Remain Always Enthusiastic

When I first took shelter of and surrendered to my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, back in 1971 in Austin, Texas he was not personally present to perform my initiation ceremony. So the ceremony was instead conducted by His Holiness Vishnujana Maharaja. As is the custom at the time of initiation I collected some donations to present to my spiritual master. This is called guru dakshina. Since Srila Prabhupada was in London I was obliged to mail him my donation. This was a great opportunity for me to write my spiritual master. Inspired by the preaching mood of Vishnujana Maharaja I wrote him a letter in which I expressed my desire to spread the Krishna consciousness movement. Within several weeks I received the most wonderful, enlivening reply from Srila Prabhupada dated 7 September 1971 in which he stated:

"I can see also that you are a very sincere and enthusiastic boy and are anxious for spreading this movement. Those are first class qualifications for making advancement in Krishna Consciousness. So continue enthusiastically as you are doing and Krishna will surely bless you."

By his causeless grace Srila Prabhupada had planted the seed of sincere, enthusiastic bhakti within my heart, and now he was bestowing upon me the benediction that if I would maintain this enthusiasm, Krishna would surely bless me. I put my complete faith in his words and done so continually for the last 37 years. And I am experiencing how by doing so I am constantly reaping the harvest of Lord Krishna's most sublime, wondrous blessings. Anyone who seriously and joyfully follows this pathway will experience the same result.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Krishna Says We Never Return

You say, "When we foolishly desired to be in illusion, instead of holding us back in the spiritual world against our will, like an affectionate father, Krishna facilitates our desire by letting us experiment with the illusion of being the center of existence." Then why does Krishna say in the Gita that once we are in the spiritual world, we never return to this material world?

Cordially,

Ashley Vishwanath

Answer: Once Burned, Twice Shy

Just as it is said, "Once burned, twice shy", once we realize our mistake of giving up an eternal existence full of bliss and knowledge in the spiritual world in exchange for rotting in the cycle of birth and death in the material world and then work diligently to regain our original position in the spiritual world, we will not make the same mistake again. This is why is it said that once we return to the spiritual world we will never come back to this material world.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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