muni because he glorifies the activities of the Personality of Godhead, and so doing he himself takes pleasure and also enlivens all the distressed souls of the universe. No one is happy here within the universe, and what is felt as happiness is maya's illusion. The illusory energy of the Lord is so strong that even the hog who lives on filthy stool feels happy.... Srila Narada Muni, in order to enlighten the miserable inhabitants, wanders everywhere. His mission is to get them back home, back to Godhead. That is the mission of all genuine devotees of the Lord following the footsteps of that great sage. Bhag. 1.6.38 A sadhu is meant to preach: A sadhu like Vidura is meant to awaken such blind persons [like DhrtarasTra] and thus help them go back to Godhead, where life is eternal. Once going there, no one wants to come back to this material world of miseries. We can just imagine how responsible a task is entrusted to a sadhu like Mahatma Vidura. Bhag. 1.13.23 The duty of enlightened souls is to deliver the fallen ones: Vidura particularly came to enlighten DhrtarasTra and to give him a lift to the higher status of spiritual cognition. It is the duty of enlightened souls to deliver the fallen ones, and Vidura came for that reason. Bhag. 1.13.14 A saintly person desires everyone to become Krsna conscious: Because everyone is under the delusion of maya and is forgetful of his prime duty, Krsna consciousness, a saintly person always desires that everyone become a saintly person. It is the function of a saintly person to invoke Krsna consciousness in every forgetful man. Bhag. 3.22.7 Devotees must preach all over the world, as ordered by the spiritual master: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's devotional cult teaches one not to sit down in one place but to spread the devotional cult all over the world. The Lord dispatched Sanatana Gosvami and Rupa Gosvami to Vrndavana to excavate and renovate the holy places and from there establish the cult of bhakti. Therefore Vrndavana was given to Sanatana Gosvami and Rupa Gosvami as their place of residence. Similarly, everyone in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's devotional cult should accept the words of the spiritual master and thus spread the Krsna consciousness movement. They should go everywhere, to all parts of the world, accepting those places as prabhu-datta deSa, the places of residence given by the spiritual master or Lord Krsna. The spiritual master is the representative of Lord Krsna; therefore one who has carried out the orders of the spiritual master is understood to have carried out the orders of Krsna or Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to spread the bhakti cult all over the world (prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama). Therefore devotees in the line of Krsna consciousness must go to different parts of the world and preach, as ordered by the spiritual master. That will satisfy Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Cc. Antya 4.144 The Krsna consciousness movement has been set up to distribute knowledge: Knowledge is meant for distribution. Although there is already much scientific knowledge, whenever scientists or philosophers awaken to a particular type of knowledge, they try to distribute it throughout the world, for otherwise the knowledge gradually dries up and no one benefits from it. India has the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita, but unfortunately, for some reason or other, this sublime knowledge of the science of God was not distributed throughout the world, although it is meant for all of human society. Therefore Krsna Himself appeared as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and ordered all Indians to take up the cause of distributing the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita throughout the entire world. Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadeSa/ amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei deSa. "Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Sri Krsna as they are given in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land." (Cc. Madhya 7.128) Although India has the sublime knowledge of Bhagavad-gita, Indians have not done their proper duty of distributing it. Now, therefore, the Krsna consciousness movement has been set up to distribute this knowledge as it is, without distortion. Although previously there were attempts to distribute the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita, these attempts involved distortion and compromise with mundane knowledge. But now the Krsna consciousness movement, without mundane compromises, is distributing Bhagavad-gita as it is, and people are deriving the benefits of awakening to Krsna consciousness and becoming devotees of Lord Krsna. Therefore the proper distribution of knowledge has begun by which not only will the whole world benefit, but India's glory will be magnified in human society. Bhag. 10.2.19 In our Krsna consciousness movement, all our activities are concentrated on book distribution: The word kriyasu, meaning "by manual labor" or "by work," is important in this verse. One should engage in practical service to the Lord. In our Krsna consciousness movement all our activities are concentrated upon distributing Krsna literature. This is very important. One may approach any person and induce him to read Krsna literature so that in the future he may also become a devotee. Such activities are recommended in this verse.... Such activities will always remind the devotees of the Lord's lotus feet. By fully concentrating on distributing books for Krsna, one is fully absorbed in Krsna. This is samadhi. Bhag. 10.2.37 A sadhu's duty is to enlighten others: Caitanya Mahaprabhu has stated that He wants every village in the entire world to be a center for Krsna consciousness so that people can take advantage of sadhus and in turn become sadhus. This is the mission of this Krsna consciousness movement.... At the same time, we have to take compassion upon fallen souls by going from town to town to enlighten others in Krsna consciousness. This is a sadhu's duty. TLK Ch. 11, text 24

<font color="red">2A It Is the Duty of the Devotee to Preach </font color> The brahmacari must daily collect alms for the spiritual master: sayam prataS cared bhaiksyam gurave tan nivedayet The brahmacari should go out morning and evening to collect alms, and he should offer all that he collects to the spiritual master. Bhag. 7.12.5 It is the duty of every disciple to preach: Spreading Krsna consciousness is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission; therefore His sincere devotees must carry out His desire.... The devotees of Lord Caitanya must preach Krsna consciousness in every village and town in the world. That will satisfy the Lord. It is not that one should act whimsically for his own personal satisfaction. This order comes down through the parampara system, and the spiritual master presents these orders to the disciple so that he can spread the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It is the duty of every disciple to carry out the order of the bona fide spiritual master and spread Lord Caitanya's message all over the world. Cc. Madhya 16.64 (Madhya: 6, p. 188) Lord Caitanya's order to preach: yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadeSa amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei deSa [Cc. Madhya 7.128] "Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Sri Krsna as they are given in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land." Cc. Madhya 7.128 Lord Caitanya instructs everyone to preach: In this age of Kali, people cannot follow the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore the Lord Himself takes the part of Sri Krsna Caitanya to teach personally how to become Krsna conscious. He asks everyone to follow Him and to become a guru to deliver the fallen souls of Kali-yuga. yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadeSa amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei deSa "Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Sri Krsna as they are given in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land." (Cc. Madhya 7.128) Bhag. 8.1.16 Lord Caitanya advised His followers to preach: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised His followers to increase the numbers of Vaisnavas.... It is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's wish that everyone should become a Vaisnava and guru. Following the instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His disciplic succession, one can become a spiritual master, for the process is very easy. One can go everywhere and anywhere to preach the instructions of Krsna. Bhagavad-gita is Krsna's instructions; therefore the duty of every Vaisnava is to travel and preach Bhagavad-gita, either in his country or a foreign country. Cc. Madhya 24.277 Lord Caitanya orders that the devotee should preach: A devotee must carry out the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadeSa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]. Every devotee, therefore, should spread Krsna consciousness by preaching, asking whomever he meets to accept