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Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, Chapter 11.
prabhu kahe, – ‘kon vyadhi, kaha ta’ nirnaya?’
tenho kahe, – ‘sankhya-kirtana na puraya’
TRANSLATION
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu further inquired from Haridasa, “Can you ascertain what your disease is?” Haridasa Thakura replied, “My disease is that I cannot complete my rounds.”
PURPORT
If one cannot complete the fixed number of rounds he is assigned, he should be considered to be in a diseased condition of spiritual life. Srila Haridasa Thakura is called namacarya. Of course, we cannot imitate Haridasa Thakura, but everyone must chant a prescribed number of rounds. In our Krishna consciousness movement we have fixed sixteen rounds as the minimum so that the Westerners will not feel burdened. These sixteen rounds must be chanted, and chanted loudly, so that one can hear himself and others. (Cc Antya 11.23)
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Haridas Thakura’s Disappearance Day
The ultimate goal is Krishna, although people do not know it. One who does not know Krishna is misled, and his so-called progressive march is either partial or hallucinatory.
In an elevator, what gets us to the destination quickly is the motion of the elevator, not our emotion during the elevation.
Bhakti-yoga is like an elevator that takes us to the topmost summit of spirituality. It can grant us smoothly and swiftly, as the Bhagavad-gita (08.14: sulabhah) indicates, realization of Krishna, the highest manifestation of the Absolute Truth.
A physical elevator is powered by mechanical function, but the bhakti elevator is powered by devotional intention. The more our eagerness to attain Krishna and the more we express that eagerness by diligently practicing devotional service, the faster moves the bhakti elevator.
Someone may object, “Isn’t Krishna attained only by his grace?” Yes, certainly. But he is always ready to bestow his grace. What makes his ever-available grace accessible to us is our intention. So in that sense the velocity of the bhakti elevator is determined by the strength of our intention.
How do we express our intention to Krishna?
By cultivating his remembrance internally and by engaging in his service externally. These dual dimensions of devotion impart the bhakti elevator momentum in its elevation towards destination Krishna.
Unfortunately, we often assume that the essence of devotion lies in moments – the moments when we feel good, feel happy, feel close to Krishna. Such moments can be encouraging and inspiring, but they may or may not occur regularly as long as impurities cloud our perception of Krishna. If we depend on such moments for motivation in our spiritual ascent, discouragement may cause us to slow and stop, to even press the down button.
That’s why we need to focus not on moments of devotion, but momentum in devotion. Then real and rapid purification will naturally ensue. Thereafter, the magical moments will come spontaneously and frequently – till finally they stay forever.
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08.14 - For one who always remembers Me without deviation, I am easy to obtain, O son of Pritha, because of his constant engagement in devotional service.
Indradyumna Swami: At the Bhakti Sangam Festival in Ukraine 11,000 devotees had breakfast and lunch each day. The 22,000 plates were prepared by dedicated teams of devotees, sometimes working even in the rain Read more › 
Question: What is the benefit of mantra meditation?
Answer Summary: Its principal benefits can be summarized as three ‘p’s: peace, purity and pleasure.
Answer:
Sonic spirituality – or approaching the spiritual level of reality through sanctified sound – is an integral part of most world traditions. The Vedic wisdom-tradition takes sonic spirituality to the level of a sophisticated science involving theoretical analysis and experimental experiences that center on empowered sound vibrations known as mantras.
The most potent mantras comprise the names of God. Chanting such mantras connects us with God, thereby yielding extraordinary benefits. Let’s look at three benefits:
Peace (Immediate benefit):
Just as the relentless waves in an ocean keep a boat restless, the relentless waves of worldly dualities – honor-dishonor, pleasure-pain, victory-defeat – keep our mind restless. Just as an anchor steadies the boat, the mantra acts as an anchor that steadies the mind. When we chant a mantra attentively, it invokes God’s supremely stable presence, thereby bringing profound peace. This benefit, though immediate, may not always be instantaneous. Just as anchoring a boat caught in stormy waves may require some persistent effort, anchoring a mind caught in extreme reactions to events may require some persistent effort. But peace surely comes.
Purity (Intermediate benefit):
We are plagued internally by many impurities – selfishness, arrogance, pessimism, cynicism and lethargy, for example. These impurities impel us to actions that hurt others and even ourselves.
God is supremely pure, so connection with him frees us from impurities, just as an effective medicine frees us from germs. As inner impurities have long afflicted us, cleansing ourselves from them takes time, just as recovering from a chronic disease takes time. But it’s worth the wait. Just as the recovery of health brings physical energy, the recovery of purity brings inner energy, thereby enabling us to do justice to our God-given abilities and contribute constructively to the world.
