#bbgovindaswami

HIS INSTRUCTIONS WILL LIVE FOREVER When we were very young devotees Srila Prabhupada would often times say “I can live my body at any time, but my instructions will live forever.” This is the truth, or the tattva of the existence of the vaisnavas. We certainly feel our self to be most fortunate, because we are fallen souls, but we came in contact with Srila Prabhupada and we had a few seconds of His personal association. But those of you who did not see Srila Prabhupada walking in this world, you should not consider yourself to be less fortunate. Because you’re associating with the living Srila Prabhupada through His instructions that you find in His literature. instructions you find in His letters, instructions that you find in His conversations. And because of these instructions your spiritual lives are developing and this Krishna Consciousness movement is expanding. So it is actually a fact that a person is thinking in the wrong way if he’s thinking that vaisnava dies, because the vaisnava is eternally living in the sound vibrations and His instructions. Again I should say that we’re the most fortunate. Srila Prabhupada is my diksha guru and everyone should have a diksha guru. But you are most fortunate that Srila Prabhupada is your shiksha guru and by His guidance and His instructions you are developing in Krishna Consciousness. We all have that connection with Srila Prabhupada whether He’s walking here or not. He’s given His shiksha for the enlightenment of the entire world. HH BB Govinda Swami Lecture on Srila Prabhupada's disappearance day 02.11.08 Sri Vrindavan Dham farm #bbgovindaswami https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh8MoleBq3_/?igshid=1qv9buxhsdcm0

We were present in Srila Prabhupada’s room sometime before he passed away and one day Prabhupada started speaking with the spirit of nostalgia. Srila Prabhupada was thinking about his old days in Vrindavan. He said “I was so happy living there. I had my room at Radha Damodar and everyday I was having darshan of my Lord Radha Damodar, I was perfectly satisfied. Easily I could stay there for the rest of my life, because I was already at such an advanced age. But my Guru Maharaja and Krishna had different plan.” And because he had such firm faith in the instruction of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, He left Vrindavan. That history all of you know as much as I. How much inconvenience Prabhupada underwent. But he had absolute faith “My Guru wants it, therefore I must do it. My Guru wanted this preaching to spread therefore I must do it”. So He had this Guru Nishtha. And Srila Prabhupada also have had nishtha or firm faith for the Holy Names of Krishna. He had these two things and with that alone look at what Srila Prabhupada did. Just because He had so much firm faith. Sri Guru carane rati ese uttama gati. The lotus feet of the spiritual master, indicating the instructions of the spiritual master, they can award us the highest goal of life. Srila Narottama das Thakur is explaining in Prema Bhakti Chandrika that a devotee is very very confident, he should be perfectly sure, he should not have a particle of doubt, that if he will follow his guru’s instructions - he will attain the highest perfection in life. HH BB Govinda Swami Lecture on Srila Prabhupada's disappearance day 02.11.08 Sri Vrindavan Dham farm, Kazakhstan #bbgovindaswami https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh8MgsxBi0H/?igshid=jwpo1lfp4fd3

SRILA PRABHUPADA AS THE EMBLEM OF FAITH On such a day we should think deeply about the personality of Srila Prabhupada and request Prabhupada for His mercy. Srila Prabhupada was an extraordinarily humble person. He did so many phenomenal things, He never took credit for himself. If anything good happen, He always gave credit to His spiritual master, never took credit for himself. He was not proud. Prabhupada, when he went to America, He wrote His famous poem. He told Lord Krsna “You’ve given me the name of Bhaktivedanta. But the actual fact is that I don’t have any ‘bhakti’, I don’t have devotion nor love for the Lord. And you called me ‘vedanta’, which means that I should be full of knowledge, but the actual fact is that I don’t have any knowledge.” But Prabhupada said “There are two things which I do have. One thing is that I have special faith in Krishna’s Holy Names. And another thing is firm faith in instructions of my spiritual master. “ So if we look at the history of our great vaisnava Srila Prabhupada we can see that these are two very very profound points. Prabhupada had so much faith in the order of his spiritual master. Often times we say that Prabhupada is the emblem, or the star, or indication of the concept of Guru Nishtha. This Guru Nishtha means strong and firm faith in one’s spiritual master as a preceptor. Prabhupada perfectly caught the idea of his Spiritual Master, who wanted to please his father Bhaktivinoda Thakur and fulfill the prophecy of Sri Caitanya Mahaorabhu by establishing an international society for vaisnavas. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur established such a dynamic vaisnava society in India. And He sent some of his disciples abroad to preach and he himself wanted to go to foreign countries and present Krishna consciousness. But, unfortunately, at the time of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur there was not much success in the foreign preaching. And that mission of foreign preaching remained asleep until the time that Srila Prabhupada went to the west. Why did Prabhupada go? That’s what His spiritual master wanted. #bbgovindaswami https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh8MUxmBjdb/?igshid=7qsv96238q1a

In Caitanya Caritamrita it is said “nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema 'sādhya' kabhu naya śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya”... Eternal love for God and eternal relationship with God is eternally situated within the heart of every living being. It is said “Sadhya habu noi”, it's not that you must go some other place to try to find love of God, because love is already in our heart. But now it is in dormant or sleeping condition. So it's said “Shravanadi shuddha citta”, by shravana or by hearing about Krishna your consciousness becomes pure. And then that eternal love awakens. And it rises like the sun rises in the morning. At the end of the night is only darkness and you cannot see, but with the first ray of the Sun in the morning things become visible. And progressively as the sun rises more and more – everything will become revealed. HH BB Govinda Swami Radha Damodar Mandir, Vrindavan 03.11.2013 #bbgovindaswami https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh8MDmXBJib/?igshid=avumxcgaik8f

