...a paid servant is also engaged in satisfying the master very nicely, very faithfully, but there is no bhakti. Why? Because he is after the money the master pays. He does not serve the master, but he serves the money. He is thinking always that "I am getting so much money from this person. If I don't satisfy him, then I may be dismissed. So I will have no money." But here it is said bhaktya. Bhaktya means without...

The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries.

In February 1976, Srila Prabhupada was in Mayapur, having arrived a few weeks prior to the Gaura Purnima festival. As per his usual schedule, every day he took his massage in the late morning on the balcony outside his room. One morning, as he sat on a straw mat on the sunlit veranda ready to begin, he drew my attention to some sparrows making a nest. The site they hadchosen was a hole in the wall behind the electrical...

Sensratification is the root cause of material existence; therefore, unless and until one is situated on a platform apart from sense gratifie gcation, there is no chance of being elevated to the eternal platform of full knowledge, full bliss and full life.

By practice of kumbhaka-yoga, the yogis increase the duration of life by many, many years. A Krsna conscious person, however, being always situated in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, automatically becomes the controller of the senses. His senses, being always engaged in the service of Krsna, have no chance of becoming otherwise engaged.

[A devotee does not] engage his senses in matters other than the service of the Lord. He does not like to hear anything except topics relating to Krsna; he does not like to eat anything which is not offered to Krsna; and he does not wish to go anywhere if Krsna is not involved.

...the householders, who have some license for sense gratification, perform such acts with great restraint. Sex life, intoxication and meat-eating are general tendencies of human society, but a regulated householder does not indulge in unrestricted sex life and other sense gratification.

I was with several devotees in Srila Prabhupada's room at our small temple in Edinburgh, Scotland. As he was sitting, a shaft of sunlight entered the window and lit up the whole room. Srila Prabhupada remarked with a wave of his hand, "When you become Krsna conscious, it is just like that."

A Krsna conscious person does not make much endeavor even to maintain his body. He is satisfied with gains which are obtained of their own accord. He neither begs nor borrows, but he labors honestly as far as is in his power, and is satisfied with whatever is obtained by his own honest labor. He is therefore independent in his livelihood. He does not allow anyone's service to hamper his own service in Krsna consciousness. However, for the service...

Once Srila Prabhupada was speaking to a wealthy Indian woman in Malaysia. She was the wife of a government minister, and he was hoping to persuade her to help him build a temple. This was in 1971, before any ISKCON temple had been built. As Srila Prabhupada spoke to the woman, she continually agreed and smiled. "Yes, yes, Swamiji," she said, folding her palms in pranamas. She seemed enthusiastic about Krsna consciousness, so after a while Srila Prabhupada showed her...

Foolish persons or neophytes in Krsna consciousness often want to retire from activities without having knowledge of Krsna consciousness. Arjuna's desire to retire from activities on the battlefield was not approved by the Lord. One need only know how to act. To retire from the activities of Krsna consciousness and to sit aloof making a show of Krsna consciousness is less important than actually engaging in the field of activities for the sake of Krsna.

Vaidhi-bhakti means discharging devotional service under regulative principles. Without vaidhi-bhakti you cannot jump to raga-bhakti. Raga-bhakti is spontaneous. That does not require any regulative principles. Out of love, out of feeling, anyone wants to serve Krsna, that is called.... That is gopis. All the inhabitants of Vrndavana, they did not undergo any regulative principles. But spontaneously, they are always ready to serve God, Krsna. That is called raga-bhakti.