"Whatever your service, be satisfied somehow or the other. When Krsna sees that disposition, He is very pleased."

"Each devotee needs to understand that there is an intrinsic worth to that soul who places themselves at the feet of Krsna."

"Krsna just wants to see that we are trying to please Him. We can't purchase Krsna with our service."

"Quantification of our service is not a measure of success. To Krsna the only thing that matters is that someone is trying to come to Him."

"By what measure is Krsna pleased? By the love and devotion with which our services are offered. By adhering to this one principle, one is on the path back to Godhead."

"Emotions about how we feel about ourselves, if not on a spiritual platform, will never bring satisfaction to us." .

"Krsna is knowable through devotion... Krsna sees the devotion, and He discloses. 'You are a very confidential person. Because of your devotion, I will show you. I will disclose to you. I will give you the intelligence by which you can understand Me. Here is the intelligence. Now here I am.' It is a gift from Krsna. It is reciprocation from Krsna when He sees bhakti. That is our theology. Therefore, developing our devotion is all-critical, to have real knowledge. Not by studying, per se, but by devotion. We read Prabhupada's books to develop our devotion, our appreciation for Krsna.

"By glorifying the process of bhakti directly...one is also glorifying the object of devotion, or one is glorifying Krsna directly. Because bhakti is manifest by the internal potency of Krsna, and the internal potency is nondifferent from the Lord, so the Lord is being glorified."

-- Srila Romapada Swami, 3/13/00 IITD, Bhag. 1.8.33-41

"Krsna says, 'I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death for those who execute their activities in devotional service.' Because Krsna does the delivering, that's a different dependency than the dependency of someone who is thinking 'If I do this and I do this and I do this, then I'm secure.' They're not thinking, 'I'm depending on Krsna'. They're thinking, 'Im depending on this, that, and the other thing' -- some activity, not the quality of their devotion and dependency on God."

The essence may be couched in so many external activities. Lord Caitanya wasn't rejecting those actvities. Rather, He was objecting to the description of the perfection simply in terms of those activities. The second feature [of Ramananda Raya's suggestion] was yat karosi yad asnasi... An important part of the description why Lord Caitanya rejected this point was that one can continue -- not only can, one will continue -- to carry a material conception about the Supreme, unless one is instructed about the proper conception of the Supreme. More than instructed, one must be rightfully instructed in such a way that that instruction directly brings purification.

There's a nice instruction that Lord Caitanya has given, found in Caitanya-caritamrta. Lord Caitanya describes that the process of hearing is not a mechanical process. Rather, the type of hearing that one has to take up requires different ingredients in order to get the proper understanding. One ingredient emphasized is hearing in disciplic succession. Another that Lord Caitanya presents is hearing with one's active intelligence -- with the senses and the intelligence fully activated, fully engaged. Hearing is not a passive process.

"If one sees a serpent, automatically one would be afraid. But if one knows that the fangs of the serpent are broken, what can the serpent do?

"Spiritual life, religious life, means to gradually progress through different stages of understanding very clearly not only that a Supreme entity exists, but what and who that Supreme is, and how I am to develop my understanding and my relationship with that Supreme Being. Starting with that initial faith, sraddha, then sadhu-sanga or association with saintly persons follows. Bhaktivinoda Thakura describes that that seed of sraddha accompanies the jiva all the way to the stage of love of God. In other words, it's just like a seed that you would plant in the ground. Within that little seed is the potentiality of a whole tree. That is God's arrangement. Similarly, within sraddha there is the potentiality of love of God. That sraddha, as well as love of God, is intrinsic to the soul.

Bhajana-kriya: Kriya means activity. Bhajana means worship, specifically, glorifying the name, fame, and activities of the Personality of Godhead and the spiritual world through the process of hearing and chanting. Bhajana-kriya is a kind work, but it is spiritual work. That is what follows having the association of devotees. We engage in preaching activity in Caitanya Mahaprabhu's movement in order to engage others in the opportunity to hear about Krsna, to have some contact with Krsna in one form or another: Hearing the harinama party, or receiving some recorded message about Krsna in the form of printed literature, or sadhu-sanga, having even brief association with a devotee, because the devotees are carrying the mercy of Krsna to others.

Instructions are meant to be followed, understandings that are given by the spiritual master are to be implemented in one's life, commitments are to be actually applied in one's life, the things that one hears in classes are meant for practical application also – these are all instructions along the same line, which are telling the attentive audience that devotional service is practical, not just a "shmooz time" when talking on spiritual topics. It is meant to be practically implemented, and when one does so, then spiritual progress takes place. That implementation may be problematic, and it may require relinquishing of attachments and patterns of behavior, etc. But instructions are for application, in practical terms. That is my repeated point.