Srila Prabhupada - Vedic Teachings

  " The individual souls in the material world engage in different activities according to their past unfinished desires. After the dissolution of a particular body, the individual soul forgets everything, but the all-merciful Lord, who is situated in everyone’s heart as the witness, the Supersoul, awakens him and reminds him of his past desires, and thus he begins to act accordingly in his next life. This unseen guidance is described as fate, and a sensible man can understand that this continues his material bondage in the three modes of nature." (SB 3.6.3. Purport)    

  “You should take it to heart as a guiding principle that somehow or other we always please Krishna by doing what is practical and necessary, according to time and place. Not that we should be whimsical. But one test is that all the devotees should be satisfied. They have given their lives to Krishna, so we should see they are always happy. Their service is voluntary. It is not that we can force anyone to do anything. If we do they will go away and that is a great loss. Everyone must be encouraged to do what he/she likes to do for Krishna.” (Srila Prabhupada’s letter to: Hamsaduta—Delhi 20 November, 1971)  

  “It is the mercy of Krishna that you are getting fair warning of your nearing death. Now, you must become very serious to prepare to meet death without fear of being fully absorbed in the lotus feet of Krishna. You must be very careful and always praying to Krishna that you will not forget Him at the time of dying. If your heart is weak, do not take part in so much active service. It will be better for you to chant more, read books, eat less—like that you can engage yourself. Everyone has to die sometime, but the problem is that most men your age are thinking, "I will live another fifty years", but now you have been informed that in your case, you will not live so long. Take advantage of this advance notice, consider it a blessing and prepare yourself to go back to home, back to Godhead.” (SP Letter to Audolomi -- Honolulu 6 February, 1975)  

„Human activities diseased by a tendency toward sense gratification have been regulated in the Vedas under the principles of salvation. This system employs religion, economic development, sense gratification and salvation, but at the present moment people have no interest in religion or salvation. They have only one aim in life-sense gratification-and in order to achieve this end they make plans for economic development. Misguided men think that religion should be maintained because it contributes to economic development, which is required for sense gratification. Thus in order to guarantee further sense gratification after death, in heaven, there is some system of religious observance. But this is not the purpose of religion. The path of religion is actually meant for self-realization, and economic development is required just to maintain the body in a sound, healthy condition. A man should lead a healthy life with a sound mind just to realize vidya, true knowledge, which is the aim o

  "Now because we have got this material body, we have come in contact of this external energy, material energy, we have got this material body; therefore we are engaged in struggle for existence with mind and the material senses. That is our position. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi-prakṛti-sthāni. Prakṛti-sthāni means material; karṣati, hard struggle. So this is our position. And if you want to get out of it . . . if you are foolish that, "Whatever it is, that's . . . let it . . . let us enjoy now. Don't talk talk of all these . . ." oh, that is another thing. But those who are sensible, those who are actually after knowledge, those who actually want a solution of this material miserable condition of life, they must take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the only remedy. Kṛṣṇa nāma kara āra saba miche. Simply take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. All other things are simply illusion, false. Palaibe phat yei jo mache piche. You cannot escape. The death is awaiting always. Yo

  „And death may take place at any time. There is no guarantee that after so much time you'll die. At any moment, you can die. Death, there is no guarantee. But it is a guarantee that you must die. That is guaranteed. But when you will die, that is not guaranteed. Therefore we must be prepared for death at any moment. Therefore a devotee is not afraid of death. He knows that death may come at any moment. We are . . . nowadays, it has . . . the death is very cheap. Because we are using this motorcar, these aeroplanes, so many things, ships and other things for transportation, and there is, every moment there is danger of accident, collapse, everything. So death is now very cheap. So we must be prepared for death at any moment. There is no guarantee that, "I am not yet old enough. I am not yet eighty years, ninety years. Why shall I die?" No. You may be twenty years, twenty-five years or younger than that. Death is assured, and it can take place at any moment.” (740607 - Le

A ritvik devotee once told me that we don't really receive anything from outside, but everything is already there in our soul. Bhakti is also there. The creeper of devotional service and its seed are a figurative concept, not a literal one.  Is this really the teaching of Srila Prabhupada? Bhakti is the grace of Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. So is this causeless mercy not a living thing?   „According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krsna. By the mercy of both Krsna and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.” (CC. Madhya 19.151)