the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam Saranam vraja: [bg. 18.66] "Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me." This is the order of the Lord, who speaks as the supreme emperor. Everyone should be induced to accept this order, for this is victory (dig-vijaya). And it is the duty of the soldier, the devotee, to impress upon everyone this philosophy of life Bhag. 9.11.25 (IX:2, p 127) A devotee who tries to preach is first class: As far as the field of spiritual activities is concerned, when a devotee is self-satisfied and does not preach the glories of Krsna, he is not considered a first-class devotee. A devotee who tries to preach, who has compassion upon innocent persons who have no knowledge of Krsna, is a superior devotee. In his prayer to the Lord, Prahlada Maharaja said that he was not personally interested in liberation from this material world; rather, he did not wish to be liberated from this material condition until all fallen souls are delivered. Bhag. 4.17 26 Lord Caitanya orders that all accept and distribute Krsna consciousness: "Since the tree of devotional service is transcendental, every one of its parts can perform the action of all the others. Although a tree is supposed to be immovable, this tree nevertheless moves. All the parts of this tree are spiritually cognizant, and thus as they grow up they spread all over the world. I am the only gardener. How many places can I go? How many fruits can I pick and distribute? It would certainly be a very laborious task to pick the fruits and distribute them alone, and still I suspect that some would receive them and others would not. Therefore I order every man within this universe to accept this Krsna consciousness movement and distribute it everywhere. I am the only gardener. If I do not distribute these fruits, what shall I do with them? How many fruits can I alone eat? By the transcendental desire of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, water has been sprinkled all over the tree, and thus there are innumerable fruits of love of Godhead. Distribute this Krsna consciousness movement all Over the world. Let people eat these fruits and ultimately become free from old age and death." Cc. Adi 9 32-39 Serious students of the Krsna consciousness movement must preach devotional service all over the world: Serious students of this Krsna consciousness movement must understand their great responsibility to preach the cult of Vrndavana (devotional service to the Lord) all over the world.... I am very hopeful that some of our students can take up this responsibility and render the best service to humanity by educating people in Krsna consciousness. Cc. Madhya 23.104 Devotees should rise from the neophyte stage to the preaching platform: Everyone is eligible to become Krsna's devotee. One simply has to be trained according to the approved process. It is the work of Krsna's confidential devotees to turn everyone into a krsna-bhakta. If the confidential devotees do not take up the task of elevating everyone to Krsna consciousness, then who will do it? Those who claim to be devotees but do not engage in Krsna's service to elevate all living creatures to Krsna consciousness are to be considered kanisTha-adhikaris (people in the lowest stage of devotional service). When one rises to the second platform of devotional service, his business is to propagate Krsna consciousness all over the world. Those who are active in the Krsna consciousness movement should not remain in the neophyte stage but should rise to the platform of preachers, the second platform of devotional service. Devotional service is so enchanting that even the first-class devotees (uttama-adhikaris) also come down to the second platform to preach and render service to the Lord for the benefit of the whole world. Cc. Madhya 24.205 The devotee's interest is to actively preach Krsna consciousness: He [the devotee] is not interested in so-called meditation in the Himalayas or the forest. Rather, his interest is in the busiest part of the world, where he teaches people Krsna consciousness. The Krsna consciousness movement was started for this purpose.... The members of the Krsna consciousness movement are not at all interested in so-called meditation in the Himalayas or the forest, where one will only make a show of meditation, nor are they interested in opening many schools for yoga and meditation in the cities. Rather, every member of the Krsna consciousness movement is interested in going door to door to try to convince people about the teachings of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the teachings of Lord Caitanya. That is the purpose of the Hare Krsna movement. The members of the Krsna consciousness movement must be fully convinced that without Krsna one cannot be happy. Bhag. 7.9.44 After being saved, the devotee should preach Krsna consciousness: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also advised Vasudeva to preach about Krsna and thus liberate living entities. As a result, Krsna would very soon accept him as His devotee. Although Vasudeva Vipra was a leper and had suffered greatly, still Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu cured him. The only return the Lord wanted was that Vasudeva preach the instructions of Krsna and liberate all human beings. That is the process of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Each and every member of this Society was rescued from a very abominable condition, but now they are engaged in preaching the cult of Krsna consciousness.... If one wants to be recognized as a devotee by Krsna, he should take to preaching work, following the advice of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Then one will undoubtedly attain the lotus feet of Sri Krsna Caitanya, Lord Krsna Himself, without delay. Cc. Madhya 7.148 Lord Caitanya wants his followers to preach all over the world: "Dear Lord, Your personal associates, devotees, wander all over the world to purify even the holy places of pilgrimage. Is not such activity pleasing to those who are actually afraid of material existence?" There are two kinds of devotees. One is called gosThy-anandi and the other bhajananandi. The word bhajananandi refers to the devotee who does not move but remains in one place. Such a devotee is always engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. He chants the maha-mantra as taught by many acaryas and sometimes goes out for preaching work. The gosThy-anandi is one who desires to increase the number of devotees all over the world. He travels all over the world just to purify the world and the people residing in it. Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised: prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama/ sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted His followers to move all over the world and preach in every town and village. In the Caitanya-sampradaya those who strictly follow the principles of Lord Caitanya must travel all over the world to preach the message of Lord Caitanya, which is the same as preaching the words of Krsna- Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. The more the devotees preach the principles of krsna-katha, the more people throughout the world will benefit. Devotees like the great sage Narada who travel all over to preach are called gosThy-anandi. Narada Muni is always wandering throughout the universe just to create different types of devotees. Narada even made a hunter a devotee. He also made Dhruva Maharaja and Prahlada devotees. Actually all devotees are indebted to the great sage Narada, for he has wandered both in heaven and in hell. A devotee of the Lord is not even afraid of hell. He goes to preach the glories of the Lord everywhere-even in hell-because there is no distinction between heaven and hell for a devotee. narayana-parah sarve na kutaScana bibhyati svargapavarga-narakesv api tulyartha-darSinah "A pure devotee of Narayana is never afraid of going anywhere and everywhere. For him heaven and hell are one and the same." (Bhag. 6.17.28) Such devotees, wandering all over the world, deliver those who are actually afraid of this material existence. Bhag. 4.30.37 The devotee's duty is to preach Krsna consciousness for the benefit of those suffering the pangs of material existence: The word atmaupamyena refers to thinking others to be like oneself. One can very intelligently conclude that without devotional service, without becoming Krsna conscious, one cannot be happy. Therefore the duty of all devotees is to preach Krsna consciousness everywhere all over the world, because all living entities without Krsna consciousness are suffering the pangs of material existence. To preach Krsna consciousness is the best welfare activity. Indeed, it is described by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as para-upakara, work for the true benefit of others. Bhag. 7.7.53 All devotees must preach: When a person actually revives his consciousness with thoughts of Krsna by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he revives his spiritual life and becomes addicted to the service of the Lord. Only then can he act as an acarya. In other words, everyone should engage in preaching, following