äyur harati vai pumsäm
udyann astam ca yann asau
tasyarte yat-ksano nita
uttama-sloka-värtayä

Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.

(SB 2.3.17)

Dasanudaso bhavitasmi bhuyah?!

aham hare tava padaika-mula
dasanudaso bhavitasmi bhuyah

manah smaretsu-pater gunams te
grnita vak karma karotu kayah

O my Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, will I again be able to be a servant of Your eternal servants who find shelter only at Your lotus feet? O Lord of my life, may I again become their servant so that my mind may always think of Your transcendental attributes, my words always glorify those attributes, and my body always engage in the loving service of Your Lordship?

Intense Greed!

"Pure devotional service in Krsna Consciousness cannot be had even by pious activities in hundreds and thousands of lives. It can be attained only by paying one price...that is, intense greed to obtain it. If it is available somewhere, one must purchase it without delay." - Padyavali 14, CC Madhya 8.70 or as Srila Prabhupada said, we should want to become Krsna conscious at any cost.

rte 'rtham yat pratiyeta

na pratiyeta cätmani

tad vidyäd ätmano mäyäm

yathäbhäso yathä tamah

O Brahmä, whatever appears to be of any value, if it is without relation to Me, has no reality. Know it as My illusory energy, that reflection which appears to be in darkness.

Lord Krsna, Srimad Bhagvatam (2.9.34)

More Excerpts from Victory over Death

"One has to keep one's life simple without greed for accumulating more and more, and make Krsna consciousness the top priority in life. Then one can attain 'apavarga', the spiritual world, where there is no hard struggle for existence, no material bondage, fear or death."

Nastyeva! Nastyeva! Nastyeva!

This post has been taken from the Japa Group - http://japagroup.blogspot.com/

Nastyeva! Nastyeva! Nastyeva!

Some time ago I read a very nice book entitled Legacy of Love: A Servant's Quest that speaks about the life of a very wonderful devotee of Lord Krishna named Hladini devi dasi, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada. I found the following letter from her to be really inspirational. And that's her on the picture together with Lord Jagannatha:

"I received your wonderful letter it was so nice to hear from you. But I am going to VERY INFACTICALLY AND LOUDLY PROCLAIM ... NASTYEVA! NASTYEVA! NASTYEVA! There's NOTHING more important than chanting those rounds VERY DEEPLY! So many wonderful devotees became prey to illusion simply because they let down their guard. If you maintain 16 rounds and the regulative principles you are completely protected by Guru and Krishna, but any lack is most dangerous. It's like coming to Africa with no vaccinations! (This place is HEAVY DUTY). All our Enthusiasm, Determination and Patience and Perseverance is in those glorious Names. Don't chant inattentively. The earlier you chant the sweeter it is- no static in the air. It's like tuning a radio, there's one fine point without any static. So we have to practice and search for Krishna in His name. Ultimately it's not a mechanical method. When Krishna is pleased by your struggle and perseverance to contact Him He reveals. This process is SO PERSONAL. Krishna wants to give us everything but we are so slow. That's why association is everything. You must BECOME the association. One small candle can burn down an entire fortress. One enthusiastic devotee can inspire masses. This process is so powerful, so dynamic, but the devotees aren't going deep into it. Then when Maya comes with her army of obstacles and allurements there is no higher taste to combat."

Letter from Hladini to Yamuna, February 23, 1989

Exerpts from Victory Over Death - The Human Body

"...The human body is fully equipped to achieve this end." Therefore, one must conquer the pushing agents of the material senses like the urge to speak, the mind's demands, actions of anger, tongue, belly and genitals, and focus all one's energies in service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead to fulfil the actual purpose of human life.
Pg. 8

...Thus the brief span of human existence is like crossroads, where a traveller can choose one of many paths. And when one falls down into lower species, one has to finish the term in those animal species, exactly like a prisoner who is subjected to imprisonment for a fixed period of time, after which one again gets an opportunity of a human body.

