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Extracts from letters written by Partha Sarathi Maharaj to disciples. If you would like to share some of the nectar you have received from Maharaj with the rest of the devotees please email quotes@psdgoswami.com February 27, 2006 Extract taken from a letter to a disciple: "Recently I was reading a biography of the life of Srila Gaura Kisora das Babaji Maharaja. Apparently many rich merchants and pretentious persons approached him with the idea of taking instruction or initiation with material motives. On one occasion he said to a so-called insincere seeker the following, "Our guru, Lord Nityananda, cheats those materialistic devotees, by supplying them material wants but depriving them of love of God." According to sastra, there are three categories of devotees, kanistha, neophyte devotees or they are some times called mixed devotees, then there is the madhyam adhikari or middle class devotees and the third class is the uttama adhikari or top class devotees. The madhyam and uttama devotees are free of material desires. But the neophyte devotee has both material and spiritual desires. There are also many categories of neophyte devotees. But they have one thing in common, they accept the deity form of the Lord as worshipable and they also accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They all have material desires, some are more covered and some more apparent. Such persons can be called pseudo vaisnavas and while chanting the Lord's holy name and performing devotional service, the Lord may reciprocate with such persons by fulfilling their material requirements but depriving them of the most important thing which is love of God. Lord Krishna states in Bhagavad-gita (4.11), ye
yatha mam prapadyante "As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha." When
we approach the Lord with material desires, Krishna may or may not
fulfill that desire. The scenario of when He will not fulfill that
desire is that if He did fulfill that desire, it would simply cause
that devotee to want to desire more and more material facility,
opulence or gain. Krishna, being more intelligent than us, will
not unnecessarily fulfill the desire of a materialistic devotee
if it causes him to increase his material desires. We should learn to be very sincere and give up all pretentiousness, hypocrisy and crookedness. Try to carefully analyze within your mind what it is you really desire. We should reject anything that is not favorable for pure devotional service to Lord Krishna and accept only those things that are favorable. Even if one is overwhelmed with material desires, Srimad Bhagavatam still recommends that if one is intelligent, one should approach the Lord. akamah
sarva-kamo va "A
person who has broader intelligence, whether he be full of all material
desire, without any material desire, or desiring liberation, must
by all means worship the supreme whole, the Personality of Godhead."
(Bhagavatam From this verse, we can understand that intelligent people, even if they are full of all material desires, should still worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
September 26, 2005 Extract taken from a letter to a disciple: "You
write that the real attraction between the disciple and spiritual
master is that spiritual master inspires the disciple to get closer
to Krishna. Our main objective in this very short human form of life is to chant purely the holy name of the Lord. As quickly as possible we want to rise above the platform of nama abhasa and nama aparadha and come to pure chanting of the Lord's holy name. The mood in which we should chant is with utter humility as expressed by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His Siksastakam prayer as follows. trnad
api sunicena "One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige, and should be ready to offer all respects to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly." If we can some how adopt this very humble and tolerant mood, then we will always be able to chant the Lord's holy name. The word sada means always. To get us to this humble state Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu will put us through so many different experiences, tests and difficulties - all meant to reduce our false ego and pride, so we can fully depend on the Lord by chanting His holy name. In
comparison to the importance of the holy name, our career, family
members, work, are all relatively insignificant. On the other hand,
for neophyte devotees like ourselves, we get affected when our material
situation is not peaceful. In the pure state the advanced devotee
is not disturbed when his health deteriorates, when family members
reject him, when he is struggling financially, etc. Of course, we
have to try to attain this stage and it may take more than one lifetime.
You have started the process and without doubt you'll come to the
level of bhava which is ecstatic love for Krishna and further to
that is prema, pure love, in due course of time. nehabhikrama-naso
'sti "In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear." Please continue clinging to the holy name of the Lord and put all time and effort into chanting good quality rounds early in the morning, praying with tears in your eyes that the Panca-tattva can bestow Their mercy upon you. In the Caitanya Caritamrta (Adi-lila, Chapter 17) it is stated that if one takes the name of Lord Caitanya that person can wipe out koti aparadha, ten million offences."
Extract taken from a letter to a disciple: "As practicing devotees we should always feel grateful and obliged to those who assist us in developing our dormant love for Lord Krishna. Material consciousness teaches to exploit others and it can be summed up in the use and throw away culture that is pervading modern society. In other words, we use something or somebody temporarily until our senses are satisfied and then throw them away. It's the opposite in spiritual life. We should always be appreciative to anyone who inspires us in our attempt in practicing devotional service. Ultimately we should be feeling grateful to Lord Krishna and the Vaisnavas who help us to develop our love for Lord Krishna. Srila Prabhupada has written in the Bhagavatam (Canto 3, Chapter 3 Text 19) purport, "We should always feel very much obliged to the Personality of Godhead, for He is always anxious to bring us to a happy condition of eternal life. There is no sufficient means to repay the Personality of Godhead for His acts of benediction, therefore we can simply feel gratitude and pray to the Lord with folded hands." Srila Prabhupada is emphasizing the need to feel obliged and grateful to Krishna and to those who give Krishna. This means we have to feel grateful to the Vaisnavas. This includes diksa-guru, siksa-gurus and all levels of Vaisnavas. This principle of gratitude is extremely important. It could also be explained that gratitude is a symptom of appreciation. Srila Prabhupada has likened the word appreciation to the first stage in spiritual life which is called sraddha. We must try to develop our faith, appreciation and gratitude for having received the holy name, for having heard the Bhagavatam or Bhagavad-gita, for respecting prasadam, for getting the darshan of the deities and for getting the association of sadhus."
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