Steadfast (Lect., Conv., & Letters)

Expressions researched:
"steadfast" |"steadfastly" |"steadfastness"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.46-62 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 48: "Be steadfast in your duty, O Arjuna, and abandon all attachment to success or failure. Such evenness of mind is called yoga (BG 2.48)."

Prabhupāda: This is the explanation of yoga, evenness of mind. Yoga-samatvam ucyate. If you work for Kṛṣṇa, then there is no cause of lamentation or jubilation. Jubilation is there because you are working for Kṛṣṇa, but there is no cause of lamentation. Yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi, yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam (BG 2.50). That is the secret of activities, how you can very diligently work at the same time you are not entangled with the actions. That is the secret. Go on.

Lecture on BG 2.46-62 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1968:

"Oh, Kṛṣṇa has put me into such miserable..." But a Kṛṣṇa conscious person, when he's in distress, he'll say, "Yes, due to my misdeeds I should have suffered a hundred times more than this distress, but Kṛṣṇa is so kind, He has given me little. That's all." And when he's happiness, "Oh, it is all given by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore all the opulence should be utilized for Kṛṣṇa's service." This is the difference. He's asking, Arjuna is asking, what are the symptoms of Kṛṣṇa conscious person. Sthita-prajña. Sthita-prajña means steadfast in intelligence. So these are the difference. I have read one speech, Chicago speech by late Vivekananda Swami. He's talking to the audience that "You work so hard, why you give credit to God?" You see? If you find his Chicago speech, you'll see. Go on.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.142 -- New York, November 30, 1966:

Devotee: "But those men of virtuous deeds whose sin has come to an end, freed from the delusion of dualities, worship Me, steadfastly avowed."

Prabhupāda: Yes. So to worship Kṛṣṇa steadfast means he is liberated from delusion. That is mukti. One who has got still some doubt—"Why shall I worship Kṛṣṇa?"—that means still in delusion, and still the reaction of his sinful life is not finished. A slight doubt means there is slight tinge still. And one who is dvandva-moha-nirmuktā, duality... Duality means "Whether I shall do it or not? Whether I shall stick up to this process of Kṛṣṇa conscious or not?" This is called duality. So one who is free from all these sinful reactions, he has no more duality. He has firm faith: "Yes! Kṛṣṇa worship is the final."

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Guest (4): "...both in heaven and in earth. Believe that He has all wisdom and all power both in heaven and in earth. Believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them and humble yourselves before God and ask Him sincerely of heart that He will forgive you. And now, if you believe all these things, see that you do them. And again I say unto you, as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of His goodness and have tasted of His love and have received the remission of your sins, which causes such exceeding great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember and always retain in remembrance the greatness of God and your own nothingness, and His goodness and long suffering towards you unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come which was spoken by the mouth of the angel."

Prabhupāda: So it is very nice. But.... Let me see that book.

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Poughkeepsie. Where it is?

Indian man: It is hundred miles north of New York. I work there. I am an engineer, and I have been trying to spread Kṛṣṇa conscious movement of yours, trying to teach from your Gītā to the Indian community, and I have been slowly trying to get American people also involved. And, as I see, more and more American people are now coming in. And in fact, those people who are very steadfast, who come to attend my class, are the American people. I am very glad to see that they are taking very great interest. And...

Prabhupāda: Indians are not taking so much.

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Indian or European or American, it doesn't matter. Since you are preaching there, has anybody joined this movement?

Indian man: No, sir. I have been begging. I've been begging people. Now I know that two American people will become steadfast, and I will make sure that they join the movement, but among the Indian people...

Prabhupāda: Whether you have joined?

Indian man: I have joined. I'm a life member. I come to the temple. I study your books all the time. I have your photo. I do your ārati every day without fail. Without fail. Nayanābhirāma came to my house two weeks ago, and I showed him everything, Kṛṣṇa and your photo next to it, and I every day do pūjā. Complete vegetarian and we are doing ārati every day, first obeisances to you, my father-mother, and Kṛṣṇa.