in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In this way one will be very much appreciated by Lord Krsna and will quickly be recognized by Him. Actually a devotee of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu must engage in preaching in order to increase the followers of the Lord. By thus preaching actual Vedic knowledge all over the world, one will benefit all mankind. Cc. Madhya 7.153 One should preach to relieve Lord Caitanya's anxiety for the fallen souls: "How will these yavanas be delivered? To My great unhappiness, I do not see any way." Haridasa Thakura replied, "My dear Lord, do not be in anxiety. Do not be unhappy to see the condition of the yavanas in material existence." These words of Haridasa Thakura are just befitting a devotee who has dedicated his life and soul to the service of the Lord. When the Lord is unhappy because of the condition of the fallen souls, the devotee consoles Him, saying, "My dear Lord, do not be in anxiety." This is service. Everyone should adopt the cause of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to try to relieve Him from the anxiety He feels. This is actually service to the Lord. One who tries to relieve Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's anxiety for the fallen souls is certainly a most dear and confidential devotee of the Lord. Cc. Antya 3.51-52 The devotee must preach; this will help him advance in self-realization: "If a living entity is developed in Krsna consciousness and is merciful to others, and if his spiritual knowledge of self-realization is perfect, he will immediately attain liberation from the bondage of material existence." In this verse the word daya jivesu, meaning mercy to other living entities, indicates that a living entity must be merciful to other living entities if he wishes to make progress in self-realization. This means he must preach this knowledge after perfecting himself and understanding his own position as an eternal servant of Krsna. Preaching this is showing real mercy to living entities. Other types of humanitarian work may be temporarily beneficial for the body, but because a living entity is spirit soul, ultimately one can show him real mercy only by revealing knowledge of his spiritual existence. As Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, jivera 'svarupa' haya-krsnera 'nitya-dasa.' [Cc. Madhya 20.108]. "Every living entity is constitutionally a servant of Krsna." One should know this fact perfectly and should preach it to the mass of people. If one realizes that he is an eternal servant of Krsna but does not preach it, his realization is imperfect. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura therefore sings, dusTa mana, tumi kisera vaisnava? pratisThara tare, nirjanera ghare, tava hari-nama kevala kaitava. "My dear mind, what kind of Vaisnava are you? Simply for false prestige and a material reputation you are chanting the Hare Krsna mantra in a solitary place." In this way people who do not preach are criticized. There are many Vaisnavas in Vrndavana who do not like preaching; they chiefly try to imitate Haridasa Thakura. The actual result of their so-called chanting in a secluded place, however, is that they sleep and think of women and money. Similarly, one who simply engages in temple worship but does not see to the interests of the mass of people, or cannot recognize devotees, is called a kanisTha-adhikari: arcayam eva haraye pujam yah Sraddhayehate na tad-bhaktesu canyesu sa bhaktah prakrtah smrtah (Bhag. 11.2.47) A devotee who faithfully engages in the worship of the Deity in the temple but does not behave properly toward other devotees or people in general is called a prakrta-bhakta, a materialistic devotee, and is considered to be in the lowest position. Bhag. 4.29.1b One should preach all over the world: The Lord is always ready to help the fallen souls, but because they are fools and rascals, they do not take to Krsna consciousness and abide by the instructions of Krsna. Therefore although Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is personally the Supreme Lord, Krsna, He comes as a devotee to preach the Krsna consciousness movement. Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadeSa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]. One must therefore become a sincere servant of Krsna. Amara ajnaya guru hana tara' ei deSa (Cc. Madhya 7.128). One should become a guru and spread Krsna consciousness all over the world, simply by preaching the teachings of Bhagavad-gita. Bhag. 7.9.41 The duty of the disciple is to distribute the transcendental message for others' welfare, without material motive: The life of a sincere devotee of the Lord is thus explained in a nutshell by Narada Muni by his personal example. Such a devotee, after his initiation by the Lord or His bona fide representative, takes very seriously chanting of the glories of the Lord and traveling all over the world so that others may also hear the glories of the Lord. Such devotees have no desire for material gain. They are conducted by one single desire: to go back to Godhead. This awaits them in due course on quitting the material body. Because they have the highest aim of life, going back to Godhead, they are never envious of anyone, nor are they proud of being eligible to go back to Godhead. Their only business is to chant and remember the holy name, fame and pastimes of the Lord and, according to personal capacity, to distribute the message for others' welfare without motive of material gain. Bhag. 1.6.26 The devotee should preach krsna-katha for the benefit of human society: In the impure state of a living being, the respective senses are fully engaged in mundane affairs. If the ear is not engaged in the service of the Lord by hearing about Him in the Bhagavad-gita or in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, certainly the holes of the ear will be filled up with some rubbish. Therefore the messages of the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam should be preached all over the world very loudly. That is the duty of a pure devotee who has actually heard about them from the perfect sources.... There are hundreds and thousands of sources for distributing mundane news of the world, and people of the world are also receiving them. Similarly, the people of the world should be taught to hear the transcendental topics of the Lord, and the devotee of the Lord must speak loudly so that they can hear. Bhag. 2.3.20 As servants of society, devotees of the Lord travel everywhere to preach: The servants of the Lord are actually the servants of society. They have no interest in human society other than to enlighten it in transcendental knowledge; they are interested in imparting knowledge of the relationship of the living being with the Supreme Lord, the activities in that transcendental relationship, and the ultimate goal of human life.... Without this knowledge, the human life is baffled. The servants of the Lord, Visnu, are entrusted with this responsible work, and so they wander over the earth and to all other planets in the universe. Bhag. 3.4.25 Lord Caitanya personally demonstrated the importance of preaching: To deliver all fallen souls, the Lord traveled from country to country. He personally tasted the transcendental pleasure of devotional service, and He simultaneously spread the cult of devotion everywhere. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally traveled to different regions of India to spread the bhakti cult throughout the country.... By His personal behavior He has given an example for devotees to follow. That is, one should broadcast the cult of devotional service.... A Vaisnava is especially interested in para-upakara, doing good to others. Prahlada Maharaja was also interested in this. He did not want to be delivered alone; rather he wanted to deliver all fallen souls, who are bereft of knowledge of bhakti and who misuse their intelligence for the temporary benefit of the material body. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also wanted His mission spread all over the world. prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama "In every town and village, the chanting of My name will be heard." Following in His footsteps, we are trying to broadcast His message throughout the world. By His mercy, people are taking this movement very seriously. Indeed, our books are extensively distributed in the Western countries, especially in America and Europe.... The followers of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu may therefore take this movement seriously and broadcast it throughout the world, from village to village and from town to town, just as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself did. Cc. Madhya 25.264 The Krsna consciousness movement is based on becoming Krsna conscious and making others Krsna conscious: "My dear child, continue dancing, chanting and performing sankirtana in association with devotees. Furthermore, go out and preach the value of chanting krsna-nama for by this process You will be able to deliver all fallen souls." It is another ambition of the spiritual master to see his disciples not only chant, dance and follow the regulative principles but also preach the sankirtana movement to others in order to deliver them, for the Krsna consciousness movement is based on the principle that one should become as perfect as possible in devotional service oneself and also preach the cult for others' benefit. Cc. Adi 7.92 An advanced and empowered devotee preaches: "A person who has attracted the attention of the spiritual master by his sincere service likes to dance and chant with similarly developed Krsna conscious devotees. The spiritual master authorizes such a devotee to deliver fallen souls in all parts of the world. Those who are not advanced prefer to chant the Hare Krsna mantra in a solitary place."