Pleasure (Ultimate benefit):
Among all pleasures, the pleasure of love is most fulfilling. Love brings lasting fulfillment when it is directed towards an eternal object – God. We are all related to God as his children, but we have forgotten that relationship due to spiritual amnesia. Mantras act as potent sonic stimuli that revive our lost memory and activate our dormant love for God. Thereafter, just as speaking the name of a loved one brings joy to our heart, reciting the names of the supreme beloved bring the supreme joy to our heart. We chant selflessly, to express our love for God, and joy arises spontaneously. Indeed, so great is this joy that saints compare it to an endless ocean of nectar – an ocean whose currents can flood our heart with happiness and through us similarly flood the hearts of many others.
As God is the parent of all, loving him enables us to see all living beings as our family members. This vision of a universal family fosters peace and harmony. Thus the benefits of our mantra meditation radiate outwards from the individual to the global – every mantra we chant helps shape a better world.
In 1966, Srila Prabhupada began chanting the Hare Krsna mahamantra under a tree in New York's Tompkins Square Park, thereby inaugurating the western advance of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's glorious Sankirtana movement. Read more › 
The long-running feud over Moscow’s ISKCON temple shows the suspicion and hostility that the Hare Krishna movement, legalised in Russia in 1988, still evokes in that country Read more › 
Bhaktivedanta Swami met Mr. Agarwal, a Mathura businessman, and mentioned to him in passing, as he did to almost everyone he met, that he wanted to go to the West. Although Mr. Agarwal had known Bhaktivedanta Swami for only a few minutes, he volunteered to try to get him a sponsor in America. It was something Mr. Agarwal had done a number of times; when he met a sadhu who mentioned something about going abroad to teach Hindu culture, he would ask his son Gopal, an engineer in Pennsylvania, to send back a sponsorship form. When Mr. Agarwal volunteered to help in this way, Bhaktivedanta Swami urged him please to do so. Read more › 
The temple has 50 ropanies of land including temple, guest house, garden, gausala, restaurant etc. The temple is about a ten-minute walk from the Budhanilkantha Temple, in a beautiful rural setting. Buses to Budhanilkantha (8 km) depart from Rani Pokhari and Kalanki in Kathmandu, every half-hour Read more › (English/Russian)
If a self-effulgent acarya appears in ISKCON, will his picture be placed beside Srila Prabhupada’s on our alters. If not, does it mean our parampara ends with Srila Prabhupada.
Talavan is one of the twelve forests around Vrndavana, a city in India where Krishna incarnated 5,000 years ago. Krishna and His cowherd friends would go there and play, rest, eat and watch their cows as they grazed. Read more › 
We even remember Radhapati prabhu as the sole man down in the BBT Mail Order "cave", we used to call it, in the garage under the green bldg of New Dwaraka. EVERYDAY...rain or shine...ALL BY HIMSELF, he would fill the orders from all over the world for PRABHUPADA's BOOKs and send them out to the respective Temples Read more › Evening Kirtan By H.G. Madhava das at Bhaktivedanta Manor, UK
From Keshav
From Stoka Krishna P
From Sushant Kulkarni
I have seen some people who own lot of money. They neither use their money for sense gratification nor even for Krishna’s service or for any other. They are just happy to see their fat bank balance.
They live simple do not even try to bring material comforts for living. What is the difference between these kind of people and a true Vairagi?
Comments to different Gita daily articles on Gitadaily.com
From Dilip Singh
may be i haven’t understood the explanation because of my physical and mental limitations.
But what i want to convey that this articles deals more about what we get ing to achieve but doesn’t elaborate more on how to achieve and incorporate practical changes in our lifestyle.
From Gaurav
It seems too difficult to refer this page to a neophyte, it seems too philosophical and not simple, and somehow looses essence while reading. I have no knowledge, just sharing my viewpoint, which can be totally rejected.
From Keshava P
There is a strand of spirituality that believes itself incompatible with sex, but this does not subsume all of spirituality (consider Tantra, Osho's teachings, Vaishnavism, Sufism).
From Panca Pandava P
From Chandan Kumar
i am a practicing devotee joined pdc batch. as i told about the one year course at home they are not in favour of that.currently by receiving many calls from the home and hearing crying and words against the practice of devotional sevice i am getting disturbed too much with in. please guide me so that i could practice with strength.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 March 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, BTS Vyasa Puja Talk)
Going earlier into Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja’s life, we see that Maharaja was already powerful, in the sense that he emerged from that black ghetto and came out as one of the very few, almost symbolic black students in Princeton University, where you had a handful just to make up a quota. He was there and obviously did very well, and graduated from that prestigious university, majoring in psychology – something that comes back in his later writings.
Even in student days, he connected with leaders, African leaders of that time, such as Martin Luther King and others. They all recognized him immediately, as someone who could have made a career in politics. And the reason was, not that he was such a diplomat or such a politician, no, that was not it. He was truly a leader of men. He was never just someone who thought in a small way. He always thought in a big way, in the interest of many people. It was natural to him.
He spent a significant amount of time preaching in Nigeria. At one point, he spent most of his time in Africa. In 1990, he was given the position of being a chief! Not just an external thing but because he had influenced so many people and led so many people because he was like that. He was thinking like that. He was thinking as a leader of many people and wherever he went, it was like that.
