Quotes of Srila Prabhupada

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Krishna Consciousness is so nice that if one takes part in it in either ways, like hearing, chanting, remembering,
worshiping, praying, or even simply by eating prasadam, the transcendental effect will be visible.
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This is the age of Kali which plunders away the spiritual sense of human beings and it is only the Divine Grace of
Lord Chaitanya, Who can protect us from all these dangerous pitfalls.
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A person, who is always anxious to render service unto the Supreme Lord Hari,
as His eternal servitor, in all conditions of life is considered to be liberated even
though within the material body.

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Maya is very strong and as soon as there is opportunity Maya will attack.
Therefore one should be very careful against the attack of Maya. And the only
effective defense is to remain Krishna consciousness always.

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Difficulties of life may come as seasonal changes but we should not be disturbed
by all those difficulties. Our process is to chant and that process will gradually
clear everything in due course.

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Anyone's special talent should be engaged in the service of the Lord, and thereby become successful in life. We are
not meant for learning something new for the service of the Lord; but we have to engage whatever talents we have
already got.

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A child is a rare gift given by Krishna, but at the same time a great responsibility; every parent has the
responsibility to see that his child grows up Krishna consciousness.

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Always remember Krishna Who is your dear most friend and always serve Him
just to please Him, and He will give you all intelligence how to be a first-class
devotee.

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Those who take Krishna's advent as that of an ordinary man are great fools, but
if one can simply understand the transcendental nature of this event as well as
His disappearance, he becomes immediately liberated.

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Krishna consciousness is the process of eternal life. The process is simple and the
results are sublime. You follow it and you will be happy in this life as well as in
the next.

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Quotes of Srila Prabhupada

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Chant Hare Krishna sincerely and all good intelligence consultation shall come from within. Krishna says that, ‘those
who are engaged in My service, I give intelligence for his progressive march’.

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Vedanta means ultimate knowledge. Knowledge is never perfect unless one comes to the point of understanding
Krishna. To remain in Krishna Consciousness is actual understanding of Vedanta.

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If we are always afraid of our mistakes, Krishna will save us from all such misgivings and even if we imperceptibly
commit some mistake, He will forgive us. But we should be always very careful not to commit mistakes.

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Chanting of Hare Krishna is not meant for achieving any other better thing than Krishna. But when we chant Hare
Krishna without any offense, we relish Krishna, the Reservoir of all pleasure.

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One should always remain active in Krishna's service; otherwise the strong
maya will catch him and engage him in her service.

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Without cleaning the mind, nobody can advance in spiritual understanding.
And the chanting of Hare Krishna is the cleansing process of the mind. That is
our motto.

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Your body is dedicated to Krishna; therefore you should not be neglectful about
your body. You should always
think that your body is no more your body, but it is Krishna's body. Therefore you should take care of it.

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Our business is to try our best. Result we leave it for consideration of Krishna, and we shall not be disappointed
whether the result is favorable or unfavorable. Actually there cannot be any unfavorable result, because we are
serving Krishna.

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It is your good fortune that you can serve Krishna in so many ways—to work, to write, to speak, to paint, to build—
all of these talents must be employed in Krishna's service. That will make you perfect.

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In humble submission the devotee finds such sweet transcendental pleasure that no more he is interested in the
nonsense material world and no more he is affected by the influence of the inferior energy, the maya.

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Dedicate your life for Krishna. Even if there are some faults, dedicated life is noble life. Maybe, due to our past
habits, we may commit some faulty action, but that dedicated life is sublime.

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Quotes of Srila Prabhupada

When one becomes accustomed to inoffensive chanting, then his fruit is that he is promoted to
the stage of pure Love of Godhead, or prema. This prema is the perfectional stage of
consciousness and the most blissful by very far.

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There are four classes of men: lazy intelligent, busy intelligent, lazy fool and busy fool. First-
class man is lazy intelligent. Busy fool is very dangerous.

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We should always remember that our body is not for sense gratification; it is for Krishna’s
service only. And to render very good sound service to Krishna we should not neglect the
upkeep of the body.

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This Krishna consciousness temple is the hospital for the diseased spirit soul. And everyone is diseased. Come to
this hospital. We shall take care of you and cure your material disease.

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Cleanliness is next to Godliness. This point should be very carefully observed, and then you will advance very
quickly to the perfectional stage of Krishna consciousness.

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The difficulty is sometimes Krishna’s ashirvad (blessing) may be just the opposite. Krishna will take away. So at
that time they become atheist.

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If you want perfection in your business, then you must try to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Otherwise you are simply wasting your time.

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Krishna is Controller and we are controlled. When we simply remember to accept the control of Krishna and not to
act independently then all fortune is automatically present.

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This chanting process is the only way of attaining full Krishna Consciousness in this age of kali yuga. Lord Chaitanya
stressed upon this point, and we may take it from His authority that no other method will prove to be successful in
this matter.