...everyone should endeavor to preach the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in all parts of the world and thus become successful in spiritual life. One who is not very expert in preaching may chant in a secluded place, avoiding bad association, but for one who is actually advanced, preaching and meeting people who are not engaged in devotional service are not disadvantages. A devotee gives the nondevotees his association but is not affected by their misbehavior. Thus by the activities of a pure devotee even those who are bereft of love of Godhead get a chance to become devotees of the Lord one day. Cc. Adi 7.92 The duty of all sane men is to save the people in general: Pariksit Maharaja... anxiously wanted to know from Sukadeva Gosvami how humanity can be saved from gliding down to hell.... Intelligent men must take advantage of these instructions. Unfortunately, however, the entire world is lacking Krsna consciousness, and therefore people are suffering from the grossest ignorance and do not even believe in a life after this one. To convince them of their next life is very difficult because they have become almost mad in their pursuit of material enjoyment. Nevertheless, our duty, the duty of all sane men, is to save them. Bhag. 6.1.6 One should preach about the importance of human life throughout the world: The followers of Vedic literature... are privileged to glorify the Lord by following the directions of Vedic literature. After realizing the glories of human life, such people should take up the mission to spread the importance of human life throughout the whole world. This is the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Bhag. 5.6.13 Preachers go door to door to enlighten the people in general: The great saint Jada Bharata described both the miserable condition and the means to get out. The only way out of it is association with devotees, and this association is very easy. Although unfortunate people also get this opportunity, due to their great misfortune they cannot take shelter of pure devotees, and consequently they continuously suffer. Nonetheless, this Krsna consciousness movement insists that everyone take to this path by adopting the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. The preachers of Krsna consciousness go from door to door to inform people how they can be relieved from the miserable conditions of material life. Bhag. 5.14.39 Devotees of Lord Caitanya take the responsibility to preach: The devotees who have taken shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu take the responsibility for distributing nectarean devotional service all over the world. They are like clouds pouring water on the ground that nourishes the fruit of love of Godhead in this world. The devotees eat that fruit to their heart's content, and whatever remnants they leave are eaten by the general populace. Thus they live happily. Cc. Madhya 25.276 The duty of saintly persons is to reestablish the principles of religion: At the end of every four yugas, the great saintly persons, upon seeing that the eternal occupational duties of mankind have been misused, reestablish the principles of religion. From Satya-yuga to Kali-yuga, the principles of religion and occupational duty gradually deteriorate.... At the end of Kali-yuga, the principles of religion, or the occupational duties of humanity, are almost lost. Indeed, in this Kali-yuga we have passed through only five thousand years, yet the decline of sanatana-dharma is very prominent. The duty of saintly persons, therefore, is to take up seriously the cause of sanatana-dharma and try to reestablish it for the benefit of the entire human society. The Krsna consciousness movement has been started according to this principle.... Therefore, following in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who five hundred years ago inaugurated the movement of sankirtana,... we are trying to introduce this movement, according to superior orders, all over the world. Now, if the inaugurators of this movement strictly follow the regulative principles and spread this movement for the benefit of all human society, they will certainly usher in a new way of life by reestablishing sanatana-dharma, the eternal occupational duties of humanity. Bhag. 8.14.4 Followers of the Sastra endeavor to preach: Advaita Acarya was always absorbed in thoughts of how to deliver the fallen souls of the entire world. "The entire world is full of nondevotees," He thought. "How will they be delivered?" Srila Advaita Acarya sets the standard for acaryas in the Vaisnava-sampradaya. An acarya must always be eager to deliver the fallen souls.... One who knows the conclusion of the Sastras, follows in the footsteps of his predecessors and endeavors to preach the bhakti cult all over the world is to be considered an acarya. Cc. Antya 3.223 Followers of Lord Nityananda must preach Krsna consciousness: When Lord Nityananda returned to Bengal to preach the cult of bhakti, love of Godhead, He began touring all over the country. For two purposes-to spread the cult of bhakti and to defeat and subdue the atheists-Lord Nityananda, the most dedicated devotee of the Lord, moved throughout the country. Lord Krsna appears in every millennium for two purposes, namely to deliver the devotees and kill the nondevotees. His devotees also have two similar purposes-to preach the bhakti cult of Krsna consciousness and defeat all kinds of agnostics and atheistic demons. Nityananda Prabhu carried out the order of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in this way, and those who strictly follow Nityananda Prabhu perform the same activities. Cc. Antya 3.148-149 One should preach; that is real nonviolence: Nonviolence is generally taken to mean not killing or destroying the body, but actually nonviolence means not to put others into distress. People in general are trapped by ignorance in the material concept of life, and they perpetually suffer material pains. So, unless one elevates people to spiritual knowledge, one is practicing violence. One should try his best to distribute real knowledge to the people, so that they may become enlightened and leave this material entanglement. That is nonviolence. Bg. 13.8-12

<font color="orange"> ~~~~~</font color> <font color="red"> 1. The Mission of the Lord: To Give All Living Entities the Benediction of Krsna Consciousness</font color> I offer my respectful obeisances unto Sri Krsna Caitanya and Lord Nitysnanda, who are like the sun and moon. They have arisen simultaneously on the horizon of Gauda to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and thus wonderfully bestow benediction upon all. Cc Adi 12 May that Lord, who is known as the son of Srimati Sacidevi, be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in the age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation ever offered before: the most sublime and radiant spiritual knowledge of the mellow taste of His service. Cc. Adi 1.4 Sri Krsna and Balarama, the Personalities of Godhead, who formerly appeared in Vrndavana and were millions of times more effulgent than the sun and moon, have arisen over the eastern horizon of Gauda-deSa [West Bengal], being compassionate for the fallen state of the world. The appearance of Sri Krsna Caitanya and Prabhu Nityananda has surcharged the world with happiness. As the sun and moon drive away darkness by their appearance and reveal the nature of everything, these two brothers dissipate the darkness of the living beings' ignorance and enlighten them with knowledge of the Absolute Truth. Cc Adi 1 85-89 "Spreading Krsna consciousness is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission; therefore His sincere devotees must carry out His desire.... The devotees of Lord Caitanya must preach Krsna consciousness in every village and town in the world. That will satisfy the Lord. It is not that one should act whimsically for his own personal satisfaction. This order comes down through the parampara system, and the spiritual master presents these orders to the disciple so that he can spread the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It is the duty of every disciple to carry out the order of the bona fide spiritual master and spread Lord Caitanya's message all over the world." Cc. Madhya 16.64 "Preaching is the best service to the Lord. The Lord will immediately be extremely satisfied with one who engages in this service of preaching Krsna consciousness. This is confirmed by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gita (18.69). Na ca tasman manusyesu kaScin me priya-krttamah: 