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Himavati -- Delhi 23 September, 1967:

. I am in due receipt of your letter. Please try to be steadfast in your time of pregnancy and Krishna will be pleased. Yours will be the first baby born into a KC family in America, so we must be very careful for him while he is in the womb. In SB the environment of a child in the womb is described by Narada Muni as a very awful place and after nine months when the child has developed its body and consciousness to some degree the entrapped soul begs to Lord Krishna to set me free and promises that in this life he will be a devotee. At that time the baby is allowed to be born but, unfortunately during the Kali yuga as soon as the child is come out of the womb he is in 90% of the cases he is not given any facility to further its KC.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Sacisuta -- Montreal 19 August, 1968:

That should be our point of view. Of course, that stage of reaching requires much time, still we should try to do it. So if you decide to stay in some place, with determination, without looking to the circumstances and concentrating your energy in the service of Lord Krishna, that will make you steadfast. Anyway, as you have returned from Los Angeles, and you are asking my advice to go somewhere else. I may inform you, of course Rupanuga's association is very good, and you want to go to Buffalo, but instead of going to Buffalo, if you can go to Boston and help Satsvarupa because he requires the assistance of a man like you, as he suggested in his previous letter, so if you have no any previous objection, then instead of going to Buffalo, you can go to Boston. That is my advice.

Letter to Sacisuta -- Montreal 19 August, 1968:

That is my advice. But I have no objection if you go to Buffalo. But wherever you may go, the point should be that our main business is service to Krishna and awkward circumstances may happen anywhere, and we should be able to hold up to all such circumstances, steadfastly we will go on with our business of service to Lord Krishna.

The Boston center is also very important, because there are many students and Boston is educational center, especially there are so many universities so if you concentrate your energy and can organize the student community to understand our philosophy it will be a great service. Fortunately, in our movement the youngsters are attracted.

Letter to Acyutananda, Jayagovinda -- Montreal 21 August, 1968:

Now the summary is that you should definitely let me know immediately whether you can take charge of the printing works, whether you can distribute or sell the records, and whether in exchange of the records you can send me the Deities. These services are most important. Don't be allured by cheap disciples. Go on steadfastly to render service first. If you immediately become Guru, then the service activities will be stopped; and as there are many cheap gurus and cheap disciples, without any substantial knowledge, and manufacturing new sampradayas, and with service activities stopped, and all spiritual progress choked up. You have already mentioned one such non-bona fide sampradaya, Jaya Krishna Sampradaya.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Giriraja -- Los Angeles 21 July, 1969:

I am so pleased to learn that you have taken Krishna Consciousness as the most valuable gift. One who can understand this, is not an ordinary living entity, but is the most fortunate. I think therefore that in all circumstances you should steadfastly continue your Krishna Consciousness engagement, rather than joining any more universities. So far as the draft board is concerned, I may inform you that we are arranging our institutions to be recognized by the draft board. In that case all our students will be taken as divinity students. Already some of our students have avoided being drafted by this way. So that is not a problem. If you are engaged in Krishna's service, He will give you all protection from all kinds of obstacles.

Letter to Harer Nama -- London 6 November, 1969:

For some time I have been anxious to hear from you, and now that you have written I am encouraged to learn of your nice activities in Colorado. I am pleased also that Bhavananda, Palika Dasi and Prabhavati Dasi are all working so sincerely and steadfastly to promote this Sankirtana Movement, and surely Caitanya Mahaprabhu will bestow His full blessings upon all of you. This is a qualification of activities in Krishna Consciousness that if one renders even a small amount of sincere devotional service, Krishna becomes obliged to elevate such person; and what to speak of one whose entire life and soul has been dedicated to Krishna's service. So continue to push on as you are now doing and as far as possible distribute our books and magazines. Now that our press is ready in Boston, we have more than one dozen books which are ready to be printed, so with your help I wish to overflood the marketplaces with our literatures.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Ekayani -- Los Angeles 3 May, 1970:

Our business is to glorify Him always, either He plans to dance with the Gopis, or He makes a plan to kill others on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, or He plans to do something which is not very good from materialistic point of view. Our only business is to remain steadfast devotee to Krsna in all conditions. That is the instruction given in Siksastaka, wherein it is said, "My Lord, whatever You like You can do, but unconditionally You are my only object of worship." That is pure devotion.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Sai -- Allahabad 8 January, 1971:

There is immense field of our activities. In your country there are so many confused young men and girls known as the hippies and if you work very steadfastly I am sure a tremendous advancement can be done in our missionary activities. I have studied the behavior of the hippies—they are searching after something good, but they have no proper guidance. In the material world the highest principle of happiness is supposed to be sex indulgence, but real happiness is not attainable by eschewing the senses; it is above the senses which means on the spiritual platform. Unless one is able to deal with the Supreme Personality of Godhead on the spiritual platform, there cannot be any permanent bliss.