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Simply engage yourself in Krishna's service. That will protect you from any attack of maya. Maya can take Krishna's
place in our heart as soon as there is a slackness on our part. Otherwise, if Krishna's seated always, maya has no
opportunity to occupy the seat.

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Everything in the Temple should be kept nice and clean. Everyone should wash hands before touching anything of
Krishna's. We should always remember that Krishna is the purest & similarly only the pure can associate with Him.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

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"Money is the honey'' goes so far as it is employed for Krishna consciousness. The body is undoubtedly a material
vehicle but when it acts for Krishna consciousness it becomes spiritualized. By the grace of Krishna, material energy
can be transformed to spiritual energy & spiritual energy is never deteriorated. To be in Krishna consciousness
means to be in spiritual energy.

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Quotes of Srila Prabhupada

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If a man thinks that chanting will save him from all kinds of sinful reaction deliberately committed by him, then he
becomes the greatest offender. By chanting Hare Krishna certainly we become free from all sinful reactions, but
that does not mean that we shall deliberately commit sins and counteract it by chanting.
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On the Absolute world there are no such relativities as a success and failure. The one thing in the Absolute world is
to serve Krishna. Don't care for the result. Krishna must know that we are working very seriously and that is our
success of life.
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Devotional service means to apply one's energy in the service of Krishna. That is
the instruction of the Bhagavad-gita… we cannot understand about Krishna with
our limited potency and senses, but if we engage ourselves in the service of the
Lord, He will reveal Himself to the faithful servitor… The more we learn about
Krishna from the authoritative sources, the more we can be attached in Krishna
Consciousness.

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Less intelligent persons are very much interested in dreaming life, but one who is
intelligent enough he searches after eternal life. The modern civilization does not
understand what eternal life is. They are busy with the spot life of 50 or 100
years. Fools cannot think that one is not for 50 or 100 years, but one is for
eternity. Krishna consciousness is the life of eternity.

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We should utilize our time for elevating ourselves in Krishna Consciousness than
for so-called economic development. If we are satisfied with plain living, with minimum time and the balance time
is engaged for elevating our Krishna Conscious program, then every man can be transferred to Goloka Vrindavana,
just in this very life.
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Any one of us can be arrested by Maya at any moment if we are not strongly attached to Krishna Consciousness. So
my request to you and all others is to follow the principles of Krishna Consciousness adherently and there is no
danger however strong the Maya may be.

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A child is a rare gift given by Krishna, but at the same time a great responsibility; every parent has the
responsibility to see that his child grows up Krishna consciousness.

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Quotes of Srila Prabhupada

The darkness has no existence in the presence of sunlight; similarly Maya cannot
exist in the presence of Krishna. As darkness and light exist eternally, similarly,
Maya and Krishna exist eternally, but Maya has no existence in the presence of
Krishna. Try to understand this simile.

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In the material world, the gold box and the gold plated box may be different in
price, but in spiritual world there is no such distinction. There the gold box and
the gold plated box are the same. In material world there is difference between a
sweeper and a cook; in the spiritual world a person who sweeps the temple and a
person who worships in the temple are all the same. That is absolute knowledge.

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A devotee always accepts his distress as minimized by God's Mercy; although he
would have to suffer many more times the suffering. Any one who accepts this philosophy of God's Mercy in
suffering conditions, and still makes progress in Krishna Consciousness, it is said that he is sure to go back to
Home, Back to Godhead.

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Practical devotion is the secret to understanding the Sastras. My Guru Maharaja used to say that for one who is not
engaged in devotional service, reading all the books is simply like licking the outside of the honey jar. One who
thinks the books are the thing is content in this way. But we should learn the secret to open the jar and taste the
honey. In this way, if we can simply understand one book, or one sloka, the perfection is there.

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We should never sit idly and ask Krishna to do everything. That is the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita. It is clearly
said in the Gita: "Yuddhasya ca mam anusmara [Bg. 8.7].'' So ordinarily, we have to try our best to our best
capacity to achieve something, and by Krishna's Grace, all of a sudden we shall see everything is there. This sort of
help from Krishna is transcendental happiness.
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To surrender to Krishna all at once is not generally possible, but as we serve Krishna more and more, we gradually
become more and more surrendered at His Lotus Feet. In the transcendental loving service of the Lord, it doesn't
matter whether we are working, cooking, painting, writing, chanting, or whatever, they are all the same. There are
no such distinctions of higher and lower on the transcendental platform. The important thing is that we are
engaging our time and energy in the service of the Lord.

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On the Hare Krishna Mantra -This sound vibration is not material; it is spiritual, and powerful beyond our
conception. So it cannot be hindered in any way by something material; it surpasses all these material barriers. So
you can know it that when you are chanting, you are also giving benefit to even the child in the womb.

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Krishna has given some the opportunity to serve Him by nice writing, some by
good business ability, some by nice cooking, and so on, but these various
services are all accepted equally by Krishna. On the transcendental plane,
one service is as good as another. There is no question of higher or lower.
We are very tiny, and so we cannot really do very much. Simply we can engage
our time and energy, and that is all Krishna sees. He sees this boy or girl is
spending his time in My Service, and He is pleased.