'There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.' If one sincerely tries his best to spread Krsna consciousness by preaching the glories of the Lord and His supremacy, even if he is imperfectly educated, he becomes the dearmost servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is bhakti. As one performs this service for humanity, without discrimination between friends and enemies, the Lord becomes satisfied, and the mission of one's life is fulfilled." Bhag. 7.6.24 "The members of this (ISKCON) Society must always remember that if they stick to the regulative principles and preach sincerely according to the instructions of the acaryas, surely they will have the profound blessings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and their preaching work will be successful everywhere throughout the world." Cc. Adi 7.171 A Note of Explanation: Every word of the text of this book is taken directly from the books of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The texts appearing in boldface type are Srila Prabhupada's translations of verses from the Vedic literatures. The text in regular roman type consists of excerpts from His Divine Grace's summary studies and purports. A Drop From the Ocean of the Nectar of the Glories of Preaching Krsna Consciousness: It is the mission of the Lord to liberate the conditioned souls: The Lord wanted to create the cosmic manifestation to give another chance to the conditioned souls who were dormant in forgetfulness. The cosmic manifestation gives the conditioned souls a chance to go back home, back to Godhead, and that is its main purpose. The Lord is so kind that in the absence of such a manifestation He feels something wanting, and thus the creation takes place. Although the creation of the internal potency was manifested, the other potency appeared to be sleeping, and the Lord wanted to awaken her to activity, just as a husband wants to awaken his wife from the sleeping state for enjoyment. It is the compassion of the Lord for the sleeping energy that He wants to see her awaken for enjoyment like the other wives who are awake. The whole process is to enliven the sleeping conditioned souls to the real life of spiritual consciousness so that they may thus become as perfect as the ever-liberated souls in the VaikunThalokas. Since the Lord is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [bs. 5.1], He likes every part and parcel of His different potencies to take part in the blissful rasa because participation with the Lord in his eternal rasa-lila is the highest living condition, perfect in spiritual bliss and eternal knowledge. Bhag. 3.5.24 The sankirtana movement is the pastime of Lord Caitanya: The sankirtana movement inaugurated by Lord Caitanya is a transcendental pastime of the Lord. "By it I live simultaneously to preach and popularize this movement in the material world." In that sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya, Nityananda and Advaita are His expansions, and Gadadhara and Srivasa are His internal and marginal potencies. The living entities are also called marginal potency because they have, potentially, two attitudes-namely the tendency to surrender unto Krsna and the tendency to become independent of Him. Due to the propensity for material enjoyment, the living entity becomes contaminated by the material world. When a living entity is dominated by a desire for material enjoyment and becomes entangled in material life, he is subjected to the threefold miseries of material existence. He is just like a seed sown in the earth. If a seed is overpowered by too much water, there is no possibility of its fructifying. Similarly, if a man is captivated by material enjoyment, and even if the seed of such enjoyment is within the heart of the conditioned soul, he can be overpowered by a flood of transcendental activities performed in love of God. In this way his potential seed cannot fructify into a conditional life of material existence. The conditioned living entities in the material world, especially in the present age of Kali, are overpowered by the flood of love of God inaugurated by Lord Caitanya and His associates. TLC, Ch. 17 Lord Caitanya's desire is to spread His mercy throughout the world: The special function of Srila Rupa Gosvami is to establish the feelings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. These feelings are His desires that His special mercy be spread throughout the world in this Kali-yuga. prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama His desire is that all over the world everyone, in every village and every town, know of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His sankirtana movement. These are the inner feelings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Rupa Gosvami committed to writing all these feelings of the Lord. Now again, by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the same feelings are being spread all over the world by the servants of the Gosvamis.... Those who are on the level of hogs and dogs will never appreciate such a great attempt. Yet this does not matter to the preachers of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's cult, for all over the world they will continue to perform this responsible work, even though persons who are like cats and dogs do not appreciate them. Cc. Antya 1.117 Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu liberated all living entities in the universe: [sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said,] "On this earth there are many living entities... some moving and some not moving. What will happen to the trees, plants, insects and other living entities? How will they be delivered from material bondage?" Haridasa Thakura replied, "My dear Lord, the deliverance of all moving and nonmoving living entities takes place only by Your mercy. You have already granted this mercy and delivered them.... When Your devotee Vasudeva Datta submitted his plea at Your lotus feet for the deliverance of all living entities, You accepted that request. My dear Lord, You have accepted the form of a devotee just to deliver all the fallen souls of this world. You have preached the loud chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra and in this way freed all moving and nonmoving living entities from material bondage." Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied, "If all living entities were liberated, the entire universe would be devoid of living beings." Haridasa said, "My Lord, as long as You are situated within the material world, You will send to the spiritual sky all the developed moving and nonmoving living entities in different species. Then again You will awaken the living entities who are not yet developed and engage them in activities." There are many unmanifested living entities covered by the mode of ignorance who will gradually come to the mode of passion. Most of them will become criminals because of their fruitive activities and again fill the prisons. "My dear Lord, You have set a plan in motion by descending on the material world, but no one can understand how You are acting. Formerly, when Lord Krsna descended in Vrndavana, He freed all living entities in the universe from material existence in the same way.... By descending as an incarnation at Navadvipa, You, just like Krsna, have already delivered all the living entities of the universe." Cc. Antya 3.67-68, 74-80, 82-83, 86 The Lord descended as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to deliver the entire world: Advaita Acarya was always absorbed in thoughts of how to deliver the fallen souls of the entire world. "The entire world is full of nondevotees," He thought. "How will they be delivered?" Determined to deliver all the fallen souls, Advaita Acarya decided to cause Krsna to descend. With this vow, He began to offer Ganges water and tulasi leaves to worship the Lord. Similarly, Haridasa Thakura chanted in his cave on the bank of the Ganges with the intention to cause Krsna's descent. Because of the devotional service of these two persons; Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu descended as an incarnation. Thus He preached the holy name of the Lord and ecstatic love of Krsna to deliver the entire world. Cc Antya 3. 