Absence (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"absence" |"absent"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: absence or absent not "absence of"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.1-10 and Talk -- Los Angeles, November 25, 1968:

Prabhupāda: These are his causes of perplexities, how he was thinking, that has been tried to be explained. Yes, go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Even if there were victory awaiting them, because their cause was justified, still if the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra should die in battle, it would be very difficult to live in their absence. Under the circumstances that would be another kind of defeat. All these considerations by Arjuna definitely proved that he was not only a great devotee of the Lord but that he was also highly enlightened and had complete control over his mind and senses. His desire to live by begging although he was born in the royal household is another sign of detachment. He was fully in the quality of forbearance as all these qualities combined with his faith in the words of instruction of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, his spiritual master, give evidence. It is concluded that Arjuna was quite fit for liberation. Unless the senses are controlled, there is no chance of elevation to the platform of knowledge, and without knowledge and devotion there is no chance of liberation. Arjuna was competent in all these attributes over and above his enormous attributes in his material relationships."

Prabhupāda: Go on. (coughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Now I am confused about..."

Prabhupāda: Yes, what is there?

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- New York, March 7, 1966:

So here is the statement of the Supreme Person. We have to believe it. We cannot go out of it. If we don't believe it, then we are loser. If we don't believe it, then we are loser. He is the perfect being who is eternal and all-pervading. Just see, all-pervading. That means, although you can see Him as a person... Just like you are present before me as a person, but you are absent in your residence. Is it not? But God is not like that. God is, although He's present, Kṛṣṇa, although He's present just before Arjuna, instructing him, but He's all-pervading at the same time. A crude example. Just like at twelve o'clock in the midday, you see that the sun is above your head. And five thousand miles away, if you ask any friend, "Where is the sun?" he'll say, "It is on my head." Five thousand miles this way, that way, you inquire, and everyone will say, "The sun is on my head."

Lecture on BG 2.30 -- London, August 31, 1973:

What is the difference between inferior and superior? In the inferior nature or the material nature, God consciousness is almost nil. Those who are in the modes of goodness, they have little God consciousness. And those who are in the modes of passion, they have got less degree; and those who are in the modes of ignorance, there is no God consciousness. Completely absent. Degrees.

Therefore, this body, although this is material, coming from the same source, still it is inferior. So when the dehī, or the spirit soul, although by nature it is superior than the material nature, but still, because he's encaged within the material nature, he's forgetful of Kṛṣṇa. This is the process. But, as it is stated here, that dehe sarvasya, sarvasya dehe, the same spirit is there. Therefore, those who are not rascals, those who are intelligent and in complete knowledge, they do not find any distinction between a human being or an animal. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ. Because he's paṇḍita, he's learned, he knows that the spirit soul is there. Vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe (BG 5.18).

Lecture on BG 2.30 -- London, August 31, 1973:

Just like if you get a nice seed, you have to sow it and pour little, little water... Then it will grow. Similarly, anyone who by great fortune has come into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the seed of devotional service, he should water it. And what is the water? Śravaṇa-kīrtana-jale karaye secana (CC Madhya 19.152). This is watering. This hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṇa. This is watering. Don't be absent from the class. This hearing and chanting is watering the seed of devotional service. If you make it official and be absent from hearing... This is most important thing. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). This is most important thing. To hear. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam does not mean hearing and chanting of any other entity. No. Viṣṇu. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. The rascals, they have manufactured "kālī-kīrtana".Where is there in śāstra there is kālī-kīrtana, śiva-kīrtana? No. Kīrtana means glorifying the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. That is kīrtana. Not any other kīrtana. But they have manu...

Lecture on BG 2.32 -- London, September 2, 1973:

The Deity was being worshiped in the family since Mahārāja Ikṣvāku, and during when Lord Rāmacandra was personally present, this Deity was kept in His bedroom. So one brāhmaṇa, he used to come and see Lord Rāmacandra. Then he would take, break his fasting, breakfast. That was his principle, regulative principle. So Lord Rāmacandra was absent for a week or so from the kingdom, and the brāhmaṇa did not take even a little water because he could not see Lord Rāmacandra. Such a devotee. So Lakṣmaṇa informed King Rāmacandra that "Here is a devotee, brāhmaṇa. You were absent from the kingdom for one week, so he did not take even a drop of water." So Lord Rāmacandra was very much pleased. Then He ordered Lakṣmaṇa that "You give him that Deity which was being worshiped in our family, now it is stopped." So He delivered that Deity Rāmacandra to the brāhmaṇa, that "When Lord Rāmacandra is absent from the kingdom, you can worship." This is authority(?).

Lecture on BG 2.32 -- London, September 2, 1973:

Or unnecessarily where animals are killed, you can remain there." Striyaḥ sūnā pānam. "And intoxication. Where liquor house, you can remain there. And where there is gambling, you can remain there." So he could not find out a place where to remain. That means in those days these things were so much conspicuous by absence that is was difficult for the Kali to find out a place like that. But with the advancement of Kali, now Kali can find out his place anywhere, at any home, anyplace. These things are going on. This is the position.

So this system of human civilization as conceived by the Vedic process is completely different from the rascal civilization at the present moment. Therefore, people cannot be happy. It is not possible. If we... At the same time, it is impossible to go back to that type of civilization, because people are so polluted. It is not possible.

Lecture on BG 2.46-62 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1968:

Yes. Just as a person is in family, he is father, in office, he is boss, and in some other place, he's something else. But the same man. But because we are materially conditioned, when I am in the office, I'm not in my home. While I am acting as boss in my office, I cannot act as father with children at home. I am absent. This is due to my material condition. But Kṛṣṇa, being full spiritual, He can remain in His abode, Goloka Vṛndāvana, at the same time, He can remain everywhere. That is expansion. Just like Kṛṣṇa is living within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). The Supreme Lord is staying in everyone's heart. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated, goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). This is spiritual position, that even though He is in His abode permanently, He can remain in everyone's heart, all over the creation. Not only in the heart, but within every atom also. This is His expansion, plenary expansion. He expands...

Lecture on BG 2.49-51 -- New York, April 5, 1966:

Yes. Now their family duty is that they are, this Singhania, Sir Padampat Singhania, they have got four or five brothers, and the mother is still living. And the order is that each and every family member must go every day and pay respect to the Deity. And if somebody is absent one day, then he must be fined. A fine is imposed. The, the big brother, Sir Padampat Singhania, if he's absent one day to pay respect to the Deity, he's fined ten rupees, or ten dollars. You see? And, and next day the brāhmaṇa, or the pūjārī, the worshiper engaged, he goes to collect the fine. He presents, "Yes, yes. I am sorry. Yes. Here is my fine." (laughs) So of course, this is self-imposed, but the idea is that they are spiritually conscious in this way. "Oh, I did not go yesterday to offer my respect to the Deity, Kṛṣṇa. So I must pay fine." This is also spiritual consciousness. This is also spiritual consciousness.

