Category Archives: Srila BS Saraswati Thakur

Don’t pay any attention to worldly people’s idle talks. If you have a desire to make progress on the path of your duty then no obstacles and dangers will harm you. In your spare time, you should read books like Kalyan Kalpataru, Prarthana, and Prema-bhakti-chandrika. Externally, you may show respect to materialistic people, but do not adopt their behavior; rather reject it within your mind and be firmly fixed on your path.

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākur expresses his joy and sorrow at completing his commentary on Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta.

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākur completed his commentary on Śrī Chaitanya-charitamṛta less than one year after Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur departed, and to conclude the commentary, he wrote a poem expressing the attachment to Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur he felt in separation. Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj specially requested that this poem be recited on the disappearance day of Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur. While describing the events that took place on that day, he counted: “Prabhupād had his Anubhāṣya on Chaitanya-charitamṛta, and at the conclusion, he composed a poem in a very sweet and very lamenting temperament. I asked to read that poem of his and it was read.”

chāri-śata unatriṁśe    jyaiṣṭhe dina ekatriṁśe
chaitanyābde, māsa—trivikrama
śrī-vraja-patane thāki’    ‘gaurahari’ bali’ ḍāki’
dayita-dāsiyā narādhama [1]
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Q: Is it proper to consider the spiritual master as God or the supreme enjoyer?

A: The spiritual master is not the supreme enjoyer like Krisna. In other words, he is not Gopinatha, the beloved lord of the gopis. The spiritual master is the servitor God. In that sense, he is as good as God, most dear to God, and the Lord’s topmost devotee. The spiritual master is the predominated God; he is not the predominating God like Krsna or the original predominated God, like Sri Radha.
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Amrta Vani

Q&A by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Thakura Prabhupada

Q. Does one need to check one’s material propensity?

A. If the propensity to enjoy material life is not checked, then one will continue in the cycle of repeated birth and death. It is important to stop acting for sense gratification. Unless one stops acting for sense gratification, the propensity for material life—and the suffering that comes from material distress—will not be destroyed. It is essential to cultivate Krsna consciousness. Spiritual cultivation removes the desire for material life, destroys the desire to try for artha, kama, dharma, and moksa, and gives one supreme fortune. All the material desires in the heart of a person in which Lord Krsna has manifest are automatically destroyed, because Krsna is the transcendental Cupid and all desires serve Him and no one else. One who has captured Krsna in his heart has no desire for sense gratification.
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Amrta Vani

Q&A by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Thakura Prabhupada

Q. What is karma?

A. Work done for one’s own happiness and the happiness of others is called karma. There is nothing about trying to please Krsna in the performance of karma. The goal of karma is to search after one’s own happiness and the happiness of others, whereas searching for Krsna’s pleasure is called devotional service.
This material world is the field of karma for ordinary people, but for the devotees the material world is a place in which to cultivate devotional service. Whatever is performed in this world with the prideful thought, “I am the doer,” is called karma, whereas whatever is done for the Lord’s pleasure, induced by the Lord, with the idea, “I am Krsna’s servant,” is called devotional service.

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