223-226 The Lord has inaugurated the Hare Krsna movement for the benefit of human society: Whenever the principles of religion deteriorate and the principles of irreligion increase, the supreme controller, the Personality of Godhead Sri Hari, appears by His own will. In the present age, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has appeared as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to inaugurate the Hare Krsna movement. At the present time, in Kali-yuga, people are extremely sinful and bad.... They have no idea of spiritual life and are misusing the benefits of the human form to live like cats and dogs. Under these circumstances Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has inaugurated the Hare Krsna movement, which is not different from Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one associates with this movement, he directly associates with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. People should take advantage... and thus gain relief from all the problems created in this age of Kali. Bhag. 9.24.56 Out of compassion, the Lord tries to liberate the fallen souls: [Gajendra prayed,] "Since an animal such as I has surrendered unto You, who are supremely liberated, certainly You will release me from this dangerous position. Indeed, being extremely merciful, You incessantly try to deliver me.... " Only Krsna can deliver us from this material existence. Indeed, He is always trying to deliver us.... He is within our hearts and is not at all inattentive. His only aim is to deliver us from material life. It is not that He becomes attentive to us only when we offer prayers to Him. Even before we offer our prayers, He incessantly tries to deliver us. He is never lazy in regard to our deliverance.... It is the causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord that He always tries to bring us back home, back to Godhead. God is liberated, and He tries to make us liberated, but although He is constantly trying, we refuse to accept His instructions.... Nonetheless, He has not become angry. Therefore He is described here as bhuri-karunaya, unlimitedly merciful in delivering us from this miserable material condition of life and taking us back home, back to Godhead. Bhag. 8.3.17 The Krsna consciousness movement is nondifferent from the pastimes performed by Lord Caitanya; it is overflooding the entire world with mercy: The activities of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are just like an ocean of nectar. Even a drop of this ocean can inundate all the three worlds. To inundate the three worlds with nectar is the purpose of the pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. How this could be possible was exhibited by Srila Raghunatha Gosvami and later by Thakura Narottama dasa and Syamananda Gosvami, who all represented the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Now that same mercy is overflooding the entire world through the Krsna consciousness movement. The present Krsna consciousness movement is nondifferent from the pastimes performed by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu when He was personally present, for the same principles are being followed and the same actions performed without fail. Cc. Antya 5.88 The Lord sends His representatives to remove the miseries of life: Material existence is full of undesirables. Things we do not want are forced upon us by some superior energy, and we do not see that these undesirables are under the grip of the three modes of material nature.... undesirable happenings in life cannot be checked by any number of plans. Such miseries can be removed only by the mercy of the Lord, who sends His bona fide representatives to enlighten human beings and thus save them from all calamities. Bhag. 1.14.11 The Lord's plan is to end the living entities' suffering: ... because He [the Lord] wants to maintain the creation, He desires the mass of people to follow the right path of self-realization, which enables the living beings to enter into the kingdom of God. The Lord wants the suffering human beings to come back home, back to Him, and cease to suffer the threefold material pangs. The whole plan of creation is made in that way, and one who does not come to his senses suffers in the material world by pangs inflicted by the illusory energy of the Lord. Bhag. 1.10.2 The Lord desires to bring all the living entities back to His kingdom: ... the Lord is equally affectionate to all His parts and parcels, despite material gradation. He descends only to recall these materialistic living beings back to His kingdom, and intelligent persons take advantage of this facility offered by the Personality of Godhead to all living beings. No one is rejected by the Lord from the kingdom of God, and it remains with the living being to accept this or not. Bhag. 1.11.22 The Lord gives the fallen souls the chance for the highest perfection of life: The Lord is ever increasingly merciful upon the fallen souls of this material world. The whole cosmic manifestation is a chance for all to improve themselves in devotional service to the Lord, and everyone is meant for that purpose.... The Lord gives the fallen souls the chance for this highest perfection of life. Bhag. 3.9.25 The Lord wants the suffering living beings to go back home, back to Godhead: Sometimes He [the Lord] incarnates Himself or empowers a suitable living being to act for Him, but in either case the purpose is the same.... The Lord, therefore, comes to propagate the message of the kingdom of God, either personally as an incarnation or through His bona fide representative as the good son of God. Such incarnations or sons of God are not making propaganda for going back to Godhead only within the human society. Their work is also going on in all types of societies, amongst demigods and those other than human beings. Bhag. 1.2.34 The Lord is very kind to the forgetful souls: The Lord is very kind to the forgetful souls. He therefore comes Himself and leaves behind necessary instructions and also sends His good sons as representatives to call all the conditioned souls back to Godhead. Recently, within the memory of everyone, Lord Caitanya also appeared for the same purpose: to show special favor to fallen souls of this age of iron industry. Bhag. 1.3.9 How the Lord helps reclaim the conditioned souls: ... unalloyed devotees of the Lord appear on the earth just to execute the mission of the Lord. The Lord desires the conditioned souls hovering in the material creation to be reclaimed to go back home, back to Godhead, and thus He helps them by preparing the transcendental literatures like the Vedas, by sending missionaries of saints and sages and by deputing His representative, the spiritual master. Bhag. 1.12.16 The Lord's greatest glory: His causeless mercy upon the conditioned souls: "The Vedic reciters or the personified Vedas sing thus: 'O unconquerable, You are the Supreme Personality. No one is equal to You or greater than You. No one can be more glorious in His activities. All glories unto You! All glories unto You! By Your own transcendental nature You fully possess all six opulences. As such, You are able to deliver all conditioned souls from the clutches of maya. O Lord, we fervently pray that You kindly do so.... The conditioned souls are struggling very hard to escape from the material bondage, and according to their different conditions of life they have been given different types of engagement. But all engagements are based on Your knowledge. Pious activities can be executed only when inspired by Your mercy. Therefore, without taking shelter at Your lotus feet one cannot surpass the influence of material energy. Actually, we, as personified Vedic knowledge, are always engaged in Your service to help the conditioned soul understand You.' " This prayer of the Vedas personified illustrates that the Vedas are meant for helping the conditioned souls to understand Krsna. All the Srutis or personified Vedas offered glories to the Lord again and again, singing, "Jaya! Jaya!" This indicates that the Lord is praised for His glories. Of all His glories the most important is His causeless mercy upon the conditioned souls in reclaiming them from the clutches of maya. Krsna, Ch. 18 Krsna comes to rescue the fallen souls: Because we have forgotten Krsna, Krsna has given us all these Vedas and Puranas. Krsna also comes into this material world in order to remind us of Himself. In this Kali-yuga, people are forgetting Krsna more and more. They are not even interested in Him, but Krsna is interested because we are His sons. A mad son may no longer be interested in his home, in his father or mother, yet the father never loses interest in his son. He is anxious because his boy has left home and is suffering. Similarly, Krsna's son leaves the spiritual sky and takes up one material body after another and in this way travels from one planet to another in different species of life. Therefore Krsna comes to rescue him. TLK Ch. 16, texts 39-40

Pray to Lord Nityananda to serve Sri Radha-Krsna better.

For whatever, ideas! ppls, come on. Here are mine, I know this is not the jokes section, I am not blind, heh. Japa all the Way The Japanator The Sixteenth Japa Ja16pa Dust of Japa Wheel of Japa I have more, but I can't remember.-_