The human body is awarded to give an opportunity to the suffering soul, to realise the Lord and return to His abode. If one neglects this goal, one may repeatedly be cast in innumerable lower bodies to suffer repeated birth and death. Thus, a sane human being should wake up to the truth and plan for himself, how to approach death successfully so that one will not have to return again to this world of repeated birth and death.
Pg. 23

The glory of Sri Krsna

On an altar made of gems in the principal temple of Vrndavana, amidst a forest of desire trees, Lord Govinda, the son of the King of Vraja, sits upon a throne of gems and manifests His full glory and sweetness, thus enchanting the entire world.


(Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi 5.220)

Undivided faith in the Lord and His name

One who worships the Supreme Lord and His holy name with undivided faith, knowing Them to be identical, is considered an elevated, first class devotee, even if he does not understand the intricacies of his own spiritual identity.

- Srila Jagadananda PanditaPrema Vivarta, Chapter 12

The occupational duty..

dharmah svanusthitah pumsām
visvaksena-kathāsu yah
notpādayed yadi ratim
śrama eva hi kevalam

The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.

A Prayer for Everyday

A

Promise for protection

nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti
pratyavāyo na vidyate
sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya
trāyate mahato bhayāt

In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear

While contemplating...

BG 2.62

dhyāyato visayān pumsah
sańgas tesūpajāyate
sańgāt sañjāyate kāmah
kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate

While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.

PURPORT
One who is not Krsna conscious is subjected to material desires while contemplating the objects of the senses. The senses require real engagements, and if they are not engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, they will certainly seek engagement in the service of materialism. In the material world everyone, including Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā — to say nothing of other demigods in the heavenly planets — is subjected to the influence of sense objects, and the only method to get out of this puzzle of material existence is to become Krsna conscious. Lord Śiva was deep in meditation, but when Pārvatī agitated him for sense pleasure, he agreed to the proposal, and as a result Kārtikeya was born. When Haridāsa Thākura was a young devotee of the Lord, he was similarly allured by the incarnation of Māyā-devī, but Haridāsa easily passed the test because of his unalloyed devotion to Lord Krsna. As illustrated in the above-mentioned verse of Śrī Yāmunācārya, a sincere devotee of the Lord shuns all material sense enjoyment due to his higher taste for spiritual enjoyment in the association of the Lord. That is the secret of success. One who is not, therefore, in Krsna consciousness, however powerful he may be in controlling the senses by artificial repression, is sure ultimately to fail, for the slightest thought of sense pleasure will agitate him to gratify his desires.

The Supreme Occupation

sa vai pumsām paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihatā
yayātmā suprasīdati

The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.

SB 1.2.6

vāsudeve bhagavati
bhakti-yogah prayojitah
janayaty āśu vairāgyam
jñānam ca yad ahaitukam

By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Krsna, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.

SB 1.2.7

Before reciting this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

nārāyanam namaskrtya
naram caiva narottamam
devīm sarasvatīm vyāsam
tato jayam udīrayet

Before reciting this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is the very means of conquest, one should offer respectful obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, Nārāyana, unto Nara-nārāyana Rsi, the supermost human being, unto mother Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning, and unto Śrīla Vyāsadeva, the author.
SB 1.2.4

Cleanse the desire for material enjoyment

śrnvatām sva-kathāh krsnah
punya-śravana-kīrtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadrāni
vidhunoti suhrt satām

Śrī Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.

SB 1.2.17

Feared by Fear Personified

āpannah samsrtim ghorām
yan-nāma vivaśo grnan
tatah sadyo vimucyeta
yad bibheti svayam bhayam

Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krsna, which is feared by fear personified.

SB 1.1.14

A Similar Living Being...

"...In Vedic literatures, it is said that the Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead, is the chief amongst all living personalities. All living beings, beginning from the first created being, Brahma, down to the smallest ant, are individual living beings. And above Brahma, there are even other living beings with individual capacities, and the Personality of Godhead is also a similar living being. And He is an individual as are the other living beings. But the Supreme Lord, or the supreme living being, has the greatest intelligence, and He possesses supermost inconceivable energies of all different varieties. If a man's brain can produce a space satellite, one can very easily imagine how brains higher than man can produce similarly wonderful things which are far superior..."

SB 1.1.1 Purport