1. How spiritual life is hampered

    I request you to continue following all of the regulative principles staunchly and encourage all other of my disciples in your preaching area to do the same. This is the most important thing. As soon as one discontinues his staunch following of the regulative principles such as no meat eating, no illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, rising early before 4:00, coming to mangala arati, chanting at least 16 rounds, etc., then his spiritual life is hampered and there...
  2. Importing brahmanas

    Acyutananda [reading question from audience]: "Catur-varnyam maya srstam [Bg. 4.13]: is it applicable to India alone, or the whole world?" Prabhupada: Whole world. Krsna, whatever Krsna speaks, it is for the whole world. Therefore we are creating brahmanas in the Western countries. You'll have to import brahmana from there. [laughter] As you are importing milk powder -- all cows finished -- so brahmana is finished. So you have to import brahmana from Europe and America.
  3. Nehru uvaca

    While commenting on this particular verse, we have in our presence the statement of a great modern politician who has recently died and left his will, which discloses his poor fund of knowledge of the codes of God mentioned by Maharaja Pariksit. The politician was so ignorant of the codes of God that he writes: "I do not believe in any such ceremonies, and to submit to them, even as a matter of form, would be hypocrisy and an...
  4. Deity worship, up to standard, to maintain ISKCON’s purity

    Alone with Prabhupada, I asked about book distribution and Deity worship. I asked why, if Deity worship was the process for self-realization in the last yuga, do we have it now? Wasn't sankirtana sufficient? He said that he had introduced worship of the Deity because, while there may arise differences of opinion about the distribution of books, on the point of there was only one standard on which all must agree. This would therefore maintain the purity of the...
  5. Become a guru by following Lord Caitanya’s order

    The order of Lord Caitanya: "By following My order, you become guru." And if we strictly follow the acarya system and try our best to spread the instruction of Krsna... Yare dekha tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa. There are two kinds of krsna-upadesa. Upadesa means instruction. Instruction given by Krsna, that is also krsna-upadesa, and instruction received about Krsna, that is also krsna-upadesa.
  6. Giving brains to the brainless Westerners

    You should be convinced that the Western people, they have no brain. Now this is brain-giving movement, para-upakara. They have no brain, and we have to educate them. Brain there is. The human brain is meant for that purpose. Even one is an ass, dull, he can be educated. That is there. Animals cannot be educated, but human being, even he is born like animal... Just like these children. If you don't educate them