THE PRABHUPADA CONNECTION
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Love of Prabhupada
(Click to enlarge photo of Srila Prabhupada)

"Brūyuḥ snigdhasya śiṣyasya guravo guhyam apy uta. 'A disciple who has actual love for his spiritual master is endowed, by the blessings of the spiritual master, with all confidential knowledge.' Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has commented that the word snigdhasya means prema-vataḥ. The word prema-vataḥ indicates that one has great love for his spiritual master."

(Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya 17.15, Purport)

"At his first sight of me Srila Prabhupada (Bhaktisiddhanta) also saw me with such love. It was in my very first darsana of Srila Prabhupada that I learned how to love. It is his boundless mercy that he has engaged an unworthy person like me, in fulfilling some of his desires. It is his causeless mercy to engage me in preaching the message of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha."

(Srila Prabhupada Letter, September 28, 1966)

"My disciples here are Godsend, they are all more than my father and mother, and they are taking so much care for me that I shall never be able to repay the debts. I hope to survive by the prayers of the boys otherwise I would have died on the day when the stroke was so severe. All the boys in three branches in New York, San Francisco and Montreal, prayed for me to Sri Krishna and chanted the whole night and with vow they fasted and I am sure only for their prayer I am on the path of recovery. I cannot express my gratitude for their sincere love for me and I can only pray that Sri Krishna may bless them with advanced Krishna consciousness."

(Srila Prabhupada Letter, June 14, 1967)

"I am so much thankful to you for your affection for me, and I pray to Krishna that you may make progress more and more in Krishna Consciousness."

(Srila Prabhupada Letter, October 6, 1968)

"Somebody asked me whether I am happy, so I replied that I left my home consisting of five children, where I felt not very much comfortable, but Krishna has given me many obedient and loving children, even though I am in a foreign country. That is my happiness. Actually, real love can be perceived only on the platform of Krishna Consciousness where there is no possibility of thinking oneself in the bodily concept of life. So let us try to introduce this nice consciousness in the human society."

(Srila Prabhupada Letter, May 23, 1969)

"So in the beginning I was cooking, so there is no objection to take from the Spiritual Master. It is a question of love that sometimes I cook, you eat and sometimes you cook, I eat. Our Krishna Consciousness movement is based on complete fellow feeling and love, but there is a word maryada which means respect which should always be offered to the Spiritual Master and elderly members."

(Srila Prabhupada Letter, April 17, 1970)

"You write to describe me as a loving servant of the Lord. If you believe me so, then kindly help me in my service. That will help both of us. I want your cooperation fully. Lord Chaitanya, although Krishna Himself, appealed to His friends and helpers to help Him in His mission and what to speak of me; I am just an ordinary human being. So I need your help."

(Srila Prabhupada Letter, June 12, 1971)

"Of course, I can only suggest, and wherever possible that can be applied, but I do not force anyone. After all, you are only working so hard to please Krsna only out of love for me, so there can be no question of force if love is there. We should not ever try to force anyone or reduce our Society to an impersonal business exchange, this will kill everything. Our only purpose in every endeavor is simply to make advancement in spiritual life or in pleasing Krsna."

(Srila Prabhupada Letter, April 9, 1972)

"If you think of me and work for me, then I am in your heart. If you love somebody he is in your heart. It is common thing, everyone understands it."

(Srila Prabhupada Letter, September 4, 1972)

"You cannot survive without my mercy and I cannot survive without your mercy. It is reciprocal. This mutual dependence is based on love — Krishna Consciousness."

(Srila Prabhupada Letter, January 22, 1976)

"Our, this movement is that we are trying to love Krishna. If I love Krishna, or God, then naturally I will be obedient to the laws of God. It is not? Just like these, my students, when, say four or five years ago, I came here, I had no student. I was loitering in the street. Nobody was caring for me. Now I have got hundreds and thousands of student. They can do whatever I order. So I did not pay them anything, neither I brought any money from India, but they are executing my order simply out of love. Is it not a fact? Because they have developed a love for me. The reason may be whatever it may be, but unless they have developed love for me, how they can execute my order without any personal profit? Therefore this is first thing required, that religion means to abide by the orders of God. Simple thing. And this obedience to the laws of God will be automatically performed if everyone loves his dormant love for God. We have taken this science. We are teaching everyone how to love God."

(Srila Prabhupada Interview, New York, July 5, 1972)

"My Guru Maharaja left alone, so he has sent so many gurus to take care of me. You are all my Guru Maharaja's representatives. So you are taking care. I am very much obliged to you. I sometimes think in my childhood I was very, very pet son of my father. I have admitted that in that book I told. My father was not very rich man, but still, whatever I wanted, he would give me. He never chastised me, but full love. Then of course I got friends and I was married, so by Krishna's grace everyone loved me. And I came to this foreign country without any acquaintance. So Krishna has sent so many fathers to love me. In that way I am fortunate. At the last stage if I live very peacefully, that is a great mercy of Krishna. By Krishna's mercy everything is possible. So we shall stick to Krishna's lotus feet and everything is possible."

(Srila Prabhupada Conversation, New York, July 9, 1976)

"So bhakti means yato bhaktir adhoksaje. That means... bhakti means love. Unless you have bhakti... Just like you are giving me so many garlands. Why you are giving me? Because you love me. Otherwise there was no necessity. There was no necessity. A third person is not coming. But because you have got some love, therefore you are worshiping your spiritual master. So bhakti means love. Without love there is no question of bhakti. So this bhakti has to be awakened. That is stated in the Caitanya-caritamrta, that nitya-siddha krsna-bhakti. Bhakti is there. Otherwise, as I have said many times, how you have become bhakta? There are European, American girls here present. For krsna-bhakti they have sacrificed everything. Even they do not dress attractively so that they may be attractive to other boys and their life may be spoiled. Why? For bhakti. For Krishna. This is the bhakti. That is wanted. Krsne parama-puruse bhaktir utpadyate. This is success of life."

(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Vrindavan, September 6, 1976)

"You have got some bit of love for me, therefore you carry my order. Otherwise it is not possible. And I cannot also. You are foreigners, you are Americans. I came from another country, I have no account. I cannot also order you: 'You must do it, otherwise I will chastise you.' Because there is love. It is a connection of love. I can also become bold enough to chastise you, but you also, what, in whatever condition, you carry my order due to the basic principle is love. And our whole philosophy is love. We are just trying to learn how to love Krishna, that's all. So without the basic principle of love, these things cannot be conceived."

(Srila Prabhupada Conversation, Dialectic Spiritualism, Chapter 7)

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