Kali-rāja knows: you break down restriction, you break down relationships. You break down relationships, people can't work together. People can't work together, you cannot have saṅkīrtana.

It is true, we just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, but what does that mean? How do we apply that as a conditioned soul? That we have to understand. We do chant, that is our main focus, yes. But since we are not satisfied with that, therefore there are other processes.

The whole mood of the vrata is that it’s about Kṛṣṇa, but here it’s just all about their inconvenience of fasting. So better they not fast. They will get more spiritual benefit.

For Kṛṣṇa, spending time with the devotees - that is what is important. Just getting things done, He is already doing that as Paramātmā, and He is not with the devotees, that's why it is considered a lower level.

The neophyte thinks self-centered, because they feel themselves are important. Therefore the Guru's importance is there because the Guru is connected to me. So the neophytes tend to fight over the importance of who is serving their Guru. Because I am serving my Guru, the whole world stops and everybody

"What I am and the reason people come to me, and what you are doing is inconsistent with that. How you are behaving and focusing is consistent with a sādhu who is focused on the Supreme Lord."

Whatever effort is put in long-term plans, that devotion - that always remains. But the external form, that comes and goes with how the world works.

Video lecture series on the Mahābhārata by Bhaktivedānta Academy Courses

We are trying to find out what it is that you are interested in and why you are doing it. Because 'why' much of the time will establish what actually is the nature.

Pretentious is that the living entity thinks he is God and separate from Kṛṣṇa. Because if we don’t do devotional service, what is left for us? Illusion, staying in the material world, being God. That is more pretentious.