Who Are the Pure Devotees?
Pure devotee starts from a madhyama. Madhyama is a pure devotee. We will say ‘pure devotee’ and then put it way off in the distance. No, pure devotional service can be performed from niṣṭhā.
Pure devotee starts from a madhyama. Madhyama is a pure devotee. We will say ‘pure devotee’ and then put it way off in the distance. No, pure devotional service can be performed from niṣṭhā.
Friend means when things are good you are friend and when things are bad you are a friend. If you are only a friend when things are good you are not actually a very good friend.
People that don’t trust, it’s easy, it’s not rocket science, they didn’t have someone there. If someone has authority issues, then it goes back, they didn’t have anyone there.
Question: The junior is doing service, and by doing service they get more realization than the senior person administrating people, and then you run into conflicts…
Whether the person is respected or not, at the end of the day your problems still remain, believe it or not. If another person who is having problems is removed from the scene, still you remain and your problems still remain, it doesn’t actually change anything.
If you are doing something for somebody because the soul is benefited, that is the real protection, but if we identify with the body or only see things with the senses then we think, ‘Unless someone is taking care of my personal environment then I am not being protected.’
You have to speak on the principle and make the principle presented in a way that someone can appreciate it. Relative means material. Absolute means it is real today, it was real before, it would be real in the future.
This philosophy of ‘We are Westerners and so we can’t follow all this Indian culture’ – extremely dangerous apasampradāya, extremely dangerous. Because it makes one think that my upādi, defining myself as a Westerner, is a valuable element in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
You talk about that there is this particular little group of people, they are controlling the whole planet. But no one is that powerful. Yudhiṣṭhira could control the whole planet. Who is that pious?
What we are discussing here doesn’t change the position or authority of GBC. This gives them the authority that they are supposed to have, that is given by the sampradāya, as well as it gives to the presidents their authority.