A bona fide speaker might relay a powerful message, but the listener must also have the capacity to receive in order to benefit.
Unknown source.
As you observe beauty in the word, consider how exquisite the source of all beauty must be. Allow this awareness to increase your interest in contacting the Godhead itself, the Creator and Reservoir of beauty and pleasure.
Unknown source.
Dear Lord, Whatever we need to be better servants for Srila Prabhupada’s mission, let it happen or come to us. Whatever we need to have taken away to become pure in Srila Prabhupada’s service, let it be taken away.
Unknown source.
We are all spiritual warriors, who are blessed by the best, and we have a duty to reach out more to help each other to pass the tests.
Unknown source.
We create our own pain and suffering by clinging to all kinds of egocentric nonsense. Despite the fact that we are responsible for our unhappiness, if we ask the Lord to help, we often refuse His assistance when it comes; we behave like prisoners who, eager to be released, ask the jailer to open the gate, but run immediately back inside when the doors do open. Yet we persist in asking, "When are You going to let me out of here?" Although the Lord makes all kinds of help available to get us out of this material world once and for all, our insanity drives us to seek temporary gratification instead. Because in modern society the pursuit of material pleasures is accepted as normal - and all around us people are doing little else - we can easily become convinced that the single-minded quest for "the good life" is appropriate behavior.
Unknown source.
We should look at our lives and ask ourselves, "What am I doing to relieve the suffering of others?"
Unknown source.
When we look at ourselves as human beings, we have to watch our thoughts because our thoughts lead to words. We watch our words; they lead to actions. We have to watch our actions because actions lead to habit. We should watch our habits because they become our culture.
Unknown source.
The best way to keep anyone alive is by following their instructions and examplifying their teachings, not just individually but also as a community.
Unknown source, 2005.
Four Principles of Community Building
Treat each person with the bhakti and care as if the success or failure of your own spiritual life depends on this. Do not take into concern how they treat you. The manner in which you treat people is the same way you are treating Guru and Krishna.
Anytime there is a problem in a relationship, you should first see it as your own fault. Even if others are to blame, you will only add to the problem by considering them to be at fault.
You should treat every person with whom you come in contact with the same care as the person you love the most.
As we associate with others in our spiritual communities, we should do so in a mood that these are the people I am living with and they would probably also be the people that I leave this body with.
from a lecture given at ISKCON Gita Nagari on 8 November, 1998