Nrsimha Caturdasi: Appearance of Lord Nrsimhadeva (Fasting till dusk) Nrsimha Caturdasi Katha Glories of Bhakta Prahlada Glories of Nrsimha Caturdasi from Nrsimha Purana Prayers to Lord Nrsimhadeva's eight lotus hands Nrsimha-lila answers Verses Other works online Glories of Bhakta Prahlada (Romapada Swami) When Hiranyakasipu, the demoniac father of Prahlada, had decided to personally kill him, he strongly chastised him with many insulting words. However, the acaryas have revealed that at the time, by the mercy of Goddess Sarasvati, he actually glorified his son. Hiranyakasipu calls him "durvinita" or impudent. But the Sanskrit term can also be broken into, "duh" (miseries as in the material world), "vi" (specifically) and "nita" (bought in). Hiranyakasipu also calls him "mandatman" meaning "stupid fool". However "manda-atman" also means "those who are spiritual slow." Unknowingly Hiranyakasipu revealed the real reason for the advent of Prahlada... to relieve the miseries of the spiritually weak entities in the material world by giving them Krishna consciousness. The life and instructions of Prahlada, reveal the inner most aspects of pure devotional service and how it is conducted. Devotional service is completely independent Prahlada took birth in a family of demons. His father was a greatly atheistic person who abhorred the name of Lord Vishnu. Even at the young age of five, Prahlada became fully absorbed in meditating on the Lord. He showed that bhakti or devotional service is independent of any material considerations like family lineage, caste, race, birth, age or any material circumstances. While there may be factors that are conducive to devotional service, they are by no means essential, since bhakti is supremely independent. Mercy of a devotee When Prahlada instructed his young classmates in the process of devotional service, they wondered where he got this knowledge from. At this time Prahlada reveals that he heard these instructions from the great sage Narada while still in the womb of his mother. Devotion is thus the property of a devotee and can only be given by him. However the mercy of a devotee in itself is not enough. One has to make a conscious effort to receive that mercy by accepting and acting on the instructions. While both Prahlada and his mother had received these instructions from Narada Muni, Prahlada assimilated them into his life, while his mother quickly forgot them once she got back into the association of her atheistic husband. Dealings with materialistic persons When speaking with his father or with his teacher, Prahlada would discuss devotional service them in a general way. At one point when his teachers specifically inquired about the source of his knowledge, he tells them of the reasons why one may perceive some one as a friend and another as an enemy. Later when his father made the same inquiry, Prahlada discussed the plight of men too engrossed in materialistic activity. It may seem that Prahlada was avoiding the question, but in reality he was explaining the reasons why they would not be able to grasp the answer even if he gave it. He thus bought forth the qualities fundamental for making spiritual progress, getting beyond the material conception of life. He also showed that one must protect the intimate details of devotional service for people who are envious of the Lord. However when the classmates of Prahlada inquired, he understood that though they were non-devotees, they were innocent and non-envious, and so he readily revealed the details of his experience with Narada Muni. The reactions of Hiranyakasipu towards his son also reveals how worldly men will react to devotees. Initially he is amused, contemptuously dismissing the devotion of his son to some passing "bad" influence. Then he becomes angry at the obstinacy of his son and finally when he discovers that he is unable to harm Prahlada, the anger turns into deadly fear. Since Hiranyakasipu was an avowed atheist, the fear culminated in his death. But to one not so fixed in materialism, the anger could also give way to respect, emulation and glorification. Qualities of Prahlada Prahlada is described as being humble, obedient, respectful, gentle and compassionate. Even though he understood that his father was demoniac, he gave him full respect worthy of a father. He followed the instructions of his teachers in studying the various arts of politics and economic, even though he had no interest in these mundane subjects. Even when he disagreed, he did so with great humility and respect. He showed that becoming a devotee naturally enhances all good qualities of a person. His compassion for his father grew in proportion to the atrocities that he perpetrated, so much so that finally all he would ask from Lord Nrsimhadeva was mercy for his father. Completely dependant on the Lord"s mercy Prahlada never specifically asked the Lord for protection, even when he was being tormented by his father in so many ways. He simply continued doing what he always did, meditating on the Lord. He exemplified the attitude of a devotee, naturally expecting the mercy of the Lord, in any way and form, in any situation, whether it is favorable or not. In the final moments of the pastime Lord Nrsimhadeva having killed Hiranyakasipu wanted to grant Prahlada a boon. However, Prahlada at this time is confused and hurt, He says that, "You are naturally my master, and I am naturally Your servant. We have no other relationship." Prahlada thus revealed the highest form of relationship between a devotee and the Lord. The devotee has no other desire but to render service to the Lord, and accepts what ever the Lord gives, be it good or bad, as His mercy. When Krishna protects Hiranyakasipu was the ruler of the entire universe. He was so feared that just by seeing the movements of his eyebrows great demigods would tremble. Yet with all his strength, his army, his mystical powers he could not harm Prahlada, who was under the protection of Krishna. On the other hand, Hiranyakasipu himself had made all plans for immortality. By performing severe austerities he had secured boons from Lord Brahma that all but made his death impossible. Yet when the time came, Krishna killed him with great ease. Prahlada thus showed that "rakhe Krishna mare ke mare Krishna rakhe ke." He whom Krishna protects, no one can kill, but if Krsna wants to kill someone, no one can give him protection. Nine processes of devotional service explained by Prahlada (SB 7.5.23-24) sri-prahrada uvaca sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam pada-sevanam arcanam vandanam dasyam sakhyam atma-nivedanam iti pumsarpita visnau bhaktis cen nava-laksana kriyeta bhagavaty addha tan manye 'dhitam uttamam Prahlada Maharaja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Visnu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words) - these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Krsna through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge. Glories of Nrsimha Caturdasi from Nrsimha Purana (part of the lecture by Suhotra Swami from Wroclaw, 27-03-98, SB.7.7.16) "Before Prahlada Maharaja appeared in the womb of his mother, in his previous life he was a great sensualist, attached to sense gratification. And something happened. He didn't know about it but it was the day of Nrsimha Caturdasi. On that day he met one of his girlfriends on the site of an old Nrsimha temple. In other words it was a secret ground when there once had been an opulent temple but everything had broken down and the temple was no longer in use. It was a lonely place. There he met one of his girlfriends. Actually she was a prostitute. So they met and they wanted to talk and enjoy themselves there in this lonely place. But the temple was very dirty. There was a lot of garbage, leaves and branches. So first thing they did, planning for their sense gratification, they cleaned the temple. That service, done on the Nrsimha Caturdasi on the actual holy site of the Nrsimha temple had an extremely powerful effect. Not only that. After cleaning the temple, they sat down together to talk and because the lady was the prostitute and wanted money, one of the topics of discussion was the price. They couldn't agree on that. So the talk changed into an argument and at the end the lady got up and walked away. Prahlada, in his former life, was so upset that he just sat there for the rest of the day and the night. He didn't eat, he didn't sleep. He was just sitting and thinking: "This woman wanted too much money. I will never talk to her again. In this way he observed Nrsimha Caturdasi very nicely, even not knowing what he was doing. Still the Lord in the heart accepted this as a devotional service so that in his next life, in the womb of his mother, when Narada Muni instructed his mother on Srimad Bhagavatam, the Lord in the heart by his mercy fixed the mind of the unborn child on those instructions." Prayers to Lord Nrsimhadeva's eight lotus hands (Adapted from the 53 paragraphs of Mahanidhi Swami's prayers to Lord Nrsimhadeva written at Mayapura on Nrsimha Caturdasi 1997.) Conch O Lord Nrsimhadev! May I always hear Your conchshell reverberating within my heart sounding its message: 'My devotee will never be vanquished!' O Conchshell, at Kuruksetra when the Pandavas heard you, they regained their strength and fought lust like lions. Please give me the strength to be determined in the battle against Maya. Club O Lord Nrsimhadeva, the elephant of sinful lust has entered the garden of my devotion. My Lord, please use Your club to chastise this elephant and drive him away. Shield O Lord Nrsimhadeva! I surrender to You. Please protect me with Your shield and give me your mercy. Cakra O Lord Nrsimhadeva! My rascal mind produces many such magical illusions, and like a ruffian he shouts cruel slogans like 'Go ahead! You can enjoy. Forget about Krsna and your guru. Just be natural, be yourself.' Please scatter these mystic illusions with Your sudarsan cakra and fix my mind on Your lotus feet. Lotus Lord Nrsimhadeva! Please touch me with Your padma so that the lotus bud of my consciousness will unfold and bloom