Devotional service is based on the idea of voluntarily sacrificing something for Krsna, be it our time, money, intelligence, or any other asset. By definition, devotional service must be voluntary, it must be out of love.

In Jaiva Dharma, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura mentions that free will is precisely what differentiates living souls from inanimate matter. Material objects have no free will, they are just manipulated by superior forces. Souls on the other hand have free will and this is what makes relationships and rasa possible. It’s not possible to have a relationship with an inanimate object: relationships can be cultivated only with living beings. From this, we can understand why Krsna is so careful in respecting the free will of the souls.

Love can’t be imposed. If someone would put a gun in my head, I would surely say that I loved him, or anything else he wanted to hear, but this would not be true love. This brings us to another point: Krsna Consciousness and service to Krsna can’t be imposed. We can’t force anyone to love Krsna, such love can only by inspired through our personal example. If one were forced to serve in a temple or group, this could hardly be called devotional service.

In a letter to Karandhara (22/07/72), Srila Prabhupada wrote some interesting advice about leadership:

“… our leaders shall be careful not to kill the spirit of enthusiastic service, which is individual and spontaneous and voluntary. They should try always to generate some atmosphere of fresh challenge to the devotees, so that they will agree enthusiastically to rise and meet it. That is the art of management: to draw out spontaneous loving spirit of sacrificing some energy for Krishna.”

One important point to understand in order to become eventually free from this material world is the relationship between the soul and the mind. Although I’m a spirit soul, I have a body, and I have a mind. Just like I’m not the body, I’m also not the mind. In the case of the body, it’s easy to understand since we assume a new body at each birth, but the relationship with the mind is much more intimate, and it’s thus much harder to spot the difference. Different from the body, the mind doesn’t change at each birth, we have the same mind for as long as we are in this material world, and this mind not only stores desires and sensations but is the very tool that allows us to experience and enjoy the world.

In the story of King Puranjana narrated in the 4th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, the material mind and intelligence are amalgamated in the figure of the queen, to which the king is very strongly attached. In many explanations, the mind and intelligence are explained separately (in the Bhagavad-Gita, for example, Krsna says we should use the intelligence to control the mind), but in this case, they are combined because when one is just enjoying materially, the intelligence becomes subordinate to the desires of the mind and work in combination with it. We can see that in the analogy the King follows the queen in all her steps, and thus enjoys and suffers together with her:

“When the Queen drank liquor, King Purañjana also engaged in drinking. When the Queen dined, he used to dine with her, and when she chewed, King Purañjana used to chew along with her. When the Queen sang, he also sang. Similarly, when the Queen cried, he also cried, and when the Queen laughed, he also laughed. When the Queen talked loosely, he also talked loosely, and when the Queen walked, the King walked behind her. When the Queen would stand still, the King would also stand still, and when the Queen would lie down in bed, he would also follow and lie down with her. When the Queen sat, he would also sit, and when the Queen heard something, he would follow her to hear the same thing. When the Queen saw something, the King would also look at it, and when the Queen smelled something, the King would follow her to smell the same thing. When the Queen touched something, the King would also touch it, and when the dear Queen was lamenting, the poor King also had to follow her in lamentation. In the same way, when the Queen felt enjoyment, he also enjoyed, and when the Queen was satisfied, the King also felt satisfaction.” (SB 4.25.57-61)

Apart from the four general principles we follow, there are several recommendations for our spiritual practice, that although not mandatory, can help us a lot in terms of both spiritual progress and general well-being. One of the most important of these is to wake up early.

It’s certainly tempting to stay awake until late at night and then sleep until 8:00 or 9:00. There are always many interesting things to do at night, both in devotional and non-devotional circles, but this comes with a series of problems.

To stay awake until late and then sleep until late morning is something that stimulates the mode of ignorance, which is the main cause of not only difficulties in our spiritual practice, but also of depression, diseases, and other problems. All of us are conditioned by a certain combination of the three modes, and it’s often not possible to radically change from one to the other overnight. However, if we can gradually reinforce the mode of goodness and reduce the influence of ignorance, this can bring us many benefits. Going earlier to bed and waking up earlier is one of the strongest factors in favoring the mode of goodness.