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There may be doubts and skepticism, if one continues the chanting process,
the doubts will all disappear, and real knowledge will be revealed by the Grace
of Krishna. Maya may put so many doubts and worthless arguments into our
minds, but if we continue the chanting, the curing process will go on, never
mind the doubts.

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There are four things desirable in this material world, namely, good parentage, sumptuous wealth, sufficient
education, and good beauty. These things are sometimes impediments in the service of the Lord because such
persons with great parentage, wealth, etc., become materially puffed up, and thus deviate from Krishna

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Quotes of Srila Prabhupada

Consciousness, but when they are employed in the service of the Lord, their value becomes many more times
greater. Just like zero has no value, but when zero is placed on right side of one, the value of zero enhances to
10 times; similarly, our life, wealth, intelligence, and words become 100 times 100 greater and greater if they
are employed in the service of the Lord.

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For plain living we must have sufficient land for raising crops and pasturing grounds for the cows. If there is
sufficient grains and production of milk, then the whole economic problem is solved. You do not require any
machines, cinema, hotels, slaughterhouses, brothels, nightclubs—all these modern amenities.

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People in the spell of maya are trying to squeeze out gross pleasure from the senses, which is not possible to derive
to our heart's content. Therefore we are confused and baffled in our attempt to eschew eternal pleasure from gross
matter. Actually, joyful life is on the spiritual platform, therefore we should try to save our valuable time from
material activities and engage them for Krishna Consciousness.

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We have to wait for the cure of our material diseases, and proportionately as we become recovered from the
disease, the supplies of pleasant things will automatically come. But we must always know that there is nothing
more pleasant than Hare Krishna. When we will be able to relish the transcendental pleasure, in chanting Hare
Krishna, that will be the sign of our recovery from material diseases.

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Eating, sleeping, mating, all these are material demands; the more we minimize, then that is good, but not at the
risk of health. Because we have to work for Krishna, so we must maintain our health nicely. But we should not eat
more than is required for maintaining body and soul together.

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The best thing is that every intelligent man must try to finish this business of Krishna
Consciousness in this life. Finishing means one has to conclude that he has no more any
necessity for material enjoyment. Spiritual enjoyment of life is the reality, and when one is
perfectly prepared to accept spiritual enjoyment, and completely understands the uselessness of
material enjoyment, that is the perfectional point of view.

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A man may perform Krishna Consciousness to a certain percentage, and another man may
perform Krishna Consciousness to greater percentage or cent per cent progress. So those who
are not able to perform the cent per cent progress, they have to remain in the material world,
but according to the percentage of progress, they are allowed to take their next birth either in a
rich family or in a very pure family.

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If you have got some time, the best thing would be to chant Hare Krishna more and more. As
our life is very short, and we have to finish our Krishna Consciousness this life very quickly. We
do not know when we shall meet our next death, our next exit from this platform. But before going out of this
platform, we may try to finish Krishna Consciousness. That is our main business.

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Even if somebody is not able to execute fully Krishna Consciousness, whatever amount of service he does it never
goes in vain. It will eternally remain. And it will act. Even if somebody does small amount of service, and not even
very willingly, still, he is assured to get human body in next birth, and chance to execute some service further. So
there is no question of failure in Krishna Consciousness. It is only success. Krishna says, “My devotee is never
vanquished.” So we must try sincerely, that's all.

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Many men come here and by their talents, earn huge amounts of money, but it remains here, and he goes alone
with his works only to accept another different kind of body, forgetting everything behind. But if he acquires some
spiritual assets it goes with him, and even if it is not perfect in this life, it begins again from that point in next life.

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Quotes of Srila Prabhupada

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In this age no one is able to remain aloof from the general human society. Therefore one need not go into the
forest in a secluded place to try to make spiritual advancement. Much better idea is that one associate with
devotees in the Krishna Consciousness Centres; this will bring better spiritual results than living in the forest.
Krishna Consciousness is possible when one is in association of devotees.

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Charity given out of duty, without expectation of return, at the proper time and place, and to a worthy person is
considered to be in the mode of goodness.

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A sinful life can be counteracted by various processes of religion such as yajïa, vrata and däna—that is, the
performance of sacrifices, the taking of a vow for some religious ritual, and the giving of charity. In this way one
may become free from the reactions of sinful life and at the same time awaken his original Kåiñhëa consciousness.

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Acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are not to be given up; they must be performed. Indeed, sacrifice, charity
and penance purify even the great souls.

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Agriculture and distribution of the foodstuff are the primary duties of the mercantile community backed by
education in Vedic knowledge and trained to give in charity.

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Two compulsory fasting days in a month, if not more (austerity). Even from the economic point of view, such two
fasting days in a month in the state will save tons of food, and the system will also act very favorably on the
general health of the citizens.

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If you are sick, then fasting is the best medicine. For disease and unwanted guests, if you do not give them food,
they will go away.

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