Letter to Rupanuga -- Gorakhpur 19 February, 1971:

Anyway, you are very strong and an ideal grhastha and therefore instead of being influenced by your wife, you have influenced her to take to Krishna Consciousness. I expect every one of my students to come to your standard and remain steadfast in pushing on this movement of Krishna Consciousness. Mandali Bhadra has changed his wife because he was also being deviated by his former wife and I hope he will stand on this point steadily.

I am very glad to learn that the situation in London is improving and I'm sure that as soon as Mukunda joins wholeheartedly, it will be all right. As soon as the new record album is imprinted, please send a copy to the above given Bombay address.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Kisora -- Bombay 5 February, 1972:

So I think if you are very much determined to preach to learned persons, that they will appreciate very much and come forward to help you.

Simply if the standard of our routine work is maintained very highly, that is, if we steadfastly perform our daily program of rising early, cleansing, chanting 16 rounds, holding kirtana wherever we are at least twice daily, reading, worshiping the deity, going on Sankirtana, like that—if this routine work is always done nicely and never neglected, then our all success is guaranteed in whatever we do. But if this our regular KC program is allowed to slacken, then everything else we try will fail. That is the simple formula for success.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Kadamba -- Los Angeles 8 December, 1973:

I am in receipt of your note and gift of one ring. Just now I am wearing it. Because you have sincerely offered, I must accept on behalf of my Guru Maharaja although I am not worthy.

I have met your son. His lovely features are very nice and he appears to be a first class brahmacari. Always be an example to him by being steadfast in Krsna Consciousness and your motherhood will be perfected.

Letter to All Centers -- Los Angeles 16 December, 1973:

Now we have the GBC, the sannyasins, the presidents and so many qualified devotees. We have to give up the habit of placing everything on Prabhupada's shoulders. We must be responsible, mature, steadfast and convinced.

Wherever Prabhupada is staying he will deliver morning lectures. Presidents, etc., may visit there and go on the walks with Prabhupada. Other than that we must take care of all affairs.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Dayananda -- Los Angeles 7 January, 1974:

Have them hear the mantra on the tape through their right ear, and instruct them carefully on Brahminical life.

I am always thinking of and appreciating the important work you are all doing there in our Krsna Conscious Gurukula. Please keep steadfast in the program as I have instructed.

Letter to Bhakta dasa -- Honolulu 26 January, 1974:

The criteria is that they must be initiated for one year, and during that time they have to be following the prescribed chanting of at least 16 rounds, and all the regulative principles. I am also asking that they write a statement before you in all seriousness stating that they have not broken any of the promises of the first initiation, and that they will go on steadfastly chanting the prescribed rounds. In this way I am hoping to stop whimsical recommendations for second initiation. So please follow this rule. You can ask me freely to make devotees initiated for first initiation provided they are enthusiastic and following the rules, but be very cautious before awarding second initiation, even though you have a need for brahmanas in the temple.

Letter to Devaprastha -- Bombay 12 May, 1974:

I received the letters from Bhurijana and have referred the matters to GBC, to Madhudvisa Maharaja. I regard Hong Kong as an important center and I agree with your statement very much that if the Chinese are approached intelligently they will become strong devotees, because their moral character and steadfast nature is very strong. As you know I was there recently although I did not see you then. I also observed this in the Chinese people and appreciated it very much. But we need experienced devotees, otherwise how are we going to maintain a center there. Now I know you are a experienced manager but sometimes you have left. So you are now enthusiastic to stay and manage. So do not leave anymore and stay, then it is alright. Please give me further reports on your communications with Madhudvisa Maharaja.