When Maharaja went to Soweto, he danced in front of hundreds of devotees who went with him on a maha-harinama. It was like a powerful victory dance of Krsna consciousness in the streets of Soweto –not ordinary at all. He was like that.
People recognized that he was such a leader. Therefore, he was naturally acceptable to heads of state, and he met them frequently on different occasions. He was very comfortable with the upper echelon people because he was thinking with same broadness of mind that leaders of many men have. Therefore, also in our society, he came to a leading position. Still, he was not what you call just a man who was representing an institution and who derived his prestige from his rule in the institution. Far from it! He was an individual who was ready to experiment and for the sake of preaching, venture out and try different strategies.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 March 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, BTS Vyasa Puja Talk)
Going earlier into Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja’s life, we see that Maharaja was already powerful, in the sense that he emerged from that black ghetto and came out as one of the very few, almost symbolic black students in Princeton University, where you had a handful just to make up a quota. He was there and obviously did very well, and graduated from that prestigious university, majoring in psychology – something that comes back in his later writings.
Even in student days, he connected with leaders, African leaders of that time, such as Martin Luther King and others. They all recognized him immediately, as someone who could have made a career in politics. And the reason was, not that he was such a diplomat or such a politician, no, that was not it. He was truly a leader of men. He was never just someone who thought in a small way. He always thought in a big way, in the interest of many people. It was natural to him.
He spent a significant amount of time preaching in Nigeria. At one point, he spent most of his time in Africa. In 1990, he was given the position of being a chief! Not just an external thing but because he had influenced so many people and led so many people because he was like that. He was thinking like that. He was thinking as a leader of many people and wherever he went, it was like that.
When Maharaja went to Soweto, he danced in front of hundreds of devotees who went with him on a maha-harinama. It was like a powerful victory dance of Krsna consciousness in the streets of Soweto –not ordinary at all. He was like that.
People recognized that he was such a leader. Therefore, he was naturally acceptable to heads of state, and he met them frequently on different occasions. He was very comfortable with the upper echelon people because he was thinking with same broadness of mind that leaders of many men have. Therefore, also in our society, he came to a leading position. Still, he was not what you call just a man who was representing an institution and who derived his prestige from his rule in the institution. Far from it! He was an individual who was ready to experiment and for the sake of preaching, venture out and try different strategies.
“It’s very important to understand the mission and the instructions of the spiritual master. They include both chanting and hearing about Krishna and rendering practical service to the cause. There was one sannyasi in Vrindavan who complained to Srila Prabhupada that he was weary of having to deal with the management and construction—procure cement, count the bags, keep them safe, keep account, and supervise of the work. He said that he wanted to be relived so that he could enter more deeply into bhajana in Vrindavan. Srila Prabhupada replied that selfless service to the guru is how you enter into Vrindavan. We know the stories from Mayapur how Tamal Krishna Goswami and Jayapataka Swami would sleep on the bags of cement and steel bars so nobody could come and steal them. They had that mood of selfless service. But at the same time, we also have to follow the instruction to chant and hear about Krishna—especially the basic instructions to chant at least sixteen rounds daily, follow the regulative principles, and read Srila Prabhupada books.”
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Giriraj Swami
Kesava Bharati dasa Goswami
Our culture allures us with the promise of immediate pleasure: “Eat this, smell this, touch this – and you will enjoy real fast.”
Material pleasures may come fast – just by the contact of the senses with the sense objects. But they never last. Because the capacity of the sense objects to give pleasure is limited, as is the capacity of the senses to enjoy pleasure.
Though we get on to what is touted as the fast track to enjoyment, we never reach destination enjoyment. We may enjoy a bit, but it’s so tiny and transitory that we just can’t believe that there’s nothing more. So we keep going on the same beaten path, hoping to find a pleasure that will be fast and will also last. The wise recognize this hope to be a delusion and do not indulge in it, as the Bhagavad-gita (05.22) indicates.
Obviously, our wisdom is meant not to deprive us of happiness, but to help us to get the best happiness – spiritual happiness.
We as souls are inherently joyful – a joyfulness that we can relish when we love and serve Krishna according to our spiritual nature as his parts. To access that joy, we need to purify our heart. This endeavor takes time, but rewards a result that lasts for all time. The preceding Gita verse (05.21) urges us to concentrate on the Supreme and be satisfied thereof. The more we become purified, the more that satisfaction will increase, till finally our devotional service will revive our original pure love for Krishna. That love yields an ecstasy that fills our entire heart and lasts for all of eternity. That’s life’s greatest attainment and it’s eminently worth our patience and persistence.
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05.21 - Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme.
Such people [impersonalists] think themselves to be the Supreme Lord, and in this mentality they worship themselves. This is also a type of God worship, for they can understand that they are not the material body but are actually spiritual soul; at least, such a sense is prominent. Generally the impersonalists worship the Supreme Lord in this way.
