- Gaura means “fair skin”, and Hari means “thief”, therefore Gaurahari means the one who steals someone’s fair skin, that is, Krsna steals the fair skin of Srimati Radharani.
- Love does not use direct words, it acts in zigzag.
- “Gau” means Govinda and “Ra” means Radharani, so Gaura is Krsna who comes in the combined form of Radha and Govinda.
- Verse: śrī-rādhāyāḥ praṇaya-mahimā…(Śrī CC Ādi-līlā 1.6).
- Krsna and His potency are always together, but sometimes it is in manifest form and sometimes unmanifest.
- If the sukrti of the conditioned soul is not yet ripe, he will not have faith, that is why the Guru and the Vaisnavas come to inspire us.
- This material world is like a prison and we are here due to the offense of forgetting the Lord.
- The Holy Name received through the Guru is sabdabrahma, transcendental vibration, it is like a seed planted in the heart that will one day sprout.
- Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada says: “Never be surprised at those who give up bhakti, but be surprised at those who remain, because maya is very powerful.”
- When the Guru gives mantra to the disciple, it is compared to the fisherman catching the fish with a hook, the conditioned soul can swim in the lake of Maya, but when he gets tired, the Guru pulls the line.
- The ten nama-aparadhas.
- The symptoms of nama-abhasa and suddha-nama.
- Through sadhu-sanga and Harikatha we acquire knowledge to discern what is right and wrong.
- Sadhu-sanga is the essence of spiritual life.
- Two reasons that lead the conditioned soul to give up Krsna Consciousness and go to Maya: offenses and lack of sukrti.
- Under the guidance of Guru and Vaisnava, one should hear rasa-lila-katha from a high-class Vaisnava repeatedly, so that suddha-bhakti will manifest in the heart and all undesirable things will be removed.
- Two types of bhakti: sambandhatimika-bhakti and kamatmika-bhakti.
- If you hear this rasa-lila-katha from someone other than a high-class Vaisnava, your anger and lust will increase, so you have to be very careful.
- Verse: adau śraddhā tato sādhu-saṅga atha bhajana-kriyā… (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.4.15-16).
- Chant the Holy Names, a fixed number of rounds daily, serve Guru and Vaisnavas, learn the sastras, kirtana, Harikatha, mahaprasadam, and thus, step by step, develop in your spiritual life, this is siddha-pranali.
2025, Hari-katha, Lectures in English, Hari-katha 2025
