Nama Om Vishnu Paadaya, ….
Hari Haraaya Naam Krishna Yadavaya Naama Hari…
Mukham karoti…

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare!

I am very happy here in Chennai at the Radha Krishna, Jagannath, Baladev Subhadra and Nitai Gaur mandir. Today we had the South Indian divisional council meeting. All day long till 8.30 pm. So I wanted to give questions and answers, but by the time we had finished it was 10 pm and all the people had left. So I thought I would just appear on the Facebook to say Haribol to all of you! Class will be held tomorrow at normal time. This morning we had a brief physical therapy and all day long and afternoon we had the SIDC meeting. Tomorrow the Creative Committed of the TOVP, Temple of Vedic Planetarium Exhibition and Planetarium wing will meet in the morning. I will try to attend and tomorrow we will see different devotees. On Sunday we are having an initiation ceremony for the South Indians. Then I will return to Mayapur, Krishna willing! So this is how the whole day was spent. HH Bhanu Swami was chairing the meeting and there were maybe 50 or 60 devotees present. 11 of those got promoted to being an extension centre. South India yatra is growing more and more. But we have much to learn, much to grow, but the people here are very nice and they are very receptive to spiritual things. In fact, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, he said that if he had to take birth again in this planet, he would like to take birth in South India because there the Vedic culture is still very much active. So thank you very much! I don’t know how many are online now? 144 the repeater said.

If somebody can get their questions?

Repeater asked: You want?

Guru maharaj: Sure!!

Devotees watching online 144. Names of devotees watching were read out by repeater

Shurva Dey Babu (Guru maharaj said Ah!), Bhanu Swali was said, and guru maharaj said, Ha! Bhanu Swami? Then devotee said one mataji guru maharaj!

Question: How to keep one enthusiastic at all times despite what situation one is in? Yashoda Krishna

Guru maharaj: If you associate with enthusiastic devotees you will also be enthusiastic. Knowing how wonderful is Krishna, and how when you take one step towards Krishna, He takes ten steps towards you. So how can you fail to be enthusiastic?

Number of devotees watching 157.

Question: Swapnil Tikale: Dear guru maharaj, Is the spiritual progress of a person dependent on his material status?

Guru maharaj: No. Advancement in spiritual life is not dependent on anything material. If one is born in a rich family, the advantage is that they don’t have to struggle to maintain themselves, but there could be some situations which could be helpful, l but it is not essential, to make advancement. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that if someone serves Him and doesn’t finish, they don’t lose, they are either born in a family of rich merchants or devotee, or they take birth in heavenly planets. So there is no loss by doing devotional service even if one doesn’t finish. And one can advance in any situation. Look at Prahlad maharaj, he advanced even when he was in the family of demons. Haribol!

One last question.

Question: Shanti V Sharma: Dear most guru maharaj said: Ah , Shanti hi! If we want to give some input to TOVP from our understanding of Srimad Bhagavatam, shall we?

Guru maharaj: I wonder whether you want to give to the Exhibits or the temple? If you want to give to the Exhibits, you can write to Mayapur to Sridham das or to me, and if you want to give to the temple, then you can write to Shadbhuja das. See the web page and they will give the address you can send the email to. Thank you very much all of you. I will see you tomorrow at 8 o clock in the evening Indian time. Haribol!

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
8 February 2019