150 TEACHINGS OF QUEEN KUNTI
time is being spent unnecessarily. He should ask himself, ‘‘Am I now
engaged in mdya’s service or Krsna’s service?”’ This is a symptom of an
advanced devotee. Nama-gane saddarucih: such a devotee is never tired of
chanting, singing, or dancing. The word sada means ‘‘always,”’ and ruci
means “‘taste.”’ A devotee always has a taste for chanting Hare Krsna:
“Oh, very nice. Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare
Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.”’ This is taste. Of course,
this taste takes time to awaken, but when Ripa Gosvami was chanting he
was thinking, ‘“‘I have only one tongue andtwo ears. What can I appreci-
ate of chanting? If I could have millions of tongues and trillions of ears,
then I could relish something by chanting and hearing.’ Of course, we
should not imitate him, but the devotees of the Krsna consciousness
movement must at least be very careful to complete their sixteen rounds,
their minimum amount of prescribed chanting. Nama-gdne sada rucih:
we have to increase our taste for singing and chanting Hare Krsna.

Furthermore, we should also increase our inclination to live in a place
where Krsna lives (pritis tad-vasati-sthale). In the vision of higher devo-
tees, Krsna actually lives everywhere, but because we are in a lower con-
dition, we should know that for us Krsna lives in the temple. Because we
do not see Krsna everywhere, we should come to the temple to see
Krsna, who kindly appears there, by His mercy, in a manner in which we
can see Him. ,

Krsna has a completely spiritual body (sac-cid-dnanda-vigraha) , but we
do not have the eyes to see what that spiritual body is. We are ac-
customed to seeing material, gross things (jada). We can see stone,
metal, wood, and other elements, and because Krsna is everything, to be
visible to our imperfect eyes He appears in a form of these elements. It is
not that Krsna is stone or that we are worshiping stone. We are worship-
ing Krsna, but because we cannot see anything except material elements
like stone, Krsna kindly appears in a form carved from stone. Therefore
one should be very much inclined to live within the circle of a temple en-
vironment in which the form of Krsna is worshiped.

Moreover, one should always think oneself dependent on Krsna. This is
Krsna consciousness. One should always think, ‘‘Without Krsna my life
is useless, and I am in danger.’ Therefore, while offering her prayers to
Krsna, Kuntt says, ‘‘Krsna, You are thinking that now we are safe, but I
don’t think we are safe. We are always in danger. If You think we are safe,
who will give us protection? We have no protection other than Your lotus
feet. We are encircled by so many enemies because the sons of those who
have died in the fight are now preparing to fight with us.”
