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On disputes "Never leave a dispute with a brahmana unfinished. If you die and leave
something in dispute, you will have to take another birth to make it right."
--Letter to Pandava Vijaya dasa, 2002 On Gayatri "Chant the morning Gayatri after the stars have disappeared but before the sun globe appears. Chant evening Gayatri after the sun globe disappears but before the stars appear." --Spoken to Rupanuga dasa during his brahmana initiation On cooking "While I was Gurudeva's chef in Cambridge, England, he taught me the
spiritual law of how important it is to use every grain of rice and not
throw even one grain down the drain. Up until then I was unconscious about
this and very wasteful. Many times I was in such a hurry preparing things
for him that I would rinse the rice and empty what I could into the pan and
throw away the grains that stuck to the sides. After he saw me do that, he
would come in and check on me, to make sure I had learned that lesson. He
said if I was wasteful with a simple thing like rice, I would be wasteful in
other areas of my life. How true that was. I now am very conscious not only --Krsna Sakti dasi On caring for devotees "As I stated in my short talk before leaving Dallas, Krsna is now blessing our zone with many nice new souls who are offering their lives in His devotional service. I am therefore counting on you, my senior disciples, to train these new devotees properly. One of the best ways to get the mercy of Krsna is to take the responsibility for helping His devotees. So whatever service you can do for these new souls who have come to surrender to Krsna will be very much appreciated." --Letter to Kuntidevi dasi, January 28, 1986 On training children "To train our children in Krsna consciousness is a most valuable service. They are all special souls who have taken birth in Vaisnava families, and we must give them every opportunity to progress in their Krsna consciousness. The most important factor for a teacher is to be an ideal example of Krsna consciousness. Then the children will imbibe the qualities of the teacher. This means that you must be very perfect in your sadhana. Never sacrifice your sadhana for any reason." --Letter to Kunkumangi dasi, August 20, 1990 On being depressed "Look at Krsna. If you look at your material circumstances, you will be depressed. Always look at Krsna." --Spoken to Sakuntala dasi, 1989 On relationships "Always be very loving to one another." --Spoken to Kunkumangi dasi and Narottamananda dasa during their wedding,
April 22, 1993 On falling down "Failure is the pillar of success. The sin is not so much in the falling down; rather, it is in the staying down once one has fallen." --Spoken to Gostha Bihari dasa, 1982 On sankirtana "Lord Caitanya's sankirtana party cleanses the heart of all the dust that accumulates over millions and millions of years. The more we perform this sankirtana yajna, the cleaner our hearts will become and the more joyful we will become. I want all of my disciples to learn to become absorbed in sankirtana. For this reason, you must show a steady example. It does not matter that you may not always do very 'big.' What counts is that your effort should be very big." --Letter, February 2, 1982 On chanting "One should never stop chanting. It has nothing to do with whether or not
one can concentrate. We chant because of the order we have received from
guru. To disregard the guru's order is the greatest offence. The guru has
ordered us to chant sixteen rounds, so we must do so--on his order. It is
best for us to try to avoid the ten offences, including inattentiveness. But
we should not avoid the order of our guru. Chanting offensively is better
than not chanting at all. By chanting offensively, while carrying out the
order of the guru, we will gradually get the strength to give up all
offences. If one is sick, one must still try to chant. Only with the Letter to Urjesvari dasi and Saibya dasi, December 5, 1994 On guru-seva "A disciple should see that whatever service he or she offers as being done for his or her spiritual master. "One of the most important things is to be able to carry out personal instructions. These are never to be disregarded but are to be considered as special mercy coming from the spiritual master." "Follow all my instructions and know that I am always with you." "The relationship of guru and disciple is so sacred. Even the destruction of the universe cannot separate them. Always remember this." --Letters to Nrtya Kisori dasi, 2000
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