Upon displaying this submissive attitude, the Yamunā was forgiven, and when she came nearby, Lord Balarāma enjoyed the pleasure of swimming in her waters along with the gopīs in the same way that an elephant enjoys himself along with his many she-elephants. After a long time, when Lord Balarāma had enjoyed to His full satisfaction, He came out of the water, and immediately a goddess of fortune offered Him a nice blue garment and a valuable necklace made of gold. After bathing in the Yamunā, Lord Balarāma, dressed in blue garments and decorated with golden ornaments, looked very attractive to everyone. Lord Balarāma's complexion is white, and when He was properly dressed He looked exactly like the white elephant of King Indra in the heavenly planets. The river Yamunā still has many small branches due to being scratched by the plowshare of Lord Balarāma. And all these branches of the river Yamunā still glorify the omnipotence of Lord Balarāma.
After a long time
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 2
Success of mystic performances is achieved only by the help of the devotional attitude. Pantheism, or the system of feeling the presence of the Almighty everywhere, is a sort of training of the mind to become accustomed to the devotional conception, and it is this devotional attitude of the mystic that makes possible the successful termination of such mystic attempts. One is not, however, elevated to such a successful status without the tinge of mixture in devotional service. The devotional atmosphere created by pantheistic vision develops into devotional service in later days, and that is the only benefit for the impersonalist. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (12.5) that the impersonal way of self-realization is more troublesome because it reaches the goal in an indirect way, although the impersonalist also becomes obsessed with the personal feature of the Lord after a long time.
SB Canto 3
Kardama Muni said: Oh, after a long time the demigods of this universe have become pleased with the suffering souls who are in material entanglement because of their own misdeeds.
The Māyāvādīs accept the description of the pastimes of the Lord as stories, but actually they are not stories; they are historical facts. Pure devotees accept the narrations of the pastimes of the Lord not as stories but as Absolute Truth. The words mama pauruṣāṇi are significant. Devotees are very much attached to glorifying the activities of the Lord, whereas the Māyāvādīs cannot even think of these activities. According to them the Absolute Truth is impersonal. Without personal existence, how can there be activity? The impersonalists take the activities mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic literatures as fictitious stories, and therefore they interpret them most mischievously. The have no idea of the Personality of Godhead. They unnecessarily poke their noses into the scripture and interpret it in a deceptive way in order to mislead the innocent public. The activities of Māyāvāda philosophy are very dangerous to the public, and therefore Lord Caitanya warned us never to hear from any Māyāvādī about any scripture. They will spoil the entire process, and the person hearing them will never be able to come to the path of devotional service to attain the highest perfection, or will be able to do so only after a very long time.
SB Canto 5
By associating with persons for whom the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Mukunda, is the all in all, one can hear of His powerful activities and soon come to understand them. The activities of Mukunda are so potent that simply by hearing of them one immediately associates with the Lord. For a person who constantly and very eagerly hears narrations of the Lord's powerful activities, the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead in the form of sound vibrations, enters within his heart and cleanses it of all contamination. On the other hand, although bathing in the Ganges diminishes bodily contaminations and infections, this process and the process of visiting holy places can cleanse the heart only after a long time. Therefore who is the sane man who will not associate with devotees to quickly perfect his life?
SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)
No one can deny that there are holy places with sacred rivers, or that the demigods appear in deity forms made of earth and stone. But these purify the soul only after a long time, whereas saintly persons purify just by being seen.
Mere bodies of water are not the real sacred places of pilgrimage, nor are mere images of earth and stone the true worshipable deities. These purify one only after a long time, but saintly sages purify one immediately upon being seen.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Madhya-lila
""O my Lord! O unlimited one! Although I was merged in the ocean of nescience, I have now, after a long time, attained You, just as one may attain the seashore. My dear Lord, by getting me, You have obtained the right person upon whom to bestow Your causeless mercy.""
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Message of Godhead
We must know the nature of those temporary states of material happiness and distress. It would be sheer stupidity to ignore them, or to remain indifferent in matters concerning the spirit soul, around which the material body and mind exist. In fact, if one is fortunate enough to understand the happiness and distress of the spirit soul and gets a taste for transcendental knowledge, then he will be indifferent to the happiness and distress of the body and mind and will relish a transcendental peace eternal, even in the midst of worldly happiness and distress. Real peace can be obtained only in that transcendental stage of existence. That is the state of real contentment. If, after a long time, somebody embarks on a homeward journey, the pleasure of being homeward—bound diminishes the accompanying distress of the journey. The inconveniences of traveling become subordinate to the pleasure of heading homeward.
