We’ve heard that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur liked the fact that anyone could utter the holy name, even if in jest or with a supercilious attitude. This principle is addressed in many different scriptures. In the purport to the forty-third text in the fourteenth chapter of the Srimad Bhagavatam’s Fifth Canto, Srila Prabhupada writes, “Even people who do not like us and want to suppress the movement are also somehow or other chanting Hare Krsna. They say, ‘The Hare Krsna people should be chastised.’ Such foolish people do not realize the true value of this movement, but the mere fact that they want to criticize it gives them a chance to chant Hare Krsna, and this is its success.”

Sometimes one wonders how powerful sannyasis, created by Srila Prabhupada, can fall down. Here is at least a partial answer to this question: “We have actually seen that many sannyasis who accept sannyasa prematurely, not having satisfied their material desires, fall down because they are disturbed.” (Srimad Bhagavatam 9.l8.40/purport)

Srila Prabhupada has written about the importance of Vani over Vapu in his Concluding Words to Caitanya Caritamrta, but the concept is further explained in Gopiparanadhana’s translation of Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta, by Sanatana Goswami. In Text 126 of “Purna: the Complete Perfection” we read: “But this anguish of separation is praised as greater than the happiness of enjoying with those one loves. Separation is so pleasing to the mind that it cannot be described. It always transforms at last into an abundance of pleasure. Only experts in tasting these moods can understand how this happens.”

Many of us have heard about the ten thousand years of prosperity in the early part of Kali yuga. One place this prediction is found is in the Brahma Vivarta Purana, texts 59 and 60: “For 10,000 years of kali such devotees of mine will fill the whole planet. After the departure of My devotees there will only be one varna [outcaste]. Devoid of My devotees, the earth will be shackled by kali. Saying this Krishna departed.”

When on a walk, Srila Prabhupada was presented with the fact that Western theologians cannot reconcile reason and faith because they can’t ascertain their relationship. He said that we have a relationship with everything, including the very ground we walk on. He said that footpaths are made for human beings to walk on, so there must be a relationship between every sidewalk or footpath and every person who walks on them. In fact they are made for people to walk on. So there MUST be a relationship.

Random House Webster’s give these as its first two definitions of the word unique: 1. Existing as the only one or as the sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics: A UNIQUE COPY OF AN ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT; 2. Having no like or equal; unparalleled; incomparable: BACH WAS UNIQUE IN HIS HANDLING OF COUNTERPOINT. Each atma or soul is unique, just as each voiceprint, each fingerprint and each snowflake has a singular identity. The variety exists in the spiritual world, but is unseen by the impersonalist philosophers. Srila Prabhupada evokes metaphor of birds in trees to illustrate how people are easily deluded into impersonalism. From a distance one cannot distinguish the form of a green bird in the leafy greenery of a tree. But when one gets close, one can see that the tree is not all a mass of greenery but that individual atmas, the green birds, each with its own individuality sit in the tree.

Before reciting the Gayatri mantra, Srila Prabhupada has advised sannyasis to chant the following mantra from Srimad Bhagavatam 11.23.57, which is part of the song sung by the Avanta Brahmana: “I shall cross over the insurmountable ocean of nescience by being firmly fixed in the service of the lotus feet of Krsna. This was approved by the previous acaryas, who were fixed in firm devotion to the Lord, Paramatma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” This mantra indicates that there is NOTHING in the material world worth being attached to, unless of course, it is part of Krishna Himself. SB 4.29.55 “When one is not attached to anything, but at the same time accepts everything in relation to Krsna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness.” (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.255) SB 7.14.7 purport: “One who rejects anything without knowledge of its relationship to Krsna is incomplete in his renunciation.” (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.256)

The converse of yesterday’s “thought for the day” is that breathing (a human life) not dedicated to Lord Krsna’s service is no better than the whoosh of bellows. A voice not used to glorify Lord Krsna is like the croaking toads sounds, which sometimes call the snake to come and eat them. “Do the bellows of the blacksmith not breathe?” (Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.18, verse). “The human tongue is especially given for chanting the Vedic hymns and not for croaking like frogs.” and “The frogs loudly croak, with the result that they invite the snakes to eat them.” (both quotes from Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.20 purport excerpts.)

The second reason is the “counsellor relationship.” The partner is expected to remove all the psychological hang-ups and personal problems. In effect s/he will be the perfect counsellor.

On 25 February, in the wake of court victory and a 17,500 pound award against a British clothing store, ISKCON of England issued a public statement from Sivarama Swami, which read, in part, “This is not a just a victory for Hinduism, this is a victory for the rights of religious worship and expression. This will set a standard for the future and be a warning to other companies not to use someone’s religious faith as a nasty and spiteful advertising campaign.” The statement in its entirety represents Srila Prabhupada’s mood of fighting for our legal right to practice Krsna consciousness.