Lecture on BG 2.51-55 -- New York, April 12, 1966:

Now, here is an opportunity for you. In human form of your life, you have got sufficient intelligence, and the Lord Himself is before you to enlighten your intelligence more and more. Here is the book. This book, what is spoken by Lord Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is not different. Because Kṛṣṇa, or the Lord, is on the absolute plane. Don't think that Kṛṣṇa is absent. Kṛṣṇa is present here. There is a verse in Bhāgavata, tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada yatra gāyanti mad-bhaktāḥ, that, "I... My dear Nārada,..." Nārada is a great devotee. Perhaps you, who are accustomed with Vedic literatures, you have heard the name of Nārada. So Nārada is a great devotee, and the Lord assures him that, "Don't think that I am living in the kingdom of God, or I am living in the heart of a great mystic, or somewhere else, somewhere else... People may think. But I am living in that place where My sincere devotees assemble and discuss about Myself."

Lecture on BG 4.17 -- Bombay, April 6, 1974:

Because there is no difference of the mouth and legs, provided the mouth is working as mouth and the leg is working as leg for satisfying the Supreme. Then there is no such distinction. As soon as Kṛṣṇa consciousness is absent, a so-called brāhmaṇa is puffed up. 'Oh, I am born in brāhmaṇa family. I am bigger than the śūdras." That is falldown. The real purpose is that either you be mouth or hand or waist or leg, the real purpose is to maintain the body very perfectly. That is real purpose.

Similarly, either you become brāhmaṇa or you become kṣatriya or you become śūdra or vaiśya, real purpose is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is explained in Bhāgavatam.

Lecture on BG 4.24 -- August 4, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. "These eight energies, they are My energies." Aṣṭadhā, eight. Earth, water, air fire, sky, mind, intelligence, ego. Bhinnā separated.

Just like I am speaking in the dictaphone, but after some time, without me, it will speak exactly like this. So, I am speaking, but I'm not present there. Similarly, material world means it is being conducted by Kṛṣṇa, but still, Kṛṣṇa, personally, He's not present there. In another place Kṛṣṇa says that

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ

jagad avyakta-mūrtinā

mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni

na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ

(BG 9.4)

Find out this verse. Kṛṣṇa's energies present, and Kṛṣṇa is seemingly absent, that is material.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Ahmedabad, December 13, 1972:

Now, after going through your literatures, complete literatures, now the whole light has come to me, and I have began to understand even that the guru who gave me such Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I don't challenge or question the other findings of their(?) gurus. Just like a boy who absent from class, not attending his class, there is no fault of the guru. Guru has been attending his lectures. But I am truant. I am not attending class. So you see I can't blame that guru. But now I have understood everything from Your Grace, and now that ajñāna has been removed. I have now become more Kṛṣṇa conscious than before. So should I give credit to all those gurus who have helped me to understand? Or should I now select, or should I exercise any choice that I should accept this guru or that guru only? So that doubt should be cleared.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Calcutta, January 27, 1973:

That is not possible. Because we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, there cannot be disconnection. Just like father and son. The son may go out of home, forget his father and mother for many years, but the connection between the son and the father and the mother is never disconnected. That is not possible. As soon as the son comes home, although the son was absent for many, many years, the father receives him, the mother receives him with affection. And immediately the paternal relationship, affection, immediately established.

This is our position. We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. When I speak "Kṛṣṇa," means God. You know, all. It is not very difficult for Indians. So because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, there cannot be disconnection. Therefore it is a stage of forgetfulness. Instead of loving Kṛṣṇa, we have expanded our love for so many things. Somebody's loving his body. Somebody's loving his family. Somebody's loving his society, community, nation, or the human society.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Hyderabad, August 22, 1976:

So Rāmacandra was out of His station for some royal business. So this brāhmaṇa did not take even water seven days. So when Rāmacandra returned, Lakṣmaṇa informed Lord Rāmacandra, "Here is Your devotee, My Lord. Because You were absent for seven days and he could not see You, therefore he did not take even water." Rāmacandra appreciated his devotion. So before Lord Rāmacandra there was Sītā-Rāma Deity worshiped in the family of Daśaratha Mahārāja's family. So that Deity was kept in the room of Lord Rāmacandra because Lord Rāmacandra was personally present. So He advised Lakṣmaṇa that "Give this brāhmaṇa this Deity." And He advised him, "Brāhmaṇa, you worship this Deity, and when I am not in the station, your worshiping the Deity is as good as worshiping Me." So the Deity worship is so long going on. That Rāmacandra Deity is still here in South India.

Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Bombay, February 19, 1974:

"This is the magnitude of the soul." You have to take it. Then you will understand. Otherwise, by so-called experiment, you have neither instrument nor facility to make, find out. The first-class medical man or physiologist, find out where is the soul in this body. But they cannot. They have no such power, but there is something which, being absent, the body is dead. That is a fact. That is a fact. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). That... Because that soul has gone out of this body, therefore the body is now dead. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Therefore it is authority.

What is the distinction between dead man and living man? That you have to understand. You cannot make experiment why the body is dead.

Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975:

Just like I am speaking, it is being recorded, recorded. But in my absence, if the record is played, it will exactly vibrate the same sound. So that is my energy or anyone's energy, but bhinnā, separated from me. You have to understand like that. So everything is energy of God, Kṛṣṇa, but this material world means we are missing Kṛṣṇa. Wherefrom this energy has come? That point we are missing. Bhinnā. One who knows... Just like the same example. In the record the play is going on, but one who does not know who has recorded this speech, he cannot find out. But one who knows voice, he can understand, "It is coming from Prabhupāda, or the Swamiji."

Lecture on BG 7.16 -- Bombay, April 7, 1971:

This married life is just like a license for sex life. In the śāstra it is said, loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā hi jantor na hi tatra codanā. Those who are conditioned souls, this eating, sleeping, mating, these are the necessities of the body. In the spiritual world, these three things, four things, are conspicuous by absence. There is no necessity of eating there, no sleeping, no mating, no defense. That is spiritual life.

So in order to advance in spiritual life, we have to voluntarily decrease these demands of the body. That is called tapasya. In our country especially, many great saintly persons, sages, even kings, voluntarily they would give up these demands of the body, not that artificially increasing these demands of the body. That will not help us in spiritual life. So this strī-saṅga, or association with woman, that is a demand of the body. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā. Āmiṣa means nonvegetarian foods. Eating flesh, fish, eggs, these are called āmiṣa. And madya means wine, liquor.

Lecture on BG 9.3 -- Melbourne, April 21, 1976:

That is called kāṅkṣati. And another counterpart of this material life is whatever you have got, if it is lost, then you cry. One side is you are hankering after something which you do not possess, and if your possession is lost, then you cry for the loss. This is two business, kāṅkṣati, śocati. But if you become brahma-bhūtaḥ, self-realized, these two things will be absent immediately. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati.

Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Now there is racial animosity all over the world. You are American; you are Russian; you are Indian; you are Chinese; you are Pakistani. But their fighting is going on on this understanding. "We are Chinese," "We are Americans," "We are Russians..." So when you come to the platform of na śocati, not identifying with this body, then samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu—you see everyone on the same platform. You do not see "Here is a Chinese" or "American" or "Australian." You see: "A soul is entrapped in a material body."

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 23, 1976:

In this way God is situated. Antar bahiḥ. He is situated outside, He is situated inside also. Kṛṣṇa says... This is quite reasonable, otherwise how He is God? Just like I am here, you are here, but you are not in your apartment. You are absent from your apartment. But God, God means He is in his apartment and He is everywhere. That is God. The rascals, they claim that "I am God." What kind of God you are? Are you everywhere spread? So you should not accept such cheap God. God's description is there in the śāstra. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭim (Bs. 5.35). One part, one portion is Paramātmā, the Supersoul. In His Supersoul feature He is present in innumerable universes. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi. Jagad-aṇḍa means the universe. It is just like an egg. They are aṇḍa. Aṇḍa means egg. The form is like egg.

