Notes on the teachings of a pure Devotee … taken by Satsvarupa
Swamiji has said that what is important is sincerity. Not the rules and regulations, but sincerity. To the sincere devotee, Krishna from within the heart reveals, and everything is taken care of.
People are in ignorance, darkness. The Vedic literature is light. They take this spot life as everything. They do not know where they were before they were born, they do not know what body they will have to take after death. But they are absorbed in this spot life. They do not know that the soul does not die."
"When Krishna was at Dwarka He had a headache one day, and He told His servant that He could be cured only by the dust from a devotee's feet. The servant went out to the devotees, but they were shocked and said, 'No, Krishna is God,' and they dared not put the dust of their feet on His head, because they would be sent to hell. No devotees gave the dust of their feet. But the servant went to Vrindaban to the Gopis, Krishna's purest lovers, who quickly gathered: 'How is Krishna?' The servant told them, and they at once scraped the dust from their feet and collected it for Him. 'You gave the dust of your feet?' said the servant. 'Aren't you afraid you'll go to hell?' 'We are prepared to go to hell!' they said. 'We don't care! But Krishna must be cured!' That's love. The less you care for yourself and care only for Krishna, that's a good sign."
"They see someone innocent and right away they exploit. I trust you, I lay my head on your lap, and you cut my head off-that is civilization. If they exploited for good purpose-but they exploit only for sex and liquor, the most abominable things. They have no other information or pleasure. But just because they have nicely washed pants and shirt they are respected."
"Man thinks he is free, but he is like the cow tied up with a long rope that is fastened at one end; however we may fly we have to come back. We are all under conditional Nature, you cannot surpass it. But anyone who takes to Krishna Consciousness is freed from material Nature. If we believe Bhagavad Gita, Krishna Consciousness is so sublime that it is transcendental to goodness also it has nothing to do with matter. It is simply on the spiritual platform."
[Someone had asked Swamiji what about people who said that Form limits God. He replied that that was another nonsense.]
"The Lord is conscious. He may appear to be limited because He has a Form, but His potency is unlimited. He is the Absolute Truth. The sun is like this. It appears limited in the form of the sun planet, but the effects of the sunshine are unlimited. By their material calculation the impersonalists say if God is all-pervading, how can He be localized? He, however, has spiritually unlimited potency. The localized sun has energy all over the Universe. The Lord and His energy are inseparable, but the Lord is Personal and localized."
He said his Guru Maharaj, Sri Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami, liked daring devotees who did not compromise. Those who compromise he called good-for-nothings .
"All is one does not account for variety. Red flowers, blue flowers, white flowers, all are one, all are Krishna, but there is union in variety, many in one. Krishna is everything and everything is Krishna. You can believe. You don't have to have philosophical understanding. It's the source of wood that determines the by-product. Men go to work with a saw and hammer and some talent to make a piece of furniture, and they say they created it. God supplied it. We supply nothing."
Swamiji said these people who think "I am God" really just sit around smoking, and they need to have some spiritual recreation, so they say, "All is void." And they smoke and sit and talk in this way, and then do all nonsense. They are of the society of the cheaters and the cheated. They go to some yogi, take postures, get told something nice, pay 5 dollars, and leave.
"All is spirit from Krishna. Just as a fingernail is skin, but cut it and it doesn't hurt. Matter is a form of spiritual energy in which we forget Him."
"They try to kill devotees. They tried to kill Lord Jesus Christ and His religion is now dominant over most of the world. They tried to kill Krishna, and now He is still growing from 5000 years ago. They put Prahlad under the elephant's foot, and the elephant lifted him up and carried him in triumph."
"The whole world is a butchershop. Whoever isn't giving Krishna Consciousness to another is butchering him. The mother is butchering, the father is butchering, the friend is butchering."
"Mahatma is he whose heart and soul have become great for serving the Great."