We have come to Sri Vrindavan Dham following in the footsteps of these great souls. Let this be our meditation. Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami, they were multibillionaires by today's standards. They were the prime minister and finance minister of an entire kingdom.

One of the greatest, most worshipable acharyas to this day was teaching us how to appreciate Vrindavan with such love, with such gratitude. He would sweep the pathways practically all day every day and because he was so grateful to be doing this seva in this holy place, feeling himself so undeserving that Krishna reciprocated.

Prabhupada’s example: material acquisition, whether it be wealth or fame or followers or knowledge or mystic powers, whatever it means, from a spiritual perspective its all zeroes. Some people have one zero, some people two, some people have ten million zeroes.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, how much he valued Vrindavan. When we see how the great personalities perceived Vrindavan, then we get some understanding of how we can enter into Vrindavan.

Akrura’s mission was to take Krishna out of Vrindavan for the first time. Everyone else in the whole Vrajbhumi was very disturbed with this Akrura, but Krishna understood his heart and was pleased.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told us that the only way to understand Vrindavan, the only way to understand Krishna, the only way to understand bhakti, the only way to understand kirtan is mahajano yena gatah sa panthah, which means to follow in the footsteps of the great souls.

According to the saints and according to the scriptures, one single grain of dust in Vrindavan is ‘chintamani,’ it is transcendental jewel. All the wealth in all this world, in all the heavenly planets, in all the creation is not enough to purchase a single grain of dust from Vrindavan, and you are thinking you just bought an acre of land.

Appreciation is of paramount importance in order to understand something’s value and if we do not understand it’s value, we will take the most precious thing to be something ordinary, take it for granted and not really benefit from what we have.

vṛndāvanaṁ parityajya padam ekaṁ na gacchati Krishna never, for all eternity, takes a single step out of Vrindavan. This is his eternal abode. Even in his lila in this world when he appeared to go to Mathura or Dwarka, or when he left this universe at the end of his past times, govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami, that original Govinda, the king of madhurya-rasa, forever remains in Vrindavan, and when we have spiritual vision, when we have this appreciation, Krishna reveals himself to us.

If we approach the Supreme Lord for material benefits, we will get some material benefits in due course of time. If we approach for elevation to higher planets, if we want the mystical yogic siddhis, the actual capacity to perform supernatural miracles, by chanting a mantra we could produce things within our hands, prapti-siddhi.