Lecture on BG 9.5 -- Melbourne, April 24, 1976:

And when His material energy is expanded. Both of them are God energies, but in one energy...

Just like I will give you again the same example, the government. The government, say, the university department, educational department, and the jail department. The jail department is also government department. It is not that government is absent from the jail department. Rather, government is spending more money for the jail department, more than the government spends on the university department. So both of them are government concern, but one department is full of criminals, and one department is full of learned scholars. This is the difference. Try to understand. You don't think that material world is out of the control of God. It is also under the control, exactly. The jail department is also under the control of the government. So that is the difference, material world and spiritual world. Material world means full of criminals, or against God, or defying the authority of God. And the spiritual world?

Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, September 25, 1973:

"I am not this flesh, blood, urine, or other things in this body, I am separate from..." One who knows that "I am separate from this body, I am spirit soul, I am the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord," as it is stated, mamaivāṁśo jīva bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7), then my knowledge is complete.

So education is given to the students, but this knowledge is absent from the educational institution. Nobody knows that "I am not this body." Therefore śāstra says, "Anyone who is identifying this body as his self," yasyātmā buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13), "and in relationship with the body, others also," sva-dhīḥ, "thinking 'They are our own men,' " sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, and bhauma, "the land of birth, is worshipable," ijya-dhīh... So this is going on. At the present moment, throughout the whole world, everyone is identifying himself with this body and the land in which the body is born is taken as worshipable, bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, and persons who are in relationship with this body, "They are our own men or kinsmen."

Lecture on BG 15.15 -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you've mentioned several times in recent lectures that a pure devotee can see Kṛṣṇa everywhere, that He's never out of your vision, and at the same time in Śikṣāṣṭaka prayers Lord Caitanya explains that "Govinda, I am feeling Your separation to be twelve years or more. I'm feeling the world vacant in His absence." Could you explain this?

Prabhupāda: Yes. He's playing how you can become mad without seeing Kṛṣṇa. That is higher stage. It cannot be explained, but when you gradually go higher and higher you'll understand.

Translator: The question is, we have all faith in your, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and if we want to follow your instructions, we want to follow your instructions word by word, but sometime we can find some difficulty. In a case of difficulty, what should we do?

Lecture on BG 16.6 -- Hawaii, February 2, 1975:

So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is little more than that. Consciousness is above mind. Mind is there. Mind is above the senses. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42). The senses, our body means the senses. The senses are prominent. Therefore body is active. But the senses cannot work if the mind is absent. Therefore we call, "attentively, concentrating your mind." So mind is above the senses. And the how the mind is acting—thinking, feeling and willing—that is called intelligence. Everything finer. You can see your senses, my senses, but everyone knows that you have got mind, I have got mind, but we cannot see the mind. Can you say anyone that "Here is mind"? No, because it is finer. Then everyone has got some intelligence, but can you see intelligence? Go on. It is still finer. Similarly, there is soul, which is still finer than the intelligence. So how you can see the soul? If you cannot see the mind, if you cannot see the intelligence, then how you can see the soul?

Lecture on BG 16.6 -- Hyderabad, December 13, 1976:

Similarly, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, śūdras. This is called secular state. Secular state does not mean everyone is irresponsible. You must be responsible for your particular type of duty, and the government has to see it, that everyone is doing that. That is secular state. Lord Rāmacandra, when He returned from the forest... In His absence Bharata was ruling, and when Bharata requested Lord Rāmacandra to take charge of the kingdom, Lord Rāmacandra was ready but He first of all examined whether the citizens were following the varṇāśrama-dharma. When He was satisfied that the citizens were following the varṇāśrama-dharma, then He took charge of the kingdom and began to maintain them just like father.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.2 -- London, August 15, 1971:

So that is suicidal. But a living entity being individual soul, he cannot remain in that impersonal state of life. Because the other two factors, namely acquire knowledge and acquire blissful life, is wanting there. It is simply negation of these material varieties. Or eternity only—sat. But there are two other parts, cit and ānanda. That is absent there.

So because it is not fully realized, therefore such living entities who take sāyujya-mukti, they again fall down in due course of time. Because he doesn't get in the sāyujya-mukti the other two parts, component parts of his life, blissfulness and knowledge, full knowledge. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). The impersonalist Māyāvādīs, they undergo severe austerities, penances, and rise up to the Brahman effulgence, becomes merged into it, but again falls down. Just like the spark: it enters the flame of the fire, but there is again chance of falling down.

Lecture on SB 1.1.3 -- London, August 20, 1971:

The sum total of all these rasas is called affection, or love. Primarily, such signs of love are manifested in adoration, service, friendship, paternal affection, and conjugal love. And when these five are absent, love is present indirectly in anger, wonder, comedy, chivalry, fear, shock and so on. For example, when a man is in love with a woman, the rasa is called conjugal love. But when such love affairs are disturbed, there may be wonder, anger, shock, or even horror. Sometimes love affairs between two persons culminate in ghastly murder scenes. Such rasas are displayed between man and man and between animal and animal. There is no possibility of an exchange or rasa between a man and an animal or between a man and any other species of living beings within the material world. The rasas are exchanged between members of the same species.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Mauritius, October 5, 1975:

Yes. "He descends," it does not mean that He is absent in His abode. That is God. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). You understand this? Ananta-rūpam. He can expand Himself in unlimited forms. Otherwise how it is possible-īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61)? God is situated in everyone's heart. "Everyone" means within your heart, within my heart, within cat's heart, within dog's heart—everyone's heart. So there are innumerable living entities. How He is situated everywhere? Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35): "He is within this universe and He is within the atom." That is God.

Lecture on SB 1.2.19 -- Los Angeles, August 22, 1972:

Because here the business is we hanker after something which we do not possess, and if we lose something which we possessed, then we lament. This is our business. Some... First of all, we possess. Then, by nature, we lose it. When it is lost, then we cry. So these two things are material position, na śocati... But when you come to the brahma-bhūta stage, spiritual platform, then these two things will be absent. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Then you will be able to see everyone on the spiritual platform. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Then you are learned. You are seeing the cats and dogs and a human being, a learned man, because you don't see the dress, outward covering, tabernacle, but you see, "Here is a spirit soul, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa." That is universal brotherhood. Not by passing resolution with the United Nations and fighting. That is not possible. You have to come to the stage of spiritual platform; then there is question of love, brotherhood, equality, fraternity, otherwise, all bogus propaganda. It's not possible.

Lecture on SB 1.2.21 -- Los Angeles, August 24, 1972:

You become very pleased: "Oh, I am so happy. I am living in heaven." Sometimes actually Indra, the king of heaven, he was cursed to become a hog, and he was, he became hog. He had so many kiddies, wife, and living in filthy place, eating stool. So Brahmā came that for his absence, the management in the heavenly kingdom is not going nice. So he came: "Indra, now please come with me." "Where shall I go to, sir?" "Heaven." "What is that? I cannot go. I have got responsibility. I have got my wife, my children, and I am happy here. I do not know what is heaven."

