Q. You mentioned that Lord Caitanya created different situations for thepurification of the persons in His lila...We may not be clear enough in our situation, so what can we do to link with His will, mercy, or arrangements directly?

The extra step required is the effort to apply the mercy Krsna gives us. Krsna gives us mercy in different ways. It may look like really nice kind of mercy. It may look like really difficult kind of mercy. Krsna doesn't have a script that He has to read and it's got to look like this, otherwise He's not merciful. He is merciful, and when we receive that mercy with an open heart and apply that mercy, intending to please Krsna, that's when we make advancement. Let go of the controllership, doer-ship, enjoyer-ship, material mentality, and adopt the service mentality, focused on Krsna..

-- Adapted from a lecture given by Srila Romapada Swami on Bhag. 2.3.25

In Madhurya Kadambini, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarthi Thakura discusses where bhakti comes from and how it arises. He offers a number of possible suggestions, but he refutes them and finally comes to a conclusion that bhakti arises when one gets bhakti from a bhakta – specifically a madhyama bhakta. By the way, that’s us! At least we are trying to become, or we are trained to become, what we call “preachers” in ISKCON vernacular. We are enjoined to make distinctions between the Lord, the devotees, the innocent, and those who are inimical to God, the atheists. We apply ourselves differently according to those distinctions.

".....What is our qualification to carry Krsna's mercy? The idea of carrying the quality of mercy of Krsna is that we have been given the instruction to take this message of devotion and share it with others. Just give that impelling encouragement to others. Then one is connected to Krsna. By distributing Krsna's mercy, one receives Krsna's mercy. Even if you have Krsna's mercy to give, if you don't give it, you'll feel without it." .

-- Srila Romapada Swami 3/26/00, Chicago

Although many of us heard Krsna's name before coming in contact with Krsna consciousness, we had to receive the Hare Krsna maha-mantra before we actually started chanting. In a deeper sense, receiving means more than just the syllables. Or, as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura spoke, chanting should not be lip deep, but heart deep. So let the Holy Name enter our heart; let us receive that Holy Name at the level of the heart. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta further says that chanting is not merely a matter of making sound, because we can make a machine that produces the same sound, or we can train animals or birds to chant Hare Krsna. Rather, we should call out from the heart to Lord Nityananda to please deliver the Holy Name and to let that enter our hearts.

The main point in this section is that the glories of Krishna are realized through the intimacy of service...Srila Prabhupada writes in the purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 1.9.19: "Tribulations imposed upon the devotees by the Lord constitute another exchange of transcendental bhava between the Lord and the devotees". Tribulations can be the opportunity for the devotee to realize more their intimate relationship with Krishna and the glories of Krishna, if taken in the right way. The more intimate contact with Krishna, the more glories of Krishna can be understood. Tribulations and difficulties are special favor and mercy from Krishna. But it takes a pretty good amount of Krishna consciousness to see the tribulations that way.

"I may be a very tiny and insignificant being, and this massive, powerful force of the material energy is acting upon millions of millions of persons...but hope against hope, I'm expecting the mercy of Krsna. By following very carefully, trying to execute the instructions that we find in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam and the careful guidance that comes from the spiritual master, that is our hope against hope. This is sraddha, faith -- having the full expectation that by doing in that way, that is my only hope, that Krsna will deliver me. Not by any arrangement or endeavor I may make can I fight my way out of this material existence. No one is clever enough to do that."

--- from a lecture by Srila Romapada Swami entitled "Hoping Against Hope", 1/15/89 NY

Q. The goal is clear and the process is clear, but my will is weak. What to do?
A. Keep practicing (abhyasa). Continue to make endeavor (prayasa) and call out to Krishna. How much ever time and effort it takes, we should be prepared to invest that in a quality way, to bring our mind to Krishna. So, desire to move from the stuck material conditioning to the spiritual position of freedom. Srila Prabhupada says that everyone has that desire - like a bird, to fly and enjoy the freedom. We have to let go of our conditioning. But, we are attached to the sources of our own misery - we can't let go. It’s a disease and it's unhealthy.

In the line of devotion, we are absolutely dependent upon guru and Krishna. That is our real identity. Call upon guru and Krishna to help us open our hearts for that mercy which guru and Krishna are more than willing to give. Until then, we remain closed hearted, or hard hearted, thinking like a fruitive worker that, "it's on the strength of my endeavor that everything will be successful," when that is not the case. We have to make some endeavor, but we also have to open our hearts to the descending mercy, like the cakora bird catching falling raindrops. Otherwise we will die.

-- Adapted from a lecture by HH Romapada Swami during the disciples meeting on Jan 1 1995 in NY.

Generally, we think of mercy in terms of the fulfillment of our desires. When the things on our wish list suddenly appear, that looks like mercy. But real mercy – or how we recognize real mercy is that it draws us closer to Krsna. Whatever it is that draws us closer to Krsna generally means our attachment to something of this material world slackens. And that's mercy. Now, it doesn't mean that it's taken away from us, necessarily, but our attachment to it slackens. It may disappear or it may not disappear, but our attachment to that material enjoyment disposition goes down. It's inversely proportionate, like a child's see-saw. When attachment to Krsna goes up, attachment to worldly things goes down. Maharaja Ambarisa, for example, was attached to Krsna. He was a bhakta.