Jay my dear devotees, I hope you all are well.

We use the pretext of the new year to take new energy in the service, since the devotee is always renewing his vows. In fact, in each moment he does so, because frequently the mind proposes to him to leave his vows. Therefore there is continuous renovation of vows.

This is a special moment that we use for singing more Hare Krishna. We should have much confidence in the mantra; the mantra is everything to us. We do everything in order to chant, since sankirtan is the dharma for this age. We serve to be able to chant, to be able to feel Krishna in our heart. Our aspiration is to one day be able to be completely absorbed in the Holy Name. This should be our principal yearning, our religion. We must be religious, and this means to be a brahmana and furthermore, a Vaisnava.

To be a Vaisnava means that you live for Vishnu, for that Lord who maintains everything, who is within and outside of you, who does everything for you. Vaishnava means that you have understood that Krishna is everything for us. “Eka saranam”, He is the only refuge, the only support in our life; the only support for our intelligence and thought, not only for our life and stomach. If we think well, it is by Krishna’s grace. We want to think well, we do not want to continue to make mistakes, and therefore Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita that one has to worship with intelligence. Bhagavad-Gita purifies our intelligence. Bhagavad-Gita should be read and studied and practiced, otherwise you will become a café philosopher.

When one is affected by passion and ignorance, the search for sense gratification is everything. It is a situation of sickness of the mind. The healthy position is that everything is for Krishna’s pleasure; Krishna who is the object of the most pure and beautiful and satisfactory love. In this way we can live in love, in the ecstasy of divine love, of which Mahaprabhu speaks in His Siksastakam. He invites us to dive into that ocean, but for that our intelligence must be clear with the desire to only wish to please Sri Guru and Krishna. To please Sri Guru is to look for the concrete way to please Krishna. It is the concrete and practice way, it is the great blessing to be able to know Krishna’s wish for us.

Such is the school of bhakti for us. We are very fortunate to count on all elements to be able to practice the most elevated yoga system, the most excellent system, that assures the success, because in this attempt there is no loss or diminution. The union of the devotees is like the union of the wood that feeds the great fire. This is the reason why we celebrate this new year, to give us a new impulse with the points that Gurudeva Paramadvaiti indicates in his letter, 21 very good points…

Resolutions for 2006. Promises from a devotee for the New Year

1. To not miss the Sunday chats of my spiritual master.
2. Send all e-mail addresses that I get to mother Radha Caran for the Yoga bulletin.
3. Donate printings of the web page www.damodara.org to all children I know.
4. Download music, videos and archives of the VRINDA server and distribute copies from them to all my friends.
5. Extend and complete my collection of music cd:s, conferences, devotional videos and books from SEVA.
6. Study a book of my spiritual master and prepare a course for the Vaisnava Academy, give it at the nearby centre and also participate in the courses of other devotees.
7. Send news of the preaching to the VRINDA reporter and in this way glorify the service of other devotees.
8. Visit more pages of VRINDA and promote them to my contacts and friends on Internet.
9. Organize one day of diffusion of the campaign of the Spoon Revolution. It could be a day of Sankirtan of the newspapers.
10. Vote on the page VRINDA Awards for the project that deserves special recognition.
11. Help my Conscious Artist friends and/or devotees from my town to publish their art on the Conscious Art page.
12. Start a blog or personal web page to promote projects of my spiritual master and distribute his message to my friends.
13. Study the master plan of Guru Maharaja’s office and support in some project. First the projects of my Guru, and then my own.
14. Learn another language and so expand my field of service, something that every devotee should desire.
15. Connect to the Guru Maharaj office all friends that I have made this year in order to engage them in some service and keep them well informed.
16. Organize a Prasadam feast and invite all the devotees to chant the Holy Name together in my home, in the temple or in the streets (harinama).
17. Keep the promise that I gave to my Gurudeva to chant my 16 rounds, unless I have a lot of emergent service to do.
18. Participate in all reunion of the brahminic parliament, istaghostis and other reunions of the temple. If there are no reunions, I will remind the devotees that we should gather to talk about the projects of our spiritual master at least once a month to make sure that everyone in the community are happily serving Krishna.
19. Visit the temple more frequently and/or help my spiritual brothers and sisters with the task of love that they have, and if I cannot give a donation, then I give my time or my unconditional friendship so that they can manage all the projects that they have, to serve my spiritual master.
20. To write at least once a month to my spiritual master to report my services and ask how to serve him better in his mission.
21. I will leave the mayas for tomorrow, but today I pray the Lord to bless me with more service and that the devotee continue to tolerate me and forgive my offences. I want to bring joy to the temple and not search for faults in others, and make myself loved.

If one analyzes and tries to accomplish them, his life will be full of bhakti, full of dedication, and he can become an excellent devotee, internally as well as outside the temple. So we see how Sri Guru is very concerned that all his children really are occupied. He has not accepted them as a social business or for prestige, but they were accepted with the sincere desire to engage them in the service and take them back home.

But for this one has to take the medicine, one has to follow the steps one has to dedicate himself to how the Guru is doing it. He shows how to do it. It is like taking a trapeze course – then you have to do like the master does. You cannot say: “No, he is doing it because he is the master. I am only the student”. No, the master might do more difficult things, but he only shows what you have to do. In the same way Sri Guru, for himself, might do more and more for Krishna, but he is with us to show us what we have to do.