So this is the attachment. Even if you say... Just like what we are, we are doing? We are canvassing, "Please come with us, go, let us go." Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, rādhā-kṛṣṇa bolo, saṅge calo, ei-mātra bhikhā cāi. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that "Kindly chant 'Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa' and come with me.

Lecture on SB 1.3.30 -- Los Angeles, October 5, 1972:

The sun globe is important. It is localized. Similarly, as the sun is distributing heat and light, remaining itself in one place, similarly Kṛṣṇa is playing with gopīs in Goloka Vṛndāvana, and His shine is creating the whole universe. Not that Kṛṣṇa is playing there, He is enjoying, therefore He is absent. No. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). That is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is Goloka Vṛndāvana, but He is present everywhere. That is Kṛṣṇa. I am sitting here, you are sitting here. You are not in your apartment. That is my position. But Kṛṣṇa's position is that although He is always in Goloka Vṛndāvana, He is present everywhere.

How? Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). He is within every universe; not only within every universe, He is within every atom. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa. Don't think that Kṛṣṇa, because He is playing as a cowherd boy or He is playing as a friend of the gopīs, therefore He is ordinary man.

Lecture on SB 1.5.36 -- Vrndavana, August 17, 1974:

Kṛṣṇasya... Mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet. (break) This is the advantage of this age, Kali-yuga. We have got many disadvantages. (break) People are implicated in sinful activities, more and more trouble. And it will be exhibited, there will be no food grains, no milk, no sugar. These things will be completely absent. Now you are getting. In the later age it will be not possible to get them. And there will be scarcity of food, scarcity of rain. Anāvṛṣṭi durbhikṣa. And other side, taxation, heavy taxation. So we should be very alert in the matter of preparing ourself back to home, back to Godhead. Otherwise, if we take birth again and again, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19), then we have to suffer some.

Lecture on SB 1.7.44 -- Vrndavana, October 4, 1976:

So this is Vedic civilization. Draupadī advising Arjuna that "You have learned. Feel always obliged," ataḥ padarśayat. So this is Vedic... "This military art, by his grace, by guru's grace, now you are expert in the science of military art. And suppose his son has committed some sinful activity. You cannot punish him, retaliate, so that guru's family will be aggrieved." This is Vedic culture. Not only he is personally, but in his absence, his wife, his family, you should consider them. So there is nothing about... What is the purport? Read.

Lecture on SB 1.8.39 -- Los Angeles, May 1, 1973:

Similarly there are kokilānāṁ svaro rūpaṁ strīṇāṁ rūpaṁ pati-vratam. These are there. Similarly everything will look very beautiful when Kṛṣṇa is there, when Kṛṣṇa is there. So Kuntīdevī is thinking that "When Kṛṣṇa will be absent, our, this kingdom will not be beautiful. So long Kṛṣṇa is with us, we Pāṇḍavas, our kingdom, Hastināpura, everything beautiful." It is said, tvat-padair aṅkitā bhāti. "Kṛṣṇa, You are now in our kingdom. You are walking. So by the impression of Your footprints, everything is beautiful. There is sufficient supply of food, fruits, water. Everything looks beautiful. But when You leave us, then it will not look beautiful." That is being described. Neyaṁ śobhiṣyate. Śobhiṣyate. "It will not look beautiful."

Lecture on SB 1.8.39 -- Los Angeles, May 1, 1973:

Kṛṣṇa is just like brilliant sunshine, and the māyā, ignorance, is just like darkness. But when or while or where the sun is there, there cannot be any darkness. Similarly, you keep Kṛṣṇa in consciousness always, there cannot be any ignorance; there cannot be any darkness. You'll be walking very freely in bright sunshine of Kṛṣṇa. Don't try to make Kṛṣṇa absent. That is Kuntī's prayer. "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are going to Dvārakā..." This is an example. They are not going. Kṛṣṇa is not going from the Pāṇḍavas. Just like in Vṛndāvana. In Vṛndāvana, when Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana for Mathurā... So in the śāstra it is said: vṛndāvanaṁ parityajya padam ekaṁ na gacchati, Kṛṣṇa goes not go even one step from Vṛndāvana. He doesn't go. He's so much attached to Vṛndāvana. Then we see that Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana, went to Mathurā. So how is that, He went so far away? And did not return for many years? No. Kṛṣṇa actually did not leave Vṛndāvana.

Lecture on SB 1.8.39 -- Los Angeles, May 1, 1973:

Because since Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana, all the inhabitants of gopī, they were simply thinking of Kṛṣṇa and crying. That was their business. Mother Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja, Rādhārāṇī, all the gopīs, all the cows, all the calves, all the cowherd boys, their only business was to think of Kṛṣṇa and cry. Absence, separation.

So Kṛṣṇa can be felt, Kṛṣṇa can be present more acutely in separation. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching: to love Kṛṣṇa in separation. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu in separation: govinda-viraheṇa me. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. He was thinking that "Everything is vacant without Govinda, without Kṛṣṇa." So everything is vacant, but Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there. That is the highest perfectional... When we'll see everything is nothing, simply Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there, that is the highest. That is the gopīs.

Lecture on SB 1.8.39 -- Los Angeles, May 1, 1973:

Still He's walking." They are absorbed in this thought. And they are crying. So they are so anxious to see Kṛṣṇa back home in the evening that they are standing on the way, on the roof, "Now Kṛṣṇa is coming back with His..." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is... Kṛṣṇa cannot be absent from a devotee when he's too much absorbed in Kṛṣṇa thought. This is the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So here Kuntīdevī is very much anxious that Kṛṣṇa will be absent. But the effect will be, when Kṛṣṇa will be absent physically, He will be more, I mean to say, accurately present within the mind of the devotee. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching is that vipralambha-sevā. By His practical life. He's finding out Kṛṣṇa. Govinda-viraheṇa me. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me.

Lecture on SB 1.8.39 -- Los Angeles, May 1, 1973:

Therefore we have to apply as it was done by Mahārāja Ambarīṣa: sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane (SB 9.4.18). We can use our senses in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. First thing is that we have to fix up our mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Then... Mind is the center of all sensual activities. If your mind is absent, in spite of having your eyes, you cannot see; in spite of having your ears, you cannot hear. Therefore mind is considered the eleventh sense. There are ten senses—five working and five knowledge-acquiring—and the mind is the center. So indriyāṇi parāṇy āhuḥ. Everything is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42). Kṛṣṇa is explaining that we take the senses are very prominent. But beyond the senses there is another, superior thing. That is mind. Beyond this mind, there is intelligence.

Lecture on SB 1.8.42 -- Los Angeles, May 4, 1973:

Because everything is spiritual there. Nothing is material. That we should understand, spiritual and material. Material means they have no living symptoms, and spiritual means have all the living symptoms. So here, although a tree is also a living entity, and there also the tree is living entity, but here the living symptoms are absent. Or why the tree? Even a human being. A human being is also a living entity, and they're also devotees, they're also living entities. But here, the real symptoms of life—means Kṛṣṇa consciousness—is absent. And there, the real symptoms of living condition—Kṛṣṇa consciousness—is very, very much. There is no other consciousness except Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And that is spiritual.

So similarly, even in this material world, if you simply increase your Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then you are also in the spiritual world. Just like in this temple. In this temple we are living, we are living in the spiritual world. Because here there is no other business than Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no other engagement.

