devotees are never discouraged

In the face of great obstacles we have two choices: we can either give up hope and lose our Krishna consciousness, or we can see the wonderful, wonderful, opportunities that Krishna must be giving us in this condition and thus make progress in our Krishna consciousness.

Every obstacle that Krishna put Srila Prabhupada in only glorified him all the more for the whole world to appreciate. When you think about how he was penniless, how he suffered two heart attacks, he was living alone in New York with no one to help him amongst the most sinful people - to understand this hardship only increases our love for Srila Prabhupad. Krishna allowed these obstacles to take place only to serve the mission of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. This is a very great mystery that should be understood within Vaishnava culture that the obstacles that the Lord puts on the devotees are specially meant to increase the Krishna consciousness of that devotees and to glorify that devotee.

In a positive spirit, if we see the opportunity to surrender in that difficulty, then we accept the mercy of the Lord. Therefore the devotees are never discouraged, because we are servants; we are ready to serve Krishna in any way at any time according to His desire.

attaining the presence of srila prabhupad

When we chant Srila Prabhupada's pranama prayer, we are praying to him and offering our obeisances because he is very dear to Krishna. How dear Srila Prabhupada is... only Krishna can know. We can only, like a dwarf trying to touch the moon, aspire to understand the glories of Srila Prabhupada. And the more we can somehow or other try to understand, the more our lives will be enriched with the causeless mercy of Sri Sri Radha Krishna.

But how to understand Srila Prabhupada? He has given us the means by which we can do so. We can only understand Krishna by the mercy of the pure devotee and we can only understand the pure devotee by the mercy of Krishna. By purifying our hearts, Krishna will reveal the glories and beauty of Srila Prabhupada’s life. We can be purified by reading Prabhupada's books very carefully, with an attentive desire to learn what he is saying. Srila Prabhupada told us that when he was translating his books, he was individually, personally speaking to every devotee who sits at his lotus feet to read it. Srila Prabhupada’s books are non-different than his lotus feet. When we are reading his books, we are sitting in his divine presence.

And when we follow what is in the books, we get realisations - to associate with devotees, to chant our minimum 16 rounds very carefully everyday, to follow the 4 regulative principles, and to help in every way possible that we can, whoever we may be, in expanding the message of Lord Chaitanya throughout the entire world.

the magnanimity of srila prabhupada

Srila Prabhupada was such a devotee; he was an intimate associate of Lord Krishna. How do we understand Srila Prabhupada’s special, special, special position?

Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami said that Lord Chaitanya is the most merciful and is the supreme amongst avatars because of His magnanimity; because He wanted to give Krsna consciousness to everyone and anyone without discrimination through the chanting of the holy names. Of all great personalities, Lord Chaitanya especially selected and empowered Srila Prabhupada to manifest his magnanimity to the highest extent, to travel on every continent in the world, giving Krishna’s name with no consideration of who we are or where we are coming from. Srila Prabhupad saw every living entity potentially as a pure saintly person, just with a little covering of maya over us.

So Srila Prabhupada, without any discrimination, he gave this Hare Krsishna mahamantra. He would sit in a little park in New York City called Tomkins Square Park. This is where Srila Prabhupada started the Hare Krsna movement in Tomkins Square Park. And some of the people in India were saying, "Why is he preaching to these lowest of uncivilised people in the West?"

But those people do not understand what Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami said, that the supreme quality of Lord Chaitanya is His magnanimity and that He makes no discrimination. The Lord would give Krishna consciousness and the holy name to everyone.

So Srila Prabhupada was the manifested representative of that most illustrious quality of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. How dear he is to the Lord, and how fortunate are all of us to have the opportunity to be connected to such a special personality who is revealing the glorious opulences of the Lord in such a merciful and compassionate way.

But Srila Prabhupada explained that this verse; to be more humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, to be willing to and ready to offer all respects to everyone and to expect no respect from anyone else - that is the quality that will keep us always under Krsna’s divine protection, that is the quality by which Krsna would be pleased to reciprocate and manifest Himself in His holy name to us.

So we should chant very sincerely and very attentively every day to purify our consciousness, and simultaneously we should sincerely be a humble servant within our life.