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
I am so glad to receive your letter dated June 10, after a long time, and I have gladly noted your activities in that part. I think your chanting of Hare Krishna regularly is being responded by Krishna and He is giving you good sense how to make preaching propaganda on behalf of His Lordship. It is confirmed in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, as you might have seen it, that one who hears about Krishna, for him, Krishna helps in various ways and the first thing is that He cleanses the mind of all dusty matter and by continuing such chanting and by reading regularly Srimad-Bhagavatam, one becomes gradually freed from the influence of passion and ignorance, and thus becomes situated in goodness.
Please accept my respectful obeisances at your lotus feet. I am so glad to receive your letter after a long time. I think I met you sometimes in the year of 1950, in Madras Gaudiya Math, when I went with Tirtha Maharaja to attend the Janmastami Festival. I know you are a sincere servant of Srila Prabhupada and you have done excellent service while He was present before us, and you have done similarly even after His Disappearance. I am very glad to learn that your children are well situated, but you are very much anxious to get them in touch with Krishna Consciousness. You know very well that jadavidya is the opulence of maya. So naturally, your children being well educated in jadavidya, are reluctant to receive enlightenment in Krishna Consciousness. But there is nothing to be disappointed, because they are your children; they have got the initiative seeds in them, and someday it will fructify. Don't worry about them; Krishna will put them in right line in due course.
Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter after a long time. I am glad that you are taking proper care of your health, and I wish Krishna may bless you for your long life and good work. You will be pleased to know that I am proceeding to New York tomorrow afternoon, at 4:30 p.m. reaching there at 5:50. And if possible I shall remain there for one week before starting for San Francisco. The San Francisco devotees especially some of the Indian residents, who have taken interest in our temple, since the Rathayatra festival was performed, they are very much anxious to see me, and they have proposed to cooperate fully with our movement. So I think I should go there and encourage them.
1969 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. After a long time, I beg to thank you for your letter dated 31, January, 1969 from the Spiritual Sky store. You have given a very nice name. At least you are giving ideas to the people in general that there is a Spiritual Sky, and they will get information sufficiently about Spiritual Sky, the planets thereof, the inhabitants of these planets, etc., through the medium of your store, the Spiritual Sky.
Please accept my blessings. After a long time I have received your letter and I thank you very much. I always think of you how nice, Krishna Conscious, beautiful girl you are. So Krishna has given you a nice daughter to take care of. Here, the daughter of Malati, Sarasvati, is giving us much pleasure in her Krishna Consciousness activities. She is so nice that as soon as there is chanting sound of kirtana immediately she begins to dance and clap. Even the audience becomes astonished and they follow her activities. It is very nice. I think your daughter may now be walking, so she may also be trained for dancing and clapping.
1970 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to hear from you after a very long time. It is my pleasure that you have come to stay with us in our New York Temple. I do not think you are any more able to leave Krsna because He does not let anyone go away who has once come forward in His service.
Please accept my blessings. After a long time I have receive your letter dated November 19th, 1970, as well as your telegram dated the 24th November, 1970. I thank you very much that you have sent the memorandums etc.
Hamsaduta, Syamasundara. and Tamala Krsna are detained here because we are trying to establish a center in Bombay. In the meantime, if you and your wife, Janaki, may take the place of Yamuna and Gurudasa and see that things are going on nicely there. London Temple is very important and things may not be neglected there.
1974 Correspondence
Please accept my greetings. I hope this meets you in good health. I am writing after a long time. I used to send you Hindi composed papers, photo ready, adding to it some colored pictures. The cover types were also turned into Hindi reading. I would like to know if it is possible to print this Hindi magazine from your good press.
1976 Correspondence
Please accept my greetings. After a long time I have received a letter from you with mixed information. I am sorry to learn that one of your sons is in mental disorder, so do your best for treatment and depend on Krsna for the ultimate result. The chequered history of family life is the same for everyone. According to our philosophy we call it samsara dava nada lida loka the blazing forest fire of material life. In the forest fire takes place without any human effort and it burns into ashes all the trees and animals without any relief. The relief comes from the cloud above the head.
Similarly the relief from this material world comes from above as we have got instructions in the Bhagavad-gita. So if you like you can retire from family life—you are old enough—and it may be possible for us to give you some shelter. I am in Vrndavana at present and shall remain here at least for one month. If you so desire you can come here and meet me. With my good wishes for all your family members,
| Page Title: | After a long time |
| Compiler: | Matea, Serene |
| Created: | 17 of Sep, 2009 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=6, CC=1, OB=2, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=9 |
| No. of Quotes: | 18 |