On SB 9.21.25, Srila Prabhupada gives some interesting details about the life of Sukadeva Goswami.

Both Vyasadeva and Sukadeva are far from being ordinary persons. Vyasadeva is an incarnation of Krsna, who comes to restore Vedic knowledge when it’s almost lost at the end of Dvapara Yuga, while Sukadeva is considered to be an incarnation of the parrot of Srimati Radharani, who came especially to speak the Srimad Bhagavatam, illuminating thus the age of Kali. Being such an exalted soul, Sukadeva had a very profound understanding of spiritual relationships and was thus elected as the speaker of the Srimad Bhagavatam, even though both Vyasadeva and Narada Muni were present at the assembly.

The first interesting fact is that even a great personality like Vyasadeva didn’t get a pure son like Sukadeva Goswami automatically. Both he and his wife practiced austerities for many years before Sukadeva Goswami came as their son. There are other similar cases, like Vasudeva and Devaki practicing austerities as Sutapā and Pṛśni with the goal of obtaining Krsna as their son. Although great personalities like Vasudeva and Vyasadeva are already perfect, still they give us the example. Authorized austerities are a way to get a spiritually inclined son.

The second fact was that Sukadeva Goswami played the role of a Brahmavadi while inside the womb, showing fear of the material energy and thus refusing to come out. In total, he stayed inside the womb for 12 years, coming out only when Krsna Himself reassured him that he would not be captured by Maya. Even then, he immediately ran away from home, going immediately to the forest to live as a renunciant. With great difficulty, Vyasadeva was able to bring him back for a short period to listen to the Bhagavata Purana, which Sukadeva later expanded in the form of the Srimad Bhagavatam he spoke to Maharaja Pariksit.

It’s said that devotees on the Uttama platform see everyone as a servant of Krsna, and thus they consider everyone as superior to themselves. This may sound difficult to understand since most people are not really serving Krsna at the present moment, but this is due to the material covering of the pure soul. In our current state, when we look at a person we don’t see the soul at all, we just see the material covering, but for an Uttama devotee it’s the opposite: he sees the soul instead of the temporary nature.

For us, it may be very difficult to understand how this works, but the nature of the soul transcends space and time. Although now conditioned, the soul is an eternal servant of Krsna, and it is this eternal nature that an Uttama devotee can see. Currently, this eternal nature exists simultaneously with a temporary, material nature, but a devotee who is exclusively concentrated on the transcendental platform doesn’t notice it. Instead, he sees the transcendental reality.

This point of a spiritual and a material identity existing simultaneously is something that can be very relevant when we speak about relationships with other devotees, which are frequently stranded by human imperfections such as anger, envy, negligence, or even dishonesty.

In his Tattva Sandarbha, Srila Jiva Goswami gives a detailed description of the history of the Vedas, as a way to prove the validity and relevance of the Puranas. This is especially important for us since we accept the Srimad Bhagavatam as our main book of knowledge.

All the Vedas were originally spoken by Lord Brahma, who receives this knowledge directly from Krsna. Sometimes, the Vedic knowledge is stolen by certain demons, and Krsna comes to kill such demons and deliver back the Vedic knowledge to Brahma. One may question how a demon can steal the Vedic knowledge since knowledge is not a physical object that can be moved from one place to another. The point is that as we go to higher levels of existence, there is nothing “physical”, higher beings deal with subtle energies. When we take this into consideration, it’s not difficult to imagine that certain powerful subtle entities can steal the Vedic knowledge from Brahma, making him forget it. When this happens, Lord Vishnu intervenes, killing such demons and delivering the Vedic knowledge back to Brahma.

Srila Jiva Goswami describes that Brahma originally spoke the Puranas with one billion verses. In other words, the Puranas were originally much more extensive than the books we have access to nowadays. This original version of one billion verses is still studied on the celestial planets, but understanding that people in this age would have short memories and very little inclination or capacity to study such long treatises, Vyasadeva compiled the 18 Puranas by taking out only the most essential descriptions from the original Purana. This abridged version contains just 400,000 verses, but it still conveys all the original meaning.

