Question: What if a disciple breaks his initiation vow?

Jayapataka Swami: Normally, if one does a sin, there is some prayascita recommended. But there is no higher prayascita than devotional service. So if one breaks his vow he should pray to the deities, express to the guru and beg for forgiveness. Then he should try to...

Question: When we have done some sinful acts before we came to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, whenever we come across someone showing that act and showing our mistake, how to take it? But now I am in a great movement, doing all services, and doing my regular sādhana and following all the instructions, and in the association of devotees. Please help me, how to face these incidents and become stronger in my sādhana?

Jayapataka Swami: Lord Caitanya said that no one should hold Jagāi Mādhāi responsible for the sinful acts they performed previously. They shouldn’t judge them based on that. Because now that they have accepted devotional service, they have become very dear to Kṛṣṇa....

Question: Devotional service is always pure and transcendental, but Lord Kapiladeva says to His glorious mother Devahūti, about devotional service in goodness, passion and ignorance. How can it mix with material or material mix with devotional service?

Jayapataka Swami: Devotional service is offered for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, that is transcendental. If someone offers devotional service because they want to get vengeance against someone, that is in the mode of ignorance, and if they do devotional service because they...

Question: It is mentioned that only after self-realization one attains the stage of understanding devotional service. That one who is in the bodily concept of existence cannot understand the process of devotional service. Nārada-bhakti-sūtra1. Could you kindly elaborate on this?

Jayapataka Swami: I don’t know who translated Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, I don’t know if it is proper translation. But the idea is, that we understand that we are not the body. We are the spirit soul. And devotional service is offered on the platform of the spirit soul to...