with brilliant sattvika ecstasies in devotional service. By seeing your lotus flower, O Lord Nrsimhadeva, please increase the greed for nectar in my bee-like mind. As bees live inside a lotus flower, may the bee of my mind always be sheltered in your padma. Sword O Lord Nrsimhadeva, as a king immediately takes out his sword to protect the citizens from irreligion and sinful deeds, please be ready at any moment to protect me from acting sinfully. My mind is extremely sinful and lusty - being sometimes happy and sometimes distressed, so please, O Lord Nrsimhadeva, cut out with Your sword the roots of sin and protect the tiny creeper of Bhakti we are trying to grow there." Hands Lord Nrsimhadeva, You are the deliverer and protector and You are very affectionate to Your devotees. Once, in ecstatic affection, You picked up Prahlad, put him on Your lap and placed Your lotus hand on his head. But, my Lord, Your hand is most inconceivable! The palm of Your hand is very soft and pleasing just like a lotus flower. But Your nails are ferocious, razor sharp, piercing and harder than thunderbolts! With these amazingly wonderful fingernails You tore apart the demon Hiranyakasipu and annihilated the hordes of his demoniac friends. Simply by the touch of Your hand (Bhagavat darsa) Prahlad Maharaja became immediately free from all material contaminations and desires, and achieved brahma-jnana, transcendental knowledge. His heart became full of love, and all the symptoms of ecstasy manifested in his body. Then Prahlad offered prayers to You in full spiritual knowledge and full of devotional ecstasy... Previously, my Lord, the lizard Nrga gave up his ugly body and received the beautiful body of a demigod by the touch of Your hand. Gajendra the elephant became free from all ignorance and attained sarupya-mukti by Your touch. By catching hold of Rukmini's hand, You saved her from being contaminated by the hands of Sisupala and his company. Akrura journeyed to Vrndavana with great expectations of receiving benedictions from Your supreme hands. With Your lotus hand You wiped the pearl like drops of perspiration from the faces of the gopis, and they immediately felt refreshed by Your touch. With Your two hands You held a flute and played the sweetest most enchanting music to satisfy all of Your devotees. Please Lord Nrsimhadeva, pick me up from the deep dark well of ignorance with Your lotus hands. Please free me from this ugly body full of insincerity and wicked, worldly desire. Award me a pure spiritual body and always keep me protected in Your loving embrace. Never again let me be touched by maya. Hold me in Your hands as Your instruments of service, and engage me in sweet ways to please all of Your devotees. Lord Nrsimhadeva, Your heart is as soft as lotus petals for Your surrendered devotees. As Gajendra offered a lotus to You in submission, I put the lotus of my heart in my hands and surrender to you. With Your hands You accept whatever is offered to You. O my Lord Nrsimhadeva, I offer You my very self and beg for this benediction in return: please may I see Your hand in everything and always remember You. O Lord Nrsimhadeva, please protect me and give me Your mercy." Nrsimha-lila answers (Romapada Swami) Q. After we worship Lord Krishna, why do we only glorify Lord Nrsimhadeva and no one else like Lord Rama, Vishnu, Venkateshvara etc.? A. Vaishnavas adore and worship Lord Nrsimhadev as the destroyer of all obstacles on the path of one's devotional service and protector of one's devotion, for He came specifically to protect His devotee Prahlada from his demoniac father. Therefore, devotees offer specific prayers to Him, at the end of worship begging Him to please forgive any offenses that might have been committed unknowingly during the worship, and to remove all obstacles in one's attempts to worship and seeking protection. Q. It is stated that all the Vishnu forms are eternal. Are there separate lokas for the Kurma, Matsya, Varaha, Nrsimha, Rishabhadev, Parasurama forms? If so why does the Bhagavatam say that the form of Nrsimha was never seen by anybody before? And also what about the form of Lord Caitanya? If He is eternal, where is His planet? A. Yes, there are innumerable Vaikuntha planets and the various forms of the Lord preside in each of those planets. Srimad Bhagavatam describes that when Lord Nrsimhadev appeared even the Goddess of Fortune had never seen that form before, as one of the Lord's lila-avatars. This refers to the fiery form of half-man and half-lion that the Lord exhibited to kill Hiranyakasipu. Lord Nrsimha's form as Lord Narayana in Vaikuntha, exhibiting four arms holding the symbols of Visnu, exists in the spiritual world. Our Vaishnava acaryas have described that within the innermost whorls of the Goloka Vrindavana planet, which is shaped like a lotus, is situated the spiritual counterpart of Sri Navadvipa dhama and Lord Caitanya eternally manifests His pastimes there. Q. Avatar means to descend. That means all avatars exist in various Vaikuntha lokas. Do all avatars exist in the form in which they descend. For example does Lord Nrsimhadev exist in the form in which we worship him, or He exists as a four armed Vishnu form. If Vishnu form then why is it that Lord Krishna and Rama are in the same form in which they descend? A. We know that the goddess of fortune, had never before seen the form of Lord Nrsimhadev. This means that He exists in the spiritual world in a four-armed form, identified with the four symbols of Visnu held in a particular sequence. Likewise, when Rama returned to the spiritual region, His Visnu form was that form by which others knew Him. When Krishna descends, we also know that He manifested His four armed form in the prison house of Kamsa, but then His original svayam bhagavan Krishna form was manifest in Gokula. Verses Nrsimha-tapani Upanisad mantra: sri nrsimha, jaya nrsimha, jaya jaya jaya sri nrsimha/om hrim ksraum ugram viram mahavisnum jvalantam sarvato-mukham nrsimham bhisanam bhadram mrtyu-mrtyum namamy aham om hrim ksraum-Nrsimha bija mantra; ugram-terrible; viram-heroic; mahavisnum-Maha Visnu; jvalantam-effulgent; sarvato-mukham-having faces everywhere; nrsimham-half-man, half-lion; bhisanam-astounding, terrible; bhadram-auspicious; mrtyu-mrtyum-death personified, or death to death itself; namamy aham-I offer my humble obeisances. I offer my respectful obeisances to Lord Nrsimhadeva, Who is seated beside Laksmi, Who is the all powerful great Visnu; His face is on all sides, everywhere; He is very peaceful and gentle. He can protect everyone from death. This mantra was given by Nrsimhadeva to Lord Brahma of the previous creation in the same way that our Lord Brahma received the Gopal mantra after performing tapasya. This mantra is the main subject of the Nrsimha-tapani Upanisad. CC Madhya-lila 8.5: sri-nrsimha, jaya nrsimha, jaya jaya nrsimha prahladesa jaya padma-mukha-padma-bhrnga All glories to Nrsimhadeva! All glories to Nrsimhadeva, who is the Lord of Prahlada Maharaja and, like the honeybee, is always engaged in beholding the lotus-like face of the goddess of fortune. PURPORT The goddess of fortune is always embraced by Lord Nrsimhadeva. This is mentioned in Srimad-Bhagavatam in the First and Tenth Cantos by the great commentator Srila Sridhara Svami. The following verse was composed by Sridhara Svami in his commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.87.1). vag-isa yasya vadane laksmir yasya ca vaksasi yasyaste hrdaye samvit tam nrsimham aham bhaje "Lord Nrsimhadeva is always assisted by Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, and He is always embracing to His chest the goddess of fortune. The Lord is always complete in knowledge within Himself. Let us offer obeisances unto Nrsimhadeva." Similarly, in his commentary on the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.1.1), Sridhara Svami describes Lord Nrsimhadeva in this way: prahlada-hrdayahladam bhakta vidya-vidaranam sarad-indu-rucim vande parindra-vadanam harim "Let me offer my obeisances unto Lord Nrsimhadeva, who is always enlightening Prahlada Maharaja within his heart and who always kills the nescience that attacks the devotees. His mercy is distributed like moonshine, and His face is like that of a lion. Let me offer my obeisances unto Him again and again." CC Madhya-lila 8.6: ugro'py anugra evayam sva-bhaktanam nr-kesari kesariva sva-potanam anyesam ugra-vikramah "Although very ferocious, the lioness is very kind to her cubs. Similarly, although very ferocious to nondevotees like Hiranyakasipu, Lord Nrsimhadeva is very, very soft and kind to devotees like Prahlada Maharaja." PURPORT This verse was composed by Sridhara Svami in his commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam (7.9.1). Other works online Nrsimha Kavaca: http://www.hknet.org.nz/narasimha%20kavacha.htm Miscellaneous Nrsimha and other prayers in various formats: http://www.hindunet.org/stotras/stotras2.htm http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/1415/sanskrit.html http://www.hknet.org.nz/nrsimha-page.htm Nrsimha sites: http://narasimha.avatara.org http://narasimha.nols.com http://www.iskcon.net/sacramento/nrsimha.html

first dibs on being a flower at lotus feet hhahahahahhah