Often devotees ask me about how to better maintain their health. Actually, I became quite sick a few years ago when I was doing traveling sankirtana. Just like many, I had pains, weakness, brain fog, and other symptoms that would come and go without a definitive solution for an extended period of time. In my case, I was like that for years.

At that time I came to understand the shortcomings of Ayurveda, homeopathy, and other natural forms of medicine. I’m sure that many will disagree, and they are free to do that. I’m not a doctor, so here I’m just sharing what I discovered along the way, everyone is free to agree or disagree, make their choices, and reap the fruits.

So, going to the polemic part, my conviction after years of attempts is that both Ayurveda and homeopathy don’t really work most of the time. Homeopathy is more or less like a placebo, based on giving very diluted forms of active principles that don’t have much therapeutic use. It’s hard to just sit and tolerate when we have some health problem, therefore homeopathy can help by giving some mental relief with the idea that one is getting some kind of treatment. As many studies show, a placebo can indeed help, often patients who receive a placebo indeed become healthy much faster (the mind is a powerful thing), but one should not expect that it will solve any serious health issue. People can believe in what they want to believe, but over time I came to understand that often it’s not just about faith.

Everything that exists in this material world was created at a certain date and everything will be destroyed at a certain date. Everything is temporary. This happens because we are under the influence of the material time.

In SB 3.26.15, time is counted as one of the material elements, just as earth, water, fire, etc. Time is described as a “mixing element” or as an “agitating element” because it puts the universe in motion, activating the innumerable transformations that lead to the creation and destruction of everything that exists inside the universe, including the universe itself. Because of the influence of time, everything that is material has a beginning and an end.

This is further corroborated in SB 7.1.11, where it’s described: “King, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the controller of the material and spiritual energies, who is certainly the creator of the entire cosmos, creates the time factor to allow the material energy and the living entity to act within the limits of time. Thus the Supreme Personality is never under the time factor nor under the material energy.”

The Bhagavad-Gita explains we are not the body, but the spirit soul inside the body. As souls, we are eternal in nature, but currently, we are disconnected from this original nature, being placed in a temporary condition that is foreign to us. Inside this temporary nature, we are called “conditioned souls”, because we are forced to accept artificial conditions such as birth and death, temporary relationships, and so on. All of this happens due to the influence of time.

How long are we entrapped here in this material world? The sankrit word is “anadi”. The dictionary meaning of anadi is “beginningless”, but Srila Prabhupada translated it as “from time immemorial”, like we can see for exemple in his purport to CC Madhya 20.117:

In his books, Srila Prabhupada makes clear his opinion about modern societies, defining them as degraded and ultimately uncivilized. The materialistic lifestyle progressively destroys moral values and kills the soul, in the sense that it destroys one’s interest in religious practices.

However, Srila Prabhupada was also pragmatic in utilizing whatever good facilities modern society could provide to facilitate his preaching. He was using planes and cars to move around, using printing presses to publish his books, and so on. At the same time he criticized the democratic system of government but also appreciated the freedom it offers, which allowed him to propagate Krsna Consciousness more or less freely in countries like the United States, which offered environments much more favorable than dictatorial regimes, like in the Soviet Union and China. In this way, he was applying the principle of using what is favorable and rejecting what is unfavorable.

We can argue that despite all the problems we have in modern societies if we had to go back in time, going back to the Middle Ages, the environment would be much more hostile to the propagation of Krsna Consciousness. You can imagine what would happen if a group of Brahmacaris, dressed in dhotis and with sikas would start doing a harinama in a Spanish city during the times of the Inquisition, for example.

Our three immediate prominent acaryas, Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura share an agreement on the intrinsic nature of the soul as a servant of Krsna. On CC Madhya-līlā 22.106, for example, Srila Prabhupada gives the following translation: “Pure love for Kṛṣṇa is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.”
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura named his main work “Jaiva Dharma”, which can be translated as The Eternal Nature of the Soul, again emphasizing the intrinsic nature of the soul as a servant of Krsna. When all material contaminations are peeled off, this natural love for Krsna automatically manifests.

However, we may have real trouble connecting our current consciousness with this perfect intrinsic consciousness. If my intrinsic inclination is to serve Krsna, how can my current consciousness be so far from it?