Seniority doesn’t depend on age and when the devotee got initiated. Devotion doesn’t depend on learning; devotion depends on the degree of one’s surrender to his guru. Devotion is directly proportional to the service rendered by the disciple to his guru. You cannot know what devotion is by worldly knowledge…
All the four bona fide sampradayas are Vaisnava-sampradayas. This means there is similarity in their goal and object of worship. They all worship Visnu-tattva. The followers of Sri Ramanuja worship Sri Laksmi-Narayana, and in the sampradaya of Srila Madhvacarya there is worship of Bala-gopala Krsna…
“In Sri Nityananda Prabhu’s pastimes once He visited Mathura. He entered King Kamsa’s palace and also the prison where Lord Krishna appeared to mother Devaki. Seeing the big rock where Kamsa used to hit the babies of mother Devaki He became very furious. Later on, He had thrown that rock into River Yamuna and it got broken into pieces…”
Today is the birthday of Advaita Acarya. He is very powerful, as can especially be understood by the fact that He brought Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to this world. Otherwise, there was no certainty when Caitanya Mahaprabhu would come. Krsna, in the form of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, wanted to come; but if He would have come by His own sweet will,..
In sādhu-saṅga, one can realize that one is kṛṣṇa-dāsa, the servant of Kṛṣṇa; not māyā-dāsa, the servant of Māyā. By meeting with sādhus, one can get liberation from māyā. Then one will fully engage his mind, words, and actions in God’s service. This is possible for those with sukṛti.
Someone who serves Hari, Guru, Vaiṣṇavas, the temple, and the dhāma, and then takes a wage, will progress towards hell. This is the ignorant nature and material tendency of the conditioned soul, like an eagle flying in the sky looking down at a carcass on the ground…
Like an ant that becomes trapped in honey, the more the conditioned soul accepts māyā, the harder it is to escape. However, if we are engaged in vraja-rasa, then we will get strength, transcendental power, and the ability to easily cross over māyā. At that time, everything to do with māyā will appear to us like…
If there is no place for the Guru-varga in a certain temple, then Vaiṣṇavas will not go there. Such a place is not really a temple; it is like a hotel or a business center. Similarly, if your heart has no room for Śrīmatī Rādhārānī, svarūpa-śakti, or antaraṅga-śakti, you may be chanting harināma, but only other things will come, not the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Your harināma will result only in mundane affairs…
So, we should wait and look for a bona fide guru. By accepting him or a siksa guru, we will advance rapidly in our devotion. If we don’t have faith in anyone, then we should wait and pray to Krsna that He will arrange a bona fide guru for us. If you are not satisfied by the character of any guru, then you shouldn’t accept him as your diksa guru…