Mother Lore, Tamal Krishna Goswami’s Mother

The following talks were given on Mother’s Day, during the Sunday festival at the Houston temple.

“Not all people are of the same readiness to hear about Krishna, and we should be sympathetic to all of them. Especially if someone is a superior relative, like a mother or father, we should not torture them with our ‘preaching’. In fact, it is an offense to preach the glories of the holy name — or in a broader sense, to preach the philosophy of  Krishna consciousness — to those who have no faith. The ability to assess the audience we are addressing and how much we can say to them usually develops as we mature in devotional service, and so when we are immature we may foolishly preach to those who do not have faith. And our doing so may make the situation worse.” — Giriraj Swami

Rtadhvaja Swami
Giriraj Swami

“Tonight we had the opportunity to see the Lord being bathed. Who can bathe the Lord? Only a devotee can do that. And who can cook for Krishna? One time I was listening to a lecture by Srila Prabhupada and he said, ‘Krishna doesn’t need your halava. He has much, much better halava in the spiritual world. But you need to offer your halava to Krishna because you need His mercy. You need the blessings of Krishna.’

“So, we get the opportunity to understand the Personality of Godhead by rendering Him service.” — Rtadhvaja Swami

Rtadhvaja Swami
Giriraj Swami

“Sometimes we think of chanting as a process, which it is. But more than a process, it is a relationship — our relationship with Krishna. We are in the material world because we have turned away from Krishna. We have come here to try to enjoy in imitation of Him, or in competition with Him. And when we realize that we cannot be happy trying to imitate God or take His place — when we realize that we have turned away from Krishna, who is our best friend and well-wisher, and we actually regret having turned away from Him and want to rectify our relationship with Him, the first — and best — thing we can do is to make the effort to chant His holy names with attention. So, it is really our relationship with Krishna in the form of His holy name that we are trying to develop.”

Home Program Kirtan
Home Program Talk

“One thing led me to the next, and I finally came to Srila Prabhupada and the Bhagavad-gita. I gradually came to understand that most of what I had been reading was speculation. The basic speculation, or artificial conception, was that we could be happy in the material world. Many of the authors that I was reading were proposing techniques to make you happy in the material world and to make you believe that everything was all right. One common theme with some of the authors was living in the moment — not living in the past or the future. I came to see this as a kind of speculation, because it’s not practical. It came to me that if I have to cross the street I can’t just be living in the moment without thinking about the future. I have to calculate. ‘There’s a car coming. Am I going to make it safely across the street before the car reaches?’ I realized that it’s not an absolute principle, because it doesn’t work in every situation. It’s good when are you chanting, for example, to be in the moment and not thinking about the past or future. But as a philosophy it was not practical.”

05.09.13_Houston

“It is a great privilege to associate with and serve the Lord. We are not qualified. It is by the mercy of the Lord and the disciplic succession — especially the merciful Lords Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai and their merciful servants, particularly Srila Prabhupada — that we have this opportunity. (And even if one were qualified, he or she wouldn’t feel that he was.) So we should always pray not to make any mistake or commit any offense in our execution of devotional service. And if we do happen to commit some offence, we should follow the prescribed remedy. In that humble mood, carefully chanting the holy name, we can serve in the association of devotees; we can serve the deities, we can serve Krishna, and make progress.”

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Kirtan, Giriraj Swami
Lecture, Rtadhvaja Swami
Lecture, Giriraj Swami

“You can go to the temple. You can hear the holy names of Krishna, which are Krishna. You can hear the talks about Krishna, which are Krishna You can see the deity of Krishna, which is Krishna. So, you are associating with Krishna. But the association of those associated with Krishna is even more beneficial, because by associating with them you can learn about the process of bhakti-yoga and take up the practice. And we see that happening in this group. People walk in the door and are chanting zero rounds, and now they are chanting sixteen rounds — by the association of devotees. Bhagavat-sangi-sangasya. The same applies to stri-sangi, or yosit-sangi — but in a contrary, deleterious way.”

SB 2.4.18 Home Program, Dallas

“Srila Prabhupada explains that the reason a devotee is equal in heaven or hell or liberation is that he doesn’t live in heaven or hell — he lives with Krishna. There are many instances when a devotee’s being cursed turned out to be a blessing. A brahman cursed Lord Chaitanya to be bereft of material happiness and Lord Chaitanya was jubilant and took the curse as a blessing. Therefore we should be patient and await the indication of the Lord — try to see the purpose of the Lord. There are many contemporary examples as well.”

Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.36.18

“Certainly Radha-kunda is a most sacred place. During the eightfold daily pastimes (asta-kaliya-lila) of Sri Radha and Krishna, They meet at Radha-kunda in the afternoon and enjoy various pastimes. Krishna will take the cows to pasture on Govardhan Hill and then on some pretext he will arrange to leave the cowherd boys and cows and steal away to Radha-kunda with some confidential friends and meet Radharani and Her girlfriends and enjoy various pastimes there. Almost all our great acharyas established bhajana-kutiras at Sri Radha-kunda.”

Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.36.16

“The ultimate end of Vedic knowledge is realization of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Krsna, as stated in the Bhagavad-gita (vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah [Bg 15.15]). There is a guarantee of money’s being returned if given in charity, regardless of the proportion. Similarly, a moment passed in the association of a pure devotee by hearing and chanting the transcendental messages of the Lord is a perfect guarantee for eternal life, for returning home, back to Godhead. Mad-dhama gatva punar janma na vidyate. In other words, a devotee of the Lord is guaranteed eternal life. A devotee’s old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.” —Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.17 purport

04.21.13 Sunday Feast Dallas

“O Maha-purusa, I worship Your lotus feet. You have given up the goddess of fortune and all her opulence, which is most difficult to renounce and is hankered after by even the great demigods. Being the most faithful follower of the path of religion, You thus left for the forest in obedience to a brahmana’s curse. Out of sheer mercifulness You chased after the fallen conditioned souls, who are always in pursuit of the false enjoyment of illusion, and at the same time engaged in searching out Your own desired object, Lord Syamasundara.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.5.34)

“This verse applies to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Krishna, and Lord Ramachandra and thus relates to the sad-bhuja murti. And as Srila Prabhupada explained in the previous purport we read, about Lord Rama, ‘Lord Sri Ramacandra is so kind and merciful to His devotees that He is very easily satisfied by a little service rendered by anyone, human or not. This is the special advantage of worshiping Lord Ramacandra, and there is the same advantage in worshiping Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. . . . All the incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead—but especially Lord Ramacandra, Lord Krsna, and, later, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu—delivered many of the living entities present before Them, indeed almost all of them. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is therefore represented in the six-armed form of sad-bhuja-murti, which is a combination of Lord Ramacandra, Lord Krsna, and Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The best purpose of human life can be fulfilled by worshiping the sad-bhuja-murti, the form of the Lord with six arms—two arms of Ramacandra, two arms of Krsna, and two arms of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (SB 5.19.9 purport).’ ”

Sad-bhuja: Gaura, Krishna, and Rama in One