I was very impressed when I read these points. I saw that there is service for everyone, a generous service of preaching, brahminic in the highest standard. Guru Maharaj has prepared these services in the proportion as the family grows, so that there will be occupation for everyone.

The big problem for countries is the unemployment. Only a genius can eliminate it. So the genius Guru Maharaj has eliminated the unemployment in the bhakti, and anyone who looks for seva can have it. But we know that in developed countries there are many who live on the government without working, simulating that they look for job, but without doing it. They are a shame, and let us not be like them in the seva to Guru and Krishna.

I wish you good luck in everything. Please, do not forget your great compromise with the world. As Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta said: I do not accept other scarcity than giving Krishna consciousness. In this way we (imagine “we”) are chosen to give what the world needs, and therefore Srila Prabhupada did this in a most scientific way to prepare his books with such dedication, giving us the most perfect, clear and profound philosophy.

Once in a TV-program they asked Srila Prabhupada in India: Swami, are you a master of dvaita or advaita? Srila Prabhupada answered: “Dvaita or advaita, what difference does it make? They make sacrifices and from there come the rains, and with that the grains will grow…” Srila Prabhupada answered in this way to show that we are practical thinkers, because in that moment in India there was problems with drought. Srila Prabhupada also said: “Give us the world, and we will show you that we are practical thinkers.” Therefore we should know the philosophy well, and we should practice it very well. We must make every possible effort to become pure. Let us become pure, pure, pure…

We have to be careful in all our acts. If you are going to marry, do it in a pure way, in a correct way. If you go on the Internet, do not watch pornography, take care and avoid such garbage. Do not waste your time in messenger with nonsense talk; things like that is a great danger.

Once in my time as a brahmacari I had received one letter or two in eight years! But now everybody receives so many mails and loses so much time in their chats, and nobody does service. Look out for this. This is nonsense, it is to talk with the hands. Sorry for these words, they are not for everybody, because some can do it well, but it is for prevention. I have seen temples were the devotees in the same temple sit chatting on the messenger. That is a waste of time. The time is for the Guru and for chanting Hare Krishna.

Do not waste your time. A whole year has passed, have you seen how quickly it passed? One more moment, and we are already celebrating 2007. So it is, and therefore – be prepared to receive the mahamantra in your heart. Chant a lot, yearn much for this nectar. Just live in this hope, just live for this, for this religiosity, for others. We do it for the others, but our thing is to use our wooden mobile (the japa beads[translator’s comment]) to communicate with our Father, Krishna. There is a very nice letter from Srila Prabhupada, which I like very much. In this letter he said to a devotee who was opening a temple: “You are doing all these efforts to open a temple, and I congratulate you for this, but if everything will fail, it does not matter. We are doing this for the others, but what is ours is to chant Hare Krishna. So it is. If everything fails, simply sit down under a tree and chant Hare Krishna.”

I like these words of Srila Prabhupada very much. He had the religiosity in his heart. Religiosity means to always have God present in all our acts. To have present that He always watches us, like the grand sun. It is a state of higher consciousness, in which you want to live wholeheartedly for the Supreme, and not like an animal who wants to live with all its lust for the senses.

But in order to attain this elevation, we need the mantra. The mantra will give us the consciousness, it will elevate us. We have the mantra and the bhajans, the songs of the acaryas. They have composed their songs to give us their realizations, and therefore they are so important. If we do not chant, we are neglecting these keys, the keys that they have given us. Keys to come to Krishna’s heart and conquer it. These songs are the perfect invocation, like directing oneself to God with a correct and pure sentiment. It is like writing a letter to some important person. Then you will ask somebody how to write and how to begin it. Because you will feel that you have to follow a special process, and perhaps you don’t even want to write it yourself. In this way the acaryas have written these love letters for Krishna, to conquer Krishna. Like Rukmini devi who sent her successful one to Krishna for him to kidnap her, and he succeeded. In this way, her boldness is very powerful, and the acaryas give us their pure sentiments that they have whispered in Krishna’s ear in their highest exultation.

Then this meditation is very important, so that we can serve from our heart. Well, let’s not forget our responsibility for the world. Krishna expects much from us. He expects everything. He has chosen us; we don’t know why, but it is so. Now there is nothing else remaining, than to help and try to please our gurus. This our occupation, ours for dharma. We achieve everything by dharma. Imagine, trough dharma we achieve the transcendental!

So now it is about having a heart. We still have not developed it yet, but bhakti is for this. It is like people who go to the gym to develop muscles, or who go to the stock market to get more money, but we perform bhakti to get more heart.

Well, my greetings and my best wishes. A big hug to all of you and thank you very much for being occupied in your service which bless my life and the whole world.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada, Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Bhakti P. Puri Maharaj. All glories to Srila Harijan Maharaj and Gurudeva Paramadvaiti and all devotees in the mission who selflessly serve with love and with the great desire to become more pure one day. As Guru Maharaj so nicely said once: “We are not saints, but we have all the desire to become.”

Jay, thank you very much and forgive my so many imperfections in my service. I also would like to visit you all more, but in my actual condition I feel very limited, and therefore we have recorded some songs to be with you in this way. But I trust in Krishna that He will give me the opportunity in the future to be more, and I think that this is an eternal family that Krishna is forming, and that we will always be connected as we already are in our hearts, and this is my comfort.

Translation: Erica Wolski and Manah Siksa devi dasi