Somehow or the other as conditioned living entities we hope, with our conditioning of thinking that, we are the Supreme Lord we hope to be victorious all the time. We kind of count on it. It is the subconscious mentality of every living entity. We just want to be victorious and when something goes wrong in our life we immediately become dejected and because it always goes wrong then we are always dejected

In keeping with the theme of the ILS, the International Leadership Sanga, I was requested to speak on the character of a leader. I selected a verse which epitomizes the mood of a leader, namely the bearer of the will and the instructions of those more elevated than oneself

Prabhupada told us emphatically, "Don't make the same mistake that my god brothers made after Guru Maharaj's disappearance. Guru Maharaj told them to come and manage the society through a governing body. They did not. They rather appointed an acarya. When the acarya fell down, the whole structure collapsed." Then he said, "Don't make the same mistake." And we can see about thirty-five years after Srila Prabhupada's disappearance Iskcon is not only there but Iskcon is growing, Iskcon is expanding, Iskcon is becoming more and more wonderfully established...

So Krishna is the ideal leader because He meets everybody's expectations. Whatever you can imagine is in Krishna - everything wonderful. That is of course in the Nectar of Devotion. Rupa Goswami gives sixty-four qualities of Krishna. Of course He has four special qualities but even the fifty qualities are very wonderful. We don't expect to find all these fifty in any of our leaders in the modern world or whatever. We don't find all of those fifty qualities which should be there in a good jiva

Srila Prabhupada endured heart attacks, sea sickness, strokes, poverty to begin this movement what to speak of after people like us started to become devotees, what he had to tolerate! He gave his life. He told us that he had shed buckets of blood for every devotee. He said that in the spirit of how important it is to take care of each other and to honor and respect each other

One thing is that Prabhupada wanted the devotees to attend the regular Gaura-purnima festival every year. One of the GBC's said, "Prabhupada (At that time it cost $500. Now it is more expensive.)Each year thousands of devotees go and they pay $500 each. That is $500 000. We could build a temple. (In those days.)" Prabhupada said, "Yes. The devotees eat so much [Laughter] If they didn't eat we could have so much money. [Laughter] The GBC shut up

That if one is chanting the holy name, they are taking shelter of the real shelter and we should appreciate that and we should respect that. That is how we take shelter of them. Even if they are not following very strictly still in our heart we have to appreciate that here is Krishna's servant, somehow or the other by good fortune they are taking that much shelter of Krishna and I should appreciate them for doing it

Srila Prabhupada is saying that the artificial arrangement of divorce system is not approved in the Vedic sastras. It is not a flat outright saying but i think it is very serious and very important as far as serving the Absolute Truth is concerned this principle which is enunciating the Absolute Truth cannot be violated. So it has to be understood in proper perspective. Many times we say that time, place and circumstances - change the rule. Rule cannot be changed. Application can be changed. The rule cannot be violated

It is like in the 1920's in the United States of America. At the end of the 1920's there was a huge crisis economically and practically the whole country went down. And people who had fortunes lost everything practically overnight. And it is reported that many people were jumping out of windows committing suicide simply for something that really - a devotee understands what the value of such things is