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Dear devotees and friends,
Please accept my blessings.

On 2nd of July starts the four months of Caturmasya. Caturmasya is the rain period in India. In this period of time many travelling preachers look for some refuge, a cave or a cabin to intensify their studies and their austerities. Srila Prabhupada did not emphasize this aspect very much, considering that the preachers of Lord Caitanya in this world always are doing extreme austerities. To reflect this to you, I will tell you a little story.

There is a tradition that one on Ekadasi should chant 25 rounds on the japa, and not 16. then a sankirtan leader devotee asked Srila Prabhupada about this aspect regarding the devotees who were occupied in the distribution of the books. Srila Prabhupada answered that they already were doing the maximum service one could do, and that this with the 25 rounds was rather to purify the lazy ones, so they would ask for more service, so that they one day would understand that the process of Bhakti yoga is to preoccupy with the spiritual good of the others and to establish oasis of refuge in the world of Kali yuga.

When a person is in marathon of service and not for prestige or some other mixed desire, he is a Bhakti yogi in the way one could wish. Of course, he has to give an example in sadhana also, but by being rendered to the service he has already achieved the purpose of the very sadhana. In Raganuga bhakti, the details are not so important as the intensity of the relation and the service.

I cannot give up attending the visitors who are anxious to hear about Krishna, just in order to sit in my room and read a book. But maybe someone says: "But Srila Prabhupada said that I must read his books every day". This is true, but if I talk about the books of Srila Prabhupada to the visitors who are anxiously waiting, then I am realizing my studies of Srila Prabhupada's books, and the realization is more worth that only to follow principles mechanically. Of course, if someone uses this as the pretext to not chant and read, the only thing he will attain is a fall down.

Raganuga Bhakti is not to imitate. It is something that is born within a person who is surrendered to his spiritual master like something natural, and always brings a wonderful effect, because already the spiritual affection is a marvellous effect.

Always your well-wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami