PART 1
- Caitanya Mahaprabhu asks a question: “Which of the instructions is most important for the soul?” Hearing about the amorous pastimes of Radha and Krishna is like a medicinal tonic for the ears.
- Conditioned souls only want to hear about worldly things.
- Anyone who wants to hear about Krishna’s pastimes faces many obstacles: headaches, sleep, etc.
- At the beginning of sadhana-bhakti, two leaves of bhakti appear: klesagni and subadha – all afflictions disappear and the 26 qualities of Vaisnavas appear: truthfulness, cleanliness, compassion, mercy, and so on.
- The false ego and the conception of ‘I’ and ‘mine’.
- Krishna says, “Give up everything and surrender completely to Me. He who surrenders lives in the most perfect bliss coming from all directions. This is the best of all instructions.
- We are all eternal servants of Krishna. True servants want to hear hari-katha.
- Only the animal killers, the butchers, don’t want to hear krsna-katha.
- The story of the king and the three dolls sold in the market.
- Listen to rasa-lila-katha: Radha nace, Krsna nace, nace gopi gan…
- When the sadhaka reaches the stage of ruci, he wants to taste krsna-katha.
- Sraddha, sadhu-sanga, bhajana-kriya, anartha-nivrtti, nistha, ruci, asakti, bhava and prema. From ruci, the sadhaka becomes eager to listen to krsna-katha.
- Rasa-lila-katha is very powerful.
- We should measure how much spiritual sraddha (faith) we have, because it drives our spiritual progress.
- Krishna says, “Karma, yoga, tapasya do not lead to Me.
- What’s your problem, tell me? All problems are solved by serving Krsna, hari-katha and the holy names with faith.
- To read the Gita-Govinda, (knowledge of rasa-siddhanta) it is necessary to delve into tattva-siddhanta, so as not to confuse Krsna’s lilas with material experiences.
- Fix your mind, read the Manah-siksa.
- Sloka:
gaurau gosthe gosalaysu sujante bhusura-gane
sva-mantre sri-namni vraja-nava-yuva-dvandva-sarane
sada dambham hitva kuru ratim apurvam atitara-maye
svantar bhratas catubhir abhiyace dhrta-padah - Caitya-guru (Krishna in the heart), vartma-pradarsaka-guru (guru who shows the beginning of the path).
- Krishna says:
teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te - The devotee can only come to the sadhu because Krsna takes the devotee, He arranges everything.
- The story of the king and his minister, a devotee who always said, “The Lord is our eternal well-wisher”.
- Guru and Krishna are always with us!
- Do you understand? You are almost liberated.
PART 2
