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The summer of 1972 was a challenging time for all of our small party. It was the first time in my life that I had undergone such insurmountable austerity. The heat was incredibly unbearable, and some people were going to the hospital with heat exposure. The temperature hovered around 115 to 125 degrees F, and…

I don’t know if any of you know, but Srila Prabhupada had an urgency.  Not only did he try to encourage us individually to really take what he was saying, but it was our responsibility to really hear him and then act upon it.  There are a lot of different kinds of hearing. There is…

This is just honesty and such a quality of a Vaishnava. Even for you to say that ‘my taste is gone,’ is so nice. All this is purifying. To sit here and to look at yourself is purifying. To sit here and even make the effort to be here is purifying. And I have a…

Dear Maharaja’s and Prabhus,   Hare Krishna!  My repeated pranam dandavats to all of you. What a week of Vaishnava sadhu satsanga this has been. I leave the richer having exchanged with my family members—old and new godbrothers, godsisters, nephews and nieces. While I feel most unqualified to speak to you today, I am honored…

The way for embracing and going into kirtan is endless. When a group of people gather together, we touch each other through sound vibration, and it’s endlessly exciting and changing and different at every moment, just like we are. Consciousness means that we’re changing; it’s nothing static. As we open ourselves through the chanting, through…

You need commitment! So to be committed you need to be focused. You can’t get chanting, you can’t get hearing, you can’t get desire, you can’t get serving, you can’t get any of it unless you’re committed to do so. That means we put our attention—we consciously become committed and focused on getting those things. And…

So Srila Prabhupada told us to try to just understand that Krishna consciousness will not always be easy, and then he said, “Three things are required for success in Krishna consciousness, and you must always rely on them—enthusiasm, will (or determination) and patience.” So now you can take just that one little instruction from Srila…

Everything that happens to you is the kindness of Krishna. It’s strange that, when challenges come our way we go, “What did I do to deserve that?”  Somewhere along your sojourn, to where you got to now, there’s something that happened that needs to be addressed and solved in this life. So whatever lessons and…

Vrindavan is received through all of our senses.  In a very special way it is drunk in using all of our senses. So when we leave the Dhama of Vrindavan, we have to bring that wherever we go. So as I was reflecting after leaving that Vrindavan and coming here, I thought how can I…