Lecture on SB 1.8.46 -- Mayapura, October 26, 1974:

Not that some way or other, you divide India: "Let me become Prime Minister, that's all." We have got political information that in India when it was..., the proposal was for partition, Gandhi was completely against this partition. He said, "Better I will have no independence; still, I shall not allow the country to be divided." He was stubborn on this point. But he was absent, and in the meantime our, the big Prime Minister signed it, agreed, partition because he wanted to be prime minister anyway, some way or other. "Let the country go to hell." This is politician, going on. Not...

Yudhiṣṭhira is not like that: "Let... Somehow or other, let me become King. Let so many people were killed. Never mind." No. He was so sorry, so sorry that he could not be solaced even by the instruction of Kṛṣṇa and saintly person like Vyāsadeva. He was so sorry. Of course, he accepted, but personally he was so very, very sorry, that "So many people have been killed for me." But what could be done? It was Kṛṣṇa's desire.

Lecture on SB 1.10.11-12 -- Mayapura, June 25, 1973:

Here, the boys, they cannot even imagine how much luxury they enjoyed. Here, they have no employment, our young men. Mostly unemployed. And in Europe, America, especially in America, there is no question of unemployment. Anyone can go and earn immediately ten dollars. Ten dollars means hundred rupees. He's prepared. One of my students, Trayādhīśa, he was, morning, he was absent. So I asked him, "Why you are absent?" "Now I required some money, so I went to get some money." "How you got money?" "Now I went to the shoe brushing shop. So I brushed some gentleman's shoes. I got some money, five dollars." So they know how to earn money. There's no scarcity of money. Even in a hotel, one goes, he washes the dishes—immediately gets ten dollars. So money and woman.

Lecture on SB 1.13.15 -- Geneva, June 4, 1974:

Therefore Yamarāja took his birth as Vidura and was born in the womb of a śūdra mother. This is the history of Vidura's birth.

So in his absence, Aryamā, one of the demigods, he officiated Yamarāja. Therefore it is said, abibhrad aryamā daṇḍam. The office must go on, the magistrate post cannot be vacant. Somebody must come and act. So Aryamā was acting. Yathāvad agha-kāriṣu. Agha-kāriṣu. Agha-kāri means... Agha means sinful activities, and kāriṣu. Kāriṣu means those who commit sinful acts. And yathāvat. Yathāvat means exactly to the point, how he should be punished. Yathāvad agha-kāriṣu. Yāvad dadhāra śūdratvam. So long Yamarāja continued as a śūdra, Aryamā was officiating in his place as Yamarāja. This is the purport.

Lecture on SB 1.13.15 -- Geneva, June 4, 1974:

"When Yamarāja thus incarnated himself as Vidura, his post was officiated by Aryamā, one of the many sons of Kaśyapa and Aditi, the Ādityas, or sons of Aditi, and there are twelve Ādityas. Aryamā is one of the twelve Ādityas, and therefore it was quite possible for him to take charge of the office of Yamarāja during his one hundred years' absence in the form of Vidura. The conclusion is that Vidura was never a śūdra, but was greater than the purest type of brāhmaṇa."

Lecture on SB 1.15.20 -- Los Angeles, November 30, 1973:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)

so 'haṁ nṛpendra rahitaḥ puruṣottamena

sakhyā priyeṇa suhṛdā hṛdayena śūnyaḥ

adhvany urukrama-parigraham aṅga rakṣan

gopair asadbhir abaleva vinirjito 'smi

(SB 1.15.20)

Translation: "O Emperor, now I am separated from my friend and dearmost well-wisher, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore my heart appears to be void of everything. In His absence I have been defeated by a number of infidel cowherd men while I was guarding the bodies of all the wives of Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: So after departure of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's all the wives, 16,108, they were being taken care of by Arjuna. But some cowherdsmen, they plundered all the queens, and Arjuna could not protect them.

So this is the instance, that we may be very powerful so long Kṛṣṇa keeps us powerful. We are not independently powerful, even in the case of Arjuna. We are very much proud of our janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrīḥ (SB 1.8.26). The material world, everyone is very much proud of his birth, riches, education and beauty. Beauty.

Lecture on SB 1.15.30 -- Los Angeles, December 8, 1973:

Pradyumna: Translation: "Because of the Lord's pastimes and activities and because of His absence, it appeared that Arjuna forgot the instructions left by the Personality of Godhead. But factually this was not the case, and again he became lord of his senses." (SB 1.15.30)

Prabhupāda: Hmm. So here it is explained what is Bhagavad-gītā. Gītaṁ bhagavatā. Bhagavatā means "by the Supreme Personality of Godhead," and gīta means "spoken." They say "sung," you can say. But gīta means "spoken by." Therefore it is called Bhagavad-gītā, "the instruction given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead personally." Therefore it is called Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture on SB 1.15.37 -- Los Angeles, December 15, 1973:

As far as possible, he controlled. That is king's business. The government's business is to control these things, and citizen must be happy in every way. Even Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's time, there was no excessive heat or cold; neither there was prominence of disease or pestilence, famine. These things were absent. Because Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja himself was very pious, and he conducted his government in such a way that people were also pious. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ lokas tad anuvartate (BG 3.21). If the leaders are perfect, then the citizens will be perfect. If the leaders are rascals... Just like in your country, now your president is caught up. Just see. Such an exalted post is occupied by a person who is subjected to so many criticisms. Why? "The Caesar's wife must be above suspicion." There is a... The king or the president, why he should be under suspicion? And if he is under suspicion, then immediately he should resign, "Oh, people are now suspecting." But this these rascals will not resign.

Lecture on SB 1.16.7 -- Los Angeles, January 4, 1974:

So the woman's anxiety was when her husband will come back. And at that time the child was within the womb, and she begged a benediction from Nārada, "Sir, kindly arrange in that way, that as long as my husband does not come back, I may not give birth to this child." Nārada Muni said, "All right, it will be." So Nārada Muni was giving her advice about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But her mind was absent, but the child within the womb, he was hearing. He was hearing. This is stated in the Bhāgavatam. You will find that when Prahlāda Mahārāja was asked this question by his friend, "My dear Prahlāda, we are also being taught by the same teacher. You are also being taught by the same teacher. You are a prince. You cannot go out. Wherefrom you have learned all this nice instruction?" So he replied that "This instruction was given by Nārada. So it was given to my mother, but as woman she has forgotten, and I remember."

Lecture on SB 1.16.23 -- Hawaii, January 19, 1974:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.)

yadvāmba te bhūri-bharāvatāra-

kṛtāvatārasya harer dharitri

antarhitasya smaratī visṛṣṭā

karmāṇi nirvāṇa-vilambitāni

(SB 1.16.23)

Translation: "O mother earth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Hari incarnated Himself as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa just to unload your heavy burden. All His activities here are transcendental, and they cement the path of liberation. You are now bereft of His presence. You are probably now thinking of those activities and feeling sorry in their absence."

Prabhupāda: So Dharmarāja is suggesting so many things why mother earth in the shape of a cow was morose. He was suggesting so many. So one of the suggestion is that "Kṛṣṇa was present. Now He's not present. Therefore you are so morose." So Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā,

yadā yadā hi dharmasya

glānir bhavati bhārata

abhyutthānam adharmasya

tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham

(BG 4.7)

Kṛṣṇa incarnates when there is discrepancies in the matter of discharging religious principles. Just like, when there is discrepancy in the discharge of law and order, the government takes special measure, what is called, that? A special law?

Lecture on SB 2.3.10 -- Los Angeles, May 28, 1972:

Still, he was going to the hillside to recoup his health. And when he was on the point of death, he was brought to New Delhi and died. So up to the point of death he was thinking that "I must remain a prime minister; otherwise the whole thing will be lost. In my absence, if I am not on the seat, then everything will be lost."

This is māyā. Gandhi was thinking like that. He agitated his political movement against the British rule. So Britishers went away. I requested him that "Now you have got sva-rājya, and you are so respectable in the world. You take this propaganda, to preach Bhagavad-gītā." No. He'll still stick to these politics. Unless he was killed. He was killed, you know. So this is the propensity, sarva-kāmaḥ. There is no end of their desire, no end. They are called sarva-kāmaḥ. So here it is recommended: akāmaḥ... Just the opposite. Akāmaḥ, niṣkiñcana. They have finished all these nonsense, material desires. Vaiṣṇava.

Lecture on SB 2.3.22 -- Los Angeles, June 19, 1972:

Hm. This is Deity worship. Not that sleeping up to 9:00 and Deity worship. This is farce. That is not allowed. That will be offense. All the members must rise early in the morning, just we are doing in the temple. At 4 a.m. take bath, cleanse, and offer ārātrika. That is the beginning of Deity worship. And all the members should be so trained up... Suppose one is absent for some business, the other members should take it. There will be so many assistants, but the Deity worship must go on very nicely. Then?

Lecture on SB 2.9.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:

That is Vaiṣṇava qualification. But when we are actually in possession of 100,000 dollars, you must be able to pay ten dollars. You cannot say, "No. I haven't got ten dollars." Then we are falsely advertising that you have got 100,000.

So the conclusion is the expert manager, the bank manager, so, if some man in the establishment, is absent, he can do the work immediately because he has learned all the things. Bank manager becomes from the lower clerk. When I was manager in Bose's laboratory there was a strike. So there was no packer. So I asked all the clerks to, "Come on. Let us pack." As soon as we begin packing, the strike was broken. So a man claiming to be in the high position, he must be expert in everything. He must be expert in everything. So therefore a Vaiṣṇava is called dakṣa, expert. Expert. So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement being the highest, topmost quality, so in case we require to do the work, some lower quality, we cannot say that "I do not know." We must do it.

Lecture on SB 2.9.4-8 -- Tokyo, April 23, 1972:

The best way of understanding is to accept such a divine instruction, and Brahmā, the prime spiritual master of everyone, is the living example of this process of receiving transcendental knowledge. The potency of transcendental sound is never minimized because the vibrator is apparently absent. Therefore Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or the Bhagavad-gītā or any revealed scripture in the world is never to be accepted as an ordinary mundane sound without transcendental potency.

One has to receive the transcendental sound from the right source and accept it as a reality and prosecute the direction without any hesitation, and the secret of success is to receive the sound from the right source of a bona fide spiritual master. Mundane manufactured sound has no potency, and as such, seemingly transcendental sound received from an unauthorized person also has no potency.

Lecture on SB 2.9.10 -- Tokyo, April 26, 1972:

So here we are defying Kṛṣṇa, defying God. We are declaring falsely, "I am God. You are God. Why you are searching God? These gods are loitering in the street. You just try to serve them. Why you are searching in the temple?" These things are kāla-vikramaḥ, influence of time; māyā, illusion; and so many things. These things are absent. So what is the purport? Just see. And surāsurārcitāḥ. There, there is no more distinction between sura and asura. Here, asuras, they are not devotees. They deny. So asura, how the asura goes there? Asura does not go there as asura, but he goes there as devotee. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. He is the son of an asura, Hiraṇyakaśipu. Therefore he is classified asura, son of asura. But this asura quality is not more existing there, although he is promoted. In other words, when one is transferred to the Vaikuṇṭha world there is no such distinction between sura and asura.

Lecture on SB 2.9.10 -- Tokyo, April 26, 1972:

Pradyumna: "In that sky the material qualities, especially the modes of ignorance and passion, are completely absent. The mode of ignorance influences a living entity to the habit of lust and hankering. And this means that in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas the living entities are free from these two things. As confirmed..."

Prabhupāda: Lust and anger. These two things completely... Then?

Pradyumna: "As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, in the brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20) stage of life one becomes free from hankering and lamentation. Therefore the conclusion is that the inhabitants of the Vaikuṇṭha planets are all brahma-bhūta living entities, as distinguished from the mundane creatures who are all compact in hankering and lamentation. When one is not in the modes of ignorance and passion, one is supposed to be situated in the mode of goodness in the material world. Goodness in the material world also at times becomes contaminated with touches of the mode of passion and ignorance. In the Vaikuṇṭhaloka it is unalloyed goodness only. The whole situation there is one of freedom from the illusory manifestation of the external energy. Although the illusory energy is also a part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, still, illusory energy is differentiated from the Lord. The illusory energy is not, however, false, as claimed by the monist philosophers. The rope accepted as a snake may be an illusion to a particular person, but the rope is a fact, and the snake is also a fact.

Lecture on SB 3.26.28 -- Bombay, January 5, 1975:

So Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Saṅkarṣaṇa, or other Viṣṇu form, or the living entities who are living there in those Vaikuṇṭha planets, they have no anxiety. There is no anxiety, neither there is influence of this māyā, neither there are the activities of the three modes of material nature. That is called spiritual world, Vaikuṇṭhaloka. They are free. Neither there is birth, death, old age, and disease. These things are absent. Everyone is full of transcendental bliss. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). By nature they are ānandamaya, always jolly. And here also, in this material world, when we become free from this material concept of life, bodily concept of life, when we are fully aware of the thing that "I am not this material body; I am spirit soul, ahaṁ brahmāsmi," he also becomes jolly because he acquires the spiritual quality.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Tittenhurst, London, September 12, 1969:

In several way there was hints from my spiritual master, but still, I was not willing. I was thinking, "If I go away, then my family, my sons, my daughters, they will suffer." But actually, I have left my family connection in 1950. Actually '54, but introductory in '50. For the last twenty years. But they are living; I am living. They are not dying in my absence, and I am not suffering without being in my family. On the other hand, by Kṛṣṇa's grace, I have got better family members. I have got nice children in a foreign country. They are taking so much care of me, I could not expect such care from my own children.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 12, 1975:

Absolute surrender means anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). I am surrendering to Kṛṣṇa to get this benefit—that is conditional surrender. I surrender to Kṛṣṇa without any motive—that is absolute.

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ

jñāna-karmādy anāvṛtam

ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-

śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

(Brs. 1.1.11)

No motive. That is required. If I think that I shall get some benefit—that is business. That is not bhakti. That is taught by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

āśliṣya vā pāda-ratāṁ pinaṣṭu māṁ

marma-hatāṁ karoty vā adarśanān

yathā tathā vā vidadhātu lampaṭo

mat-prāṇa-nāthas tu sa eva nāparaḥ

(CC Antya 20.47)

"You can treat me like anything. You can make me brokenhearted by Your absence. Still You are my Lord." That is unconditional surrender.

Lecture on SB 5.5.5 -- Vrndavana, October 27, 1976:

Who is making this arrangement, that one man is suffering from leprosy, another is not suffering, he's quite in good health? So unless there is some arrangement, how it is happening? They do not question. Jijñāsu. That inquisitiveness is absent, dull. Just like trees. They cannot inquire even that "Why you are cutting?" The tree. "Why you are doing harm to..." No inquiry. Just like stone and trees. This is the modern human civilization. Therefore whatever plans they are making, it is becoming baffled, useless after some time, parābhavaḥ. Because they do not know what plan they should make. Just like children, they are thinking that "If I play like this, it will be very nice." So becomes engaged in one type of playing. And then again changing, another type of playing, because they do not know what kind of plan should be made so that Children. Abodha-jātaḥ. Children's another name is abodha. So from abodha, one has to be brought to the platform of bodha. Bodhayantaṁ parasparam.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- Denver, June 28, 1975:

"This man is working very nice," that is accepted by the managing director. There is no difficulty. Therefore yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo: ** if you want to please Kṛṣṇa, you please Kṛṣṇa's representative... Śrī-guru-caraṇe rati, sei se uttama-gati. We are singing daily. So Kṛṣṇa is not absent. Kṛṣṇa is already within you, but He manifests Himself as guru, prakāśa. This is stated in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

So things are very easily performed if we follow the system of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And we should; we must. It if not that optional. If you make it optional, you will suffer. That is the Vedic injunction. Kṛṣṇa also says, mām eva ya prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti. You have to surrender to Kṛṣṇa or become... Otherwise you will suffer by this material energy. That you cannot avoid.

Lecture on SB 6.1.22 -- Indore, December 13, 1970:

Prabhupāda: Eh? No, you cannot directly take supply of the medicine without doctor's prescription. So, so many things are going on, bogus.

Yamunā: (indistinct) ...you'll find Americans...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Even in my absence many centers are developing. When I came back to India this time... There were thirty-five or thirty-two centers. Now it is forty-two.

Guest (5): (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are increasing. Here, India difficulty—we have to make them forget all nonsense he has learned. That is the difficulty. And here, there in America I got all nice blank slates, and whatever I say they accepted, and improvement is immediately there. And here the people are coming to test me, to talk with me nonsense and waste my time.

Lecture on SB 6.1.41 -- Los Angeles, June 7, 1976:

There is absolute world. That is spiritual world. But here there is duality, bad and good. You cannot understand bad without having some conception of good, and you cannot understand good without having some conception of bad. You require the opposite. So in the spiritual world, this duality conception is absent. Everything is absolute. We have to understand this theoretically at the present moment. But there, everything is cintāmaṇi. Everything is alive, spiritual.

So Nārāyaṇa's place is there, sa dhāmani. That is His own abode. This is also Nārāyaṇa's abode, this material world. Just like king. King's kingdom is very widespread, but still, he has got a palace. That is sa dhāmani. Everywhere his property, government property, but still there is a government house, particular. Similarly, everything belongs to God, īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1), everything. Everything, God's property.

Lecture on SB 6.3.27-28 -- Gorakhpur, February 20, 1971:

Kṛṣṇa does not play with any other one unless they are devotees. Sādhavo hṛdayaṁ mahyam. As a devotee is always absorbed in thought of Kṛṣṇa, similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always absorbed in thought of His devotees.

The gopīs... Kṛṣṇa became absent from Vṛndāvana, so their mind was always absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa was present in Vṛndāvana, that time also. When Kṛṣṇa used to go the forest, the gopīs were thinking of Kṛṣṇa always: "Oh, how Kṛṣṇa is walking on the rough field. There are so many stone chips. Kṛṣṇa's feet is so soft. How He is feeling?" And feeling this, they were crying. That was the gopīs. So therefore, as Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's thought, they are absolute, there is no difference... Therefore it is said Kṛṣṇa never goes a step forward from Vṛndāvana because gopīs have captured them. Kṛṣṇa cannot go out of Vṛndāvana on account of gopīs always thinking of Him.

Lecture on SB 7.6.17-18 -- New Vrindaban, July 1, 1976:

Don't try it otherwise. Just like the devatās. They have got facilities for all sense gratification. Sense gratification means udara-upastha-jihvā, jihvā, this tongue and the belly and the genitals. This is the prime sense gratificatory sources. Very palatable dishes, fill up the belly as much as possible, and then enjoy sex. This is material. In the spiritual world these things are absent. In the material world these things are very prominent.

Lecture on SB 7.9.30 -- Mayapur, March 8, 1976:

Then body... It is not that the body develops automatically, and at seven months there is life. No. Life... The consciousness may be there. That is another... Consciousness... Sometimes, if I am surcharged with anesthetics, if I am chloroformed, my consciousness is not there. That does not mean I am not there. Consciousness sometimes may be absent. One man fainted; there is no consciousness. That does not mean there is no life. There is life. The consciousness has not developed.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 4, 1973:

So Kṛṣṇa can be seen always, if we have got eyes to see. That eyes, how you can be transferred? Premāñjana-cchurita. When it is smeared with the ointment of love, then with these eyes you can see Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is always there. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He's represent everywhere. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). Kṛṣṇa is not absent. Kṛṣṇa is always there. We haven't got eyes to see Him. So we have to prepare the eyes. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). When you make your eyes nirmala, when you give up all these titular designations—"I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am black," "I am white..." These are all designations. When you give up, become brahma bhutaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54)—"I am nothing of this; I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa"—when you come to this consciousness, you will see Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is always there. (break) ...Kṛṣṇa. A devotee's seeing factual Kṛṣṇa, and nondevotee's seeing a brass doll.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.119 -- Gorakhpur, February 17, 1971:

Kṛṣṇa used to go with the calves and cows, with His friends in the forest, and every day Kaṁsa used to send one kind of demon to kill them—Aghāsura, Bakāsura, Dhenukāsura, so many.

So although Kṛṣṇa is playing just like a cowherd boy, His supremacy as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is never absent there. That is God. God is not created by meditation. God is God. God is never manufactured. We should know this. God is God, and we living entities, we are living entities. That is the Vedic version. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Equality, when there is question of equality, the equality is that Kṛṣṇa, or God, is nitya, eternal; similarly, we are also eternal. So equality in eternity. Kṛṣṇa is conscious, cetana, and we are also conscious. That is equality: equality in quality. Because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, therefore there is so many things equality.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.110 -- New York, July 17, 1976:

Although He is in the Goloka Vṛndāvana, He is playing with His cowherd boyfriends and the gopīs and His father and mother, but still He's expanded all over the creation. That is Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. Just like we live in some apartment. Now we are here, we are absent from that apartment. God is not like that. God is in His apartment, at the same time universally present. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna... (BG 18.61). He's everywhere present. That is God. He's not limited; unlimited. That is God. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā, mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam, paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto (BG 9.11). The rascals, they do not know what kind of... Kṛṣṇa, He appears like a human being with two hands and two legs. They do not understand what are the quality of these two hands, two legs. They think that He has got two hands, two legs like us; therefore they are called mūḍha. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.142 -- New York, November 30, 1966:

So here also we should not be aspiring after improving our material condition or liberation or anything. These are all desire, desires. They say that "desireless," but desire cannot be completely absent because I am living entity. So my desire should be not to forget Kṛṣṇa. That's all, that one desire. That is real desire. And all other desires, they are foolish. So we cannot be desireless, but we should desire only bona fide. Just like I am part and parcel of the Supreme. So if I desire to work in cooperation with the Supreme, that is my natural position. That is desirelessness. If you... Suppose in this material condition, if you desire to eat, oh, that is natural. So long you have got this body, you have to eat. If somebody says, "Oh, you are desiring eating...?" Nobody says like that. Similarly, what is natural desire, that is permitted. And what is not natural, that is called "become desireless."

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.255-281 -- New York, December 17, 1966:

So these things, of course theoretically we have to understand. But these are authentic explanation from scriptures, Vedic literatures. At least we have to accept them theoretically. The spiritual world means that there is no ignorance, there is no passion and there is no influence of time. Na yatra māyā kim utāpare: "And this māyā, this illusion, is also absent." Kim utāpare harer anuvratā yatra surāsurārcitāḥ: "And there, in the spiritual planets, all the living entities, they are all surrendered souls, or followers of the Supreme Lord." There is no misconception that "I am Lord; I am God." There is no such misconception. They are all clear of this nonsense ignorance. Anuvratā: they are always following. Therefore there is unity, oneness. There is oneness. God is one, and the living entities there, they are all followers, obedient of God. There is no influence of time, no influence of ignorance, no influence of passion. So that is perfect. That is spiritual kingdom, the description of spiritual world.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.334-341 -- New York, December 24, 1966:

There was, during the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, even there was no severe cold and severe heat. Sometimes at this present age we are disturbed in so many ways. There are diseases, anxieties, and nature's disturbance. But all these things were completely absent during the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. That is described. And so far production is concerned, ample production, everything. So Lord Kṛṣṇa's mission was to establish the pious king to rule over the world. So that was His mission in that incarnation.

Now, in this age the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, Lord Caitanya, His color is, the complexion of the body is described as yellow. And what does He do? Prema-bhakti dilā loke lañā bhakta-gaṇa. His mission is to give directly the love of God. That's all. His method is so nice that one who follows His method, he very quickly, instantly, he develops love of God.

Festival Lectures

Sri Rama-Navami, Lord Ramacandra's Appearance Day -- Hawaii, March 27, 1969:

That we get from history of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is stated. So the kings were so much responsible. They were always thinking of the happiness of the citizens, and the citizens were also so nice. One citizen approached Lord Rāmacandra and His next assistant, His brother, Lakṣmaṇa, informed Him that "He is a brāhmaṇa. You were absent on Your tour for, I think for a fortnight or a month, and this brāhmaṇa has not eaten even a drop of water during Your absence." Why? "Because he comes here to see You, darśana." Just like we come here in the temple to see the Deity. So Lord Rāmacandra was present personally. So he used to come. After seeing Rāmacandra, offering his obeisances, then he would go home and take something, his breakfast. That was his vow. And because he could not see for a fortnight or a month Lord Rāmacandra because He was out on political tour, he did not eat even. Just see. The citizens were similar to the king.

Sri Rama-Navami, Lord Ramacandra's Appearance Day -- Hawaii, March 27, 1969:

So that statue was being worshiped by the family one after another. But when Rāmacandra was actually present He kept that statue in the closet of the room, and when this brāhmaṇa approached and Rāmacandra was informed by Lakṣmaṇa that he is so steady and strong in his vow, so Rāmacandra ordered that he may be delivered that statue so that in My absence he can offer respect to the statue and do with this. That form, I mean to say, statue, or arca of Rāmacandra is still existing in South India. It is being worshiped from that time.

Sri Rama-Navami, Lord Ramacandra's Appearance Day -- Hawaii, March 27, 1969:

So Lord Rāmacandra, He killed Rāvaṇa and He installed his brother. His brother was devotee, Vibhīṣaṇa. So He did not go to conquer Ceylon, because He was emperor. He went to punish that culprit Rāvaṇa, and He installed his younger brother Vibhīṣaṇa in that... And He came back with Sītā, and again He was installed after fourteen years, and His brother was so faithful that so long His eldest brother was away, Rāmacandra requested Him that "Your mother wants that You should be king, and I also wish that in My absence You should be king." Bharata, He was so faithful brother, He replied, "No. You are king. So long You are living, nobody can be king. So I cannot be king." Then He requested, "At least You administer." Because after the departure of Lord Rāmacandra, Mahārāja Daśaratha died out of the shock because Rāmacandra was very pet son, eldest son. He was going to be king, and by his order He was sent to the forest. The father could not tolerate the shock. He died.

Sri Rama-Navami, Lord Ramacandra's Appearance Day, Cornerstone Laying -- Bombay, April 1, 1974:

So in South India also, there are many big, big temples. It is not possible to construct such temples at the present moment. It is very expensive. But in our country, all the kings and rich men, they were interested in constructing temple. At the present moment, the tendency is practically absent. In big, big cities, development, improvement is going on, but very few people are constructing temple. This tendency of godlessness is increasing all over the world. In European countries also, America, first when I visited one county... It is known as Butler. So Butler County, it is a very small county. Still immediately I saw there are about half a dozen churches, very big, big churches. They were very old churches. In America also and England, there are many churches. But people have lost interest. They are no more going to the churches. And the churches are now for sale. We have purchased one or two of them.

Jagannatha Deities Installation Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.13-14 -- San Francisco, March 23, 1967:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have also heard, but I do not know whether it is true. Maybe, because India is the place of learning. From China, from other places, from Greece, the history says, they used to go to India. So quite possible. And I have heard from reliable sources that Christ was absent from his home for twelve years, and he went to India for studying. Maybe. Yes. Yes?

Guest (3): You mentioned about how you should fulfill the supreme law, and you should be what your..., what the spirit tells you or what this Supreme Being, whatever, this tells you? I mean, like, if you, like, if you meditate a lot and you really, well, you feel something, that you should do something...

Prabhupāda: It is not something. It must be actual fact. There is no question of "something." "Something" is vague. You must speak what is that something.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Lecture -- Gainesville, July 29, 1971:

Otherwise, every living entity from..., beginning from Brahma down to an insect, a small ant, they are all living entities, and they are all parts and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, or God. We are all part and parcel of God. Therefore, just like you are part and parcel of your parent, so there is some intimate relationship with your parents. It cannot be broken, even if you are absent from home for many years. Still, when you go home, meet your parents, the old relationship—affectionate father, mother and son—immediately you'll revive. It does not take much time—because the son was long, long away from father, and he has come back, he takes another hundred years to establish the relation. No. As soon as the father and the son is together, the natural relationship immediately revives. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the original father, God is the original father. We are all His sons. Somehow or other we have left home. We have tried to enjoy material sense gratification. Kṛṣṇa has given us full facility. But we are not happy.

Arrival Address -- Los Angeles, February 9, 1975:

We purchased it. When I first came here to see this church, there was nobody. The place is the same. The people is the same. I have not brought men from India. Why it is crowded now? This is the proof that in everyone's heart Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there. Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti sādhya kabhu naya. It is not artificial way of taking something sentimentally. Otherwise how in my absence all these boys and girls are maintaining the status quo very nicely? I am very glad. That is required. This is the proof that in everyone's heart there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Arrival Lecture -- Calcutta, March 20, 1975:

So by Caitanya Mahāprabhu's grace, with