Category:Our Spiritual Life (Disciples of SP)
Theme Analysis
Identifying genuine spiritual advancement requires understanding its practical symptoms. Within this category, it is evident that Śrīla Prabhupāda sharply contrasts the anxieties of material existence with the blissful, tireless energy of genuine devotional service. The disciples are taught that taking to the spiritual path is not a matter of sentiment, but of rigorous discipline and transformation. By surrendering to the spiritual master, regulating the senses, and replacing bodily demands with transcendental activities, the practitioner exhibits the undeniable signs of an awakening soul.
- Bliss and Tirelessness: Material life is characterized by anxiety and fatigue, whereas true spiritual life produces ānanda (bliss), fearlessness, and an ever-increasing desire to perform activities for the Lord.
- Strict Adherence to Principles: Genuine advancement is impossible without strictly following the four regulative principles and chanting the holy names, which form the absolute foundation of the practice.
- Conquering Bodily Demands: A clear symptom of spiritual progress is the natural decrease in the bodily demands of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending.
- Surrender and Determination: Spiritual life officially begins with initiation and surrender, manifesting as a resolute determination to execute the order of the spiritual master despite all impediments.
- Cooperative Advancement: Unlike the material world where individuals envy one another's progress, the spiritual atmosphere is marked by devotees mutually encouraging and helping each other advance.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Prabhupāda Explains to His Disciples the True Symptoms of Spiritual Life.
Pages in category "Our Spiritual Life (Disciples of SP)"
The following 95 pages are in this category, out of 95 total.
A
- A Krishna Conscious marriage is not based on sense gratification but rather mutual cooperation between husband and wife for making advancement in spiritual life and also for raising Krishna Conscious children
- All four hundred pages, like this. We don't publish a book less than this volume. So just imagine how much we have to learn about our spiritual life. In no other religious system you may call, or cultural system - can give you so many books to read
- And as far as possible try and associate exclusively with the devotees there. That is strongly recommended for one who is serious to make advancement in spiritual life
- Anyone who has a natural tendency for rejecting sense-gratification is considered to be advanced or liberated in spiritual life. Your appreciation of Maya as false and Krishna as the only reality is a great asset
- As soon as this poison will come "Suppress guru and I become Brahman" everything finished. Spiritual life is finished. Gaudiya Matha finished, violated the orders of Guru Maharaja
- As soon as you become karmis after business, then spiritual life becomes damaged
- As you are engaged actually in spiritual life, you won't feel fatigued. You'll be fearless, and your life will be always blissful. These are the symptoms
B
- Because you have worked so hard for Krishna, making all sacrifice without any personal selfish motive, therefore you are making such nice advancement in spiritual life. Thank you very much for helping me in this preaching work
- By reading daily the knowledge will be revealed to you and by this process your spiritual life will develop
F
- Forget sleeping, eating, mating. This is all material necessities. If you increase these things, then you cannot make any progress in spiritual life
- From now on, the temples will operate independently and try to improve their spiritual life more carefully, so there is no more need for such financial arrangement of centralization, as you have proposed
I
- I am always praying to Krishna to give you His all blessings for bringing you back to Home, back to Godhead. Wherever you may be, it doesn't matter, but don't give up the principles of spiritual life, that is my request
- I am glad to hear that you are determined to fight maya and take up this Krishna Consciousness philosophy. So go on reading my books and attending the temple regularly. By this process your spiritual life will develop
- I am very glad to note that you are now realizing that without executing the regular routine work of spiritual life nobody can grow spiritual strength and without spiritual strength nobody can preach the Krsna Consciousness Movement
- I am very sorry that you have taken to homosex. It will not help you advance in your attempt for spiritual life. In fact, it will only hamper your advancement. I do not know why you have taken to such abominable activities. What can I say?