DON’T FORGET TO APPROACH THE LORD We were singing Nrisimha prayer this morning. And we were singing that line “Bahir Nrsimha Hridaye Nrsimha”. Nrisimha is outside, He is everywhere. And He is also inside the heart. So Nrsimhadev is all-pervading. He is everywhere. So everyone should talk little bit to Lord Nrsimhadev, talk to Him about how we want to do something very beautiful for Lord Krsna’s pure devotee Srila Prabhupada. We want to do something very beautiful for spreading the glories of Sri Caitanya. Nrsimhadev should help us. If He’s everywhere - He should hear our prayers. If He is Bahir, if he is everywhere outside, and if He is Hridaye, He is in the heart, He should be able to hear what we’re talking about. Generally the point is that we just forget to talk to Him. That’s always the problem. Krishna says, ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham. He says “I will gladly reciprocate with You in whatever way You approach me.” We just forget to approach Him and talk to Him about it. He’s always there and He’s always waiting. He is omniscient, He knows everything, He is conscious of everything. But we forget to talk to Him. Often times we spend time listening to the mind. Or we may spend some time speaking some silly things. But He is just saying “Talk to me. Let’s get to some relationship”. You can begin by saying “Hello” to me, I’ll say “Hello” to You, talk about what’s going on. Krishna Consciousness is a mystery and it is a science. But Krishna makes certain points very clear and one thing is that He is ready for action in whatever way we approach Him. HH BB Govinda Swami Katha on 03.03.19 Sri Vrindavan Dham farm #bbgovindaswami https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh8F6G9hxvj/?igshid=f2wracrlek3k

I would like to ask everyone, for just a second, look into your heart and think of your greatest aspiration in devotional service, and then take this greatest aspiration and place it at the feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and chant with great care and love, so that Lord Chaitanya would fulfill our desire for service. Hare Krishna. HH BB Govinda Swami Kirtan Mela 2012 - Day 4 Mayapur #bbgovindaswami https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh8E1kxBjhA/?igshid=10ua5sqv6lpcg

THE PHOTO OF OUR HEART Lord Caitanya says: “ceto darpana-marjanam" - the more we devote ourselves to Sri Krishna-sankirtana, the more we listen to Krishna-katha, the more our hearts are purified. He says that the very first aspect that appears from hearing "Srimad-Bhagavatam" and engaging in devotional service is that all the false concepts will be washed away from our heart. Immediately we can not even understand who we are. Our vision is covered with fog. Srila Prabhupada gave one example. If you take a camera, not the one that automatically rewinds the film, but the old model or the old russian cameras. So then you’d take a photo but forget to rewind the tape. Then again you make another shot on the top of the frame. It turns into double image placed on each other. Then the third time you take a photo on the same frame. Gradually, this image will be black and you won’t be able to see the original image. Srila Prabhupada said that our consciousness is like that. We think of ourself as a Russian, in the past life we probably thought of ourselves as Americans, and the life before that we thought we’re Siberian wolves or Vrindavan cobras. In our consciousness there are so many impressions of the material life. But through the process of hearing and chanting about Krishna, hearing and chanting the Holy Names, all these false conceptions will be washed away from our heart. Then Lord Caitanya says that the fire of the material life will be extinguished. Then we can begin our eternal life of love for Krishna. So we have to make these efforts and engage in devotional service very diligently, never failing under any circumstances. HH BB Govinda Swami Lecture on SB 3.5.6 (Saint-Petersburg, Russia 29/12/1995) #bbgovindaswami https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh8ErnwhQ48/?igshid=jvfoem09pndd

In the Gita itself Krishna says in our mind, in our senses, in our intelligence there is programming of lust. He says in this creation, starting from Brahma, from top to bottom there is no one who is free from the influence of the modes of the material nature. But nevertheless by the grace of the Lord and His pure devotee we’ve come in contact with bhakti. So our aspiration should not be to remain in the lower stage. But our inspiration should be that step by step we follow the instructions we’ve received from acaryas, Guru parampara and the Lord Himself, so we would become free from the conditional nature. And when we endeavor in that way - Krishna is happy, because He sees we want to come to Him. Then He gives us His mercy and it is only by His mercy that we can overcome this. So our endeavor of love should be unconditional and unbroken. Jayatma suprasidati, Suta Goswami says that if you do this type of activity, then it will thrill your soul like no other activity ever thrilled your soul. He doesn’t say just “prasidati”, than you’ll be peaceful and satisfied and fulfilled. He says suprasidati, you’ll become SUPER excellently satisfied and fulfilled. So if we serve Krishna with that consciousness, if we try to serve Krishna unconditionally and in unending way, then what would be Krishna’s response? He will love us unconditionally and He will love us in unending way. And then there will be the flow of bhakti rasa, the ecstasy of loving Krishna. HH Bhakti Bhringa Govinda Swami #bbgovindaswami #bhaktividyapurnaswami https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh4GupDhCfl/?igshid=17fj2e7whpm9d