Developing love of God
Expressions researched:
"develop love of Godhead"
|"develop love of God"
|"developing love of godhead"
|"developing love of god"
|"developed love of god"
|"developed love of godhead"
|"development of love for god"
|"develops love of god"
|"develops love of godhead"
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 3
SB Canto 4
SB Canto 7
SB Canto 8
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
CC Madhya-lila
CC Antya-lila
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
Nectar of Devotion
Nectar of Instruction
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Srimad Bhagavatam Lectures
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
pañcama puruṣārtha-premānandāmṛta-sindhu brahmandi ānanda yāra nahe eka bindu
This pañcama puru... This is fifth dimension. One, religiosity; two, economic development; and three, sense gratification; and four, to become one with the Supreme. So above these four, this is fifth. This is the fifth stage of perfection. What is that? Developing love of Godhead and getting emotion out of that. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says this emotional stage is so transcendental and so elevated that there is no comparison with the other four principlesSri Isopanisad Lectures
Festival Lectures
Initiation Lectures
General Lectures
Student (9): There are different techniques for reaching Christ consciousness or God consciousness or self-realization. What test do you recommend for finding out which technique is the best?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That I have already explained. That technique is best by which you develop your love of God. That is the test. If by following Christian religion or Muhammadan religion or Hindu religion you actually develop your transcendental love for God, that is the best technique. If you have no love for God, simply you follow the technique, then it is simply laboring. That's all.
Student (9): I mean especially the variations of Indian technique.
Prabhupāda: I don't say any variation. I say that is the best technique by which you develop love of God. Now you find out what is that best technique. If you find that in your technique you are developing love of God, it is best. We don't say that you accept this technique or that technique. Any technique by which... Just like a man is diseased. Any medicine by which he is cured, that is best medicine for him.Guest (5): Should not one try to purify one's heart first and personality?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That will go. Just like if you take proper medicine for curing your disease, the more the disease is cured, you feel healthy life. Pure life means healthy life, and impure life means unhealthy life. So there is a process of bhakti-yoga, how one becomes purified. The first stage is ādau śraddhā. Just like you have, all ladies and gentlemen, come here with little respect for this, I mean to say, movement, Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is the basic principle. A little faith. "Oh, all right. Let us hear about it. Let us see." This is the beginning. Ādau śraddhā tato sādhu-saṅga. Now, if you think, "Oh, it is very nice. Oh, Swamijī explains very nicely," then you come again. That is called sādhu-saṅga, association. We have got our class. If you want, you can associate with us. Ādau śraddhā tato-sādhu-saṅga tato bhajana-kriyā. Bhajana-kriyā means practice. Just like my students, they came also like this. Not in the beginning they accepted, but he came after attending some lectures, then advanced, then offered that "Swamijī, I want to be your student." That is called bhajana-kriyā. So if he practiced the bhajana-kriyā, then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Then he becomes purified. This is the process of purification. Anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Tato niṣṭhā. And as soon as he is purified, he become stuck up to this principle. He cannot give up. Tato niṣṭhā tato ruciḥ. Ruci means he gets a taste for it. Don't you think they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa always... Hackneyed, for others it is hackneyed, but they are feeling pleasure. Tato niṣṭhā tato ruciḥ. Ruci means taste. Tathāsakti. Then they cannot give it up. Tato bhāva. Then ecstasy. Sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ: "These are the gradual process of developing love of Godhead." And as soon as you develop love of Godhead, your life is successful.Philosophy Discussions
Purports to Songs
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: When you go to a medical man do you ask him whether he is Christian or Hindu? I am asking you. Suppose you go to a medical man, do you ask him, "Are you Christian or Muslim or Hindu?" Do you ask him?
Guest (1): Me?
Prabhupāda: No, I am asking this girl. Why? Because your business is to cure your disease. It doesn't matter whether he is a Christian or a Hindu or a Muhammadan. It doesn't matter. Similarly, you have to seek love of God. Wherever it is available, you have to take it. That should be the point of view. It doesn't matter where it is available. One should be hankering after love of Godhead. Love of God. Gold, somebody is after purchasing gold. It doesn't matter where it is available. Similarly, it doesn't matter whether you develop love of Godhead from this scripture or that scripture. Your aim should be whether you are developing love of Godhead or developing love of non-God. That should be the test.1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Bhāgavata says. A religious person means he has got complete love of God. Then he is religious. All right. Śrama eva hi kevalam [SB 1.2.8]. Simply wasting time. Bhāgavata says, without developing this love of Godhead, if somebody is engaged in religious ritualistic performance, he's simply wasting his time. Śrama... That particular word is used, śrama eva hi kevalam. Śrama means labor. Eva. Certainly, it is simply laboring. What is called? Labor of love? What is called?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Labor of love.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You love something and unnecessarily you labor. So religion means... This is religion, how to develop love of God. That is religion.1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (1): So we believe that the holy spirit empowers artists and composers. And therefore we would say that a symphony was a creation of God.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Creation... In everything there is hand of God. Therefore one who has learned to see everything in connection with God, he sees God everywhere, every moment. (knock) Yes? Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. Premāñjana cchurita [Bs. 5.38]. When one has developed love of God, he sees God everywhere, always. Because everything is creation of God; so he can find out, "Here is my Lord. Here is my Lord. Here is my Lord." That is the highest state of loving God. He cannot see anything without connection of God.1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I think Bhakta Gene wants to know if you recognize that there are any great devotees in that Christian tradition. Do we recognize that any of those Christian saints were great devotees? Did they develop love of God? Or what's the comparison?
Prabhupāda: I do not know, I have not studied Christianity. But if anyone has developed love, that is perfection. So there is not question of my knowing or not knowing. If actually one has developed love for God, he's perfect. That's all.Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I think he's asking a question also that sometimes comes up, that if one loves in this material love, for example one loves a child, or loves humanity, does this help to develop love of God?
Prabhupāda: No. But if you love God. It helps to love the human beings.Prabhupāda: So we have to associate with such persons who are convinced about God and trying to spread His knowledge throughout the world. You have to mix with, associate with them. First of all, you must have faith that, "In this life I shall understand thoroughly about God." Then associate with persons who are busy with God's business. Then you act as they are acting. Then your misconception of material life will be finished. Then you'll have attachment. Then you'll have taste. In this way you'll develop love of God.
Ali: I already have the faith.
Prabhupāda: That you have to increase. Simply the preliminary faith, that is very good, but unless that faith is increased more and more, then there is no progress.Correspondence
1967 Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
1969 Correspondence
1976 Correspondence
Page Title: | Developing love of God |
Compiler: | Siddha Rupa, Visnu Murti |
Created: | 3 of Jan, 2008 |
No. of Quotes: | 83 |
Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=6, CC=14, OB=7, Lec=30, Con=18, Let=8 |