- I get great pleasure when I see my own disciples from America going to far off places leaving their rich nation with all facilities and their families, to preach. The secret of success in spiritual life is to satisfy one's spiritual master
- I suggest that you become serious about spiritual life and try to overlook the minor offenses of others
- I thank you for following the order of your spiritual master. This is the motto of our spiritual life: yasya prasadad bhagavata prasadao
- I think that since you are willing to observe the four principal rules of spiritual life, you may be initiated by me as soon as you like. The other rules you should try to follow as far as possible, but according to circumstances they may be adjusted
- I'm glad that you're feeling happy in KC. Please continue to follow all of the rules, regulations very carefully & strictly so that your spiritual life will flourish. Rise early, chant 16 rounds, attend mangala arati & classes & your life will be perfect
- If this standard (temple's activities, regulative spiritual life and preaching work) of devotional practices is maintained at the highest level, everything else you do will become automatically successful. And that will please me very much
- If we accept asat, then we will be full of anxiety, and if we accept sat, then we will be free of anxiety. This is the secret of spiritual life
- If you are actually serious about advancement of spiritual life, then you cannot encourage illicit connection, no. I request all my young students that "You get yourself married"
- If you put restrictions then not so many men will come, but sincere ones will come, those who are actually sincerely searching after real spiritual life
- If your husband cannot follow our principles properly, you are not to think that you should let that hamper your spiritual life. You should stay with us and cultivate spiritual life peacefully under Krishna's protection and care
- In a Krishna Conscious marriage the basic principle is for both husband and wife to serve Krishna nicely and to help the partner advance in spiritual life
- In the beginning of our spiritual life we must worship Madana-mohana so that He may attract us and nullify our attachment for material sense gratification. This relationship with Madana-mohana is necessary for neophyte devotees
- In the skyscraper building, that can be a guest house for receiving tourists, so they can see how practical spiritual life is developing. If just 1% of these tourists become devotees, if they adopt this process, then our effort is successful
- Initiation does not mean they have completed all spiritual perfection and now they can relax but it means now they have begun spiritual life
- It is simply a relationship of mutually helping each other, man and wife, to make advancement in spiritual life, nothing more
K
- KC is so nice that you are aspiring for still more work. That is the sign of spiritual life. In the material world we want to minimize our activities and take rest more but in the spiritual world, there is no rest and there is no limit of activities
- Ksurasya dhara. Ksura means sharpened razor. If you are careful, you cleanse very nicely. If you are not careful, immediately blood. Immediately. So the spiritual life is like that. As soon as you become little inattentive, immediately maya captures
M
- Make sure that everyone is pure by following the four regulated principles and chanting at least 16 rounds daily. Without these things, there is no spiritual life
- My idea of developing New Vrindaban is to create an atmosphere of spiritual life where people in bona fide order of social division, namely, Brahmacaris, Grhasthas, Vanaprastha, Sannyasis will live there independently
- My only request is that you see to it that all our men are strictly following the rules and regulations as I have given. I am only concerned for your spiritual life
N
- Now become always attentive to all the aspects of your temple's activities, especially to the regulative spiritual life and preaching work
- Now has the GBC become more than Guru Maharaja? As if simply GBC is meant for looking after pounds, shilling, pence. The GBC does not look after spiritual life. That is a defect
- Now that you have come to Krishna Consciousness, your spiritual life, the real life, has begun. First birth is from your parents but real birth, real life, begins when one accepts a bona fide spiritual master and renders service onto him
O
- Offer something. Just be in love with Him. Then just see how much peaceful you feel. How much tranquility you feel and how you are protected by Krsna, how you avoid insufficiency, how you become pure and how you make your progress in spiritual life
- One can test his advancement for spiritual life, how he is being detached to the material life. That's all. It is not to be taken certificate from others
- Our attention should always be how we are executing our spiritual life. That is very simple. We observe strictly the regulative principles and chant sixteen rounds minimum. That will save us
- Our business is to conquer over the demands of the body. The demands of the body is eating, sleeping, sex and defense. So spiritual life means make it almost nil
- Our movement is that beginning of spiritual life is to surrender. If there is no surrendering, then it is no advance. If that thing is lacking, there is no beginning even, what to speak of advancement
- Our only motive is how to interest people in Krsna consciousness. That's all. There is no economic problem. We can produce our own food and clothes, gradually, and save time for spiritual life
- Our program is not to become happy by so-called adjustment of material condition. That is not possible. Better come to the spiritual platform and act in the spiritual life. Then there is possibility of happiness
P
- Please keep yourself fixed up in Krishna Consciousness by strictly adhering to all the rule and regulations. Always be sure to chant 16 rounds and study my books daily. This will keep you strong in spiritual life
- Please read my books very carefully and become convinced on this point. Chant Hare Krsna, take prasadam, and follow the regulative principles very rigidly. This will make you more and more advanced in spiritual life
- Pleasing the spiritual master is the active principle in spiritual life and offerings made with love and devotion are always pleasing to the spiritual master
- Pleasing the spiritual master is the most important principle in spiritual life so go on acting in such a way that the spiritual master may be pleased
- Preachers in the Krsna consciousness movement have actually experienced that even the yavanas and mlecchas have taken to spiritual life on the strength of Narada Muni's pancaratrika-vidhi
R
- Regarding the farm, farm opening is not very essential, but if you can do it conveniently, then do it. The varnasrama system is for convenience sake in the material world. It has nothing to do with spiritual life
- Regarding your question about the husband becoming the Spiritual Master of the wife, anyone who can give instructing in spiritual life is treated as Spiritual Master. There are two kinds of Spiritual Master, initiator and instructor
S
- Simply by depending on the mercy of the Lord and carrying out the order of the spiritual master, ones success in spiritual life is guaranteed
- So long you are perturbed by material disturbances, you should know that your spiritual life has not begun. This is confirmed in everywhere
- So you should be very, very careful how to follow the rules and regulation. That is nivrtti-marga. If we still remain in pravrtti-marga, then we will not be able to make any advance in spiritual life
- Spiritual life means ananda, and material life means anxiety. You can distinguish. If you are always put into anxiety, that is material life. And if you are always jolly, that is spiritual life
- Spiritual life means service to Krsna. So if you don't serve Krsna, where is spiritual life?
- Srimad-Bhagavatam is so nice, if you practice anywhere, any condition, simply by reading Srimad-Bhagavatam, you will be happy. So adopt this practice and make your spiritual life perfect more and more
- Such position of leadership and organization is regarded as Krishna's special favor upon you, because you are forced in this way to become very responsible and set the ideal KC example, and in this way you will make very nice advancement in spiritual life
T
- That is our real work, to educate people in spiritual life by giving them the practical example, so I wanted that the GBC would be a chosen body of men for that purpose, to see how the students are learning and reporting to me as my secretaries
- That is our very strength in spiritual life, and if you continue to do so, then your rapid advancement in Krishna Consciousness is certain. Read our books, attend classes and go for street Sankirtana and in this way engage yourself in Krishna's business
- That is spiritual life. One has to take order from the spiritual master and execute it, despite all impediments. That is determination
- That is the sannyasi business, to travel from center to center and instruct the devotees in spiritual life. That is a good program for you, to learn the books very thoroughly and practice the knowledge you are learning
- The devotee is always pessimistic about the material world, but he is very optimistic about the spiritual life; so in this way, you should consider that anyone engaged in Krishna's service is always the best person
- The test of spiritual life is when one can work all day long and not be tired
- The word initiation means "to begin'' not that when he is initiated a disciple becomes slack; rather upon initiation he begins spiritual life in earnest
- There is no economic problem. We can produce our own food and clothes, gradually, and save time for spiritual life
- There is the spiritual spark who is the proprietor of the body. This is the beginning of spiritual education. What is, the scientists cannot imagine, or they have no idea, from there we begin our education in spiritual life, beyond their jurisdiction
- Those who stay with us must be well behaved. From our side we will attend to their needs and make them comfortable, and from their side they must be clean and attend the aratis. Somehow or other they must be induced to take interest in spiritual life
- To become advanced in spiritual life of devotional service to Krsna means to acquire spiritual strength, and this spiritual strength is for impressing devotional service into the hearts of the fallen souls
- Today some of you are going to be initiated. This is the beginning of your spiritual life. But if you don't take care for further development, then that is up to you. You may fall down. Because maya is very strong
- Too much official control is not good in spiritual life. The centers should remain spiritually fit and independent. Some control must be there as is now. Too much control means so many vouchers. Gradually it will become a mundane institution
W
- We cannot manufacture our own process, therefore mental speculation does not at all help us in spiritual life
- We do not judge the man by his dress, so we are not concerned with the color of our cloth as much as we are concerned to keep our conduct on the plane of pure spiritual life
- We have recommended in our Krsna consciousness movement that a devotee chant sixteen rounds on beads daily and follow the regulative principles. That will help the devotee be fixed in his spiritual advancement in life
- We have to become conservative, follow the rules. Not that we give liberty, that "Whatever you like, you do, and at the same time you make progress, spiritual life." That is not possible
- We must try to avoid becoming too much overly organized like the material businessmen. Our business is to ourselves become Krishna conscious, advance in spiritual life, and to preach to others how they can also take advantage
- We should be fixed up on the order of Krsna coming through the spiritual master. Then our life is successful. This is the secret of success in spiritual life. Yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadah. This is assured
- We should utilize our talents without being envious of others. You should do your best, but you should not be envious of others. In material life there is simply envy of others progress, but in spiritual life one encourages another
- When you can understand that you are a fool that means that you are a little intelligent because you can detect your own foolishness. Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to remain a fool just to teach us how to make progress in spiritual life
- Wherever you may be, it doesn't matter, but don't give up the principles of spiritual life, that is my request
Y
- Yes, that is the right idea, to strengthen whatever devotees we have got in spiritual life, fix them beyond any doubts. Then our potency will increase and we may recruit dozens of new devotees easily
- You (the Temple President) must make sure that all the devotees in your temple are always satisfied as far as possible by being happy in spiritual life
- You American boys & girls can make very large profit, but why you have taken to KC? You are not meant for profit making but for advancing in spiritual life. We should not take to the restaurant for profit making at the cost of slackening spiritual life
- You are a sincere student from the very beginning of your spiritual life and I wish that you may advance more and more
- You ask: "You said when you gave me the name Tusti dasi, 'Now you can be satisfied without eating.' Do you mean that I should eat very little?" Yes in spiritual life one must be careful not to eat more than is required to keep body and soul together
- You have accepted the importance of the spiritual master for making advancement in spiritual life. Now that you have been formally initiated, you are linked up with all the great Vaishnava acharyas
- You must determine if it will be easy task to raise so much money, not that we shall have to labour so much just to get money and after for maintaining, so much so that our spiritual life becomes neglected, no
- You must follow the principles that I have given at all times, under all circumstances. Without these four principles, there is no spiritual life. Even it may be very difficult you must follow
- You should know that I am very pleased that you have fulfilled my request without any hesitation. This is your success in spiritual life
- You should lecture to these devotees on the importance of chanting 16 rounds daily & following the 4 regulative principles as well as attending aroti & classes for their progress in spiritual life, otherwise they will again be carried away by maya
- You should stop this homosex immediately. It is illicit sex, otherwise, your chances of advancing in spiritual life are nil. Show Krishna you are serious, if you are