Social Media

Social media is a tool. The analogy has so often been given of the knife. A knife can be used to cut vegetables to make a nutritious dish. A knife can also be used as a weapon to inflict harm on others. So here we have the example of a tool that can be used for profound good or harm; it all depends on how it's used. We could even take a step further and say it's a matter of the consciousness of the person who wields the tool.

This is such a common sense example that it's easy to become bored with this and let our mind wander onto something else. But when people mention social media as a problem, it doesn't take a lot of reflection to realize that it's only a problem because of the way it is being used. It's like speaking. Is speaking a problem? If you're not governing your intentions and your mind properly, then yes.

There is also the situation of people who are trolling social media platforms because they are bored. In other words, they're not looking to engage with others in any kind of a life-enhancing capacity, they're just bored and therefore frittering away their time by reading the conversations and experiences of others.

So the decision about whether to abstain from social media or whether to engage fully comes down to whether it's enhancing your life and the lives of others, or whether you're just getting yourself into trouble.

Srila Prabhupada went through tribulations to give us Krsna

Srila Prabhupada went through tribulations to give us Krsna

I left my home, my children and everything. I came here as a pauper, with seven dollars. That is no money. But I have got now big properties, hundreds of children. [laughter] And I haven’t got to think for their provision. They are thinking of me. So that is Krsna’s favor. In the beginning, it appears to be very bitter. When I took sannyasa, when I was living alone, I was feeling very bitter. I, sometimes I was thinking, “Whether I have done wrong by accepting?” So when I was publishing this Back to Godhead from Delhi, one day one bull thrashed me, and I fell down on the footpath and I got severe injury. I was alone. So I was thinking, “What is this?” So I had very, days of very tribulations, but it was all meant for good. So don’t be afraid of tribulations. Go forward. Krsna will give you protection.

Srila Prabhupada; Lecture — April 17, 1969, New York

Japa

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=8UjI1rXx498&feature=share

Bhakta Deer

Few Sincere Devotees

"It is very difficult to give up very quickly so many bad habits as you have got in your country, so educate them gradually, first with chanting, and do not be so much anxious to count up so many numbers of new devotees, if such devotees go away later being too early forced. I want to see a few sincere devotees, not many false devotees or pretenders."

Dated: Dec. 22, 1972

Location: Bombay

Letter to: Karandhara

https://vedabase.io/en/library/letters/letter-to-karandhara-54/

The Perfectional Stage

The perfectional stage of spiritual life which one can experience even while being in the material world is described in the twelfth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā (12.13–20) as follows: “One who is not envious but who is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor, who is free from false ego and equal both in happiness and distress, who is always satisfied and engaged in devotional service with determination and whose mind and intelligence are in agreement with Me – he is very dear to Me. He for whom no one is put into difficulty and who is not disturbed by anxiety, who is steady in happiness and distress, is very dear to Me. A devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains, and who does not strive for some result, is very dear to Me. One who grasps neither pleasure or grief, who neither laments nor desires, and who renounces both auspicious and inauspicious things, is very dear to Me. One who is equal to friends and enemies, who is equipoised in honor and dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, who is always free from contamination, always silent and satisfied with anything, who doesn’t care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged in devotional service, is very dear to Me. He who follows this imperishable path of devotional service and who completely engages himself with faith, making Me the supreme goal, is very, very dear to Me.” Even if one is not situated in such a transcendental position, if he simply approves of such a transcendental life, he also becomes very dear to Kṛṣṇa. (Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Ch 14)

Auspicious Inoculation Against Maya

A key benefit of attending the morning program is that even your idle thoughts will tend toward "vande guroh sri caranaravindam," "vanca kalpa tarubyas ca," and "sri-radha-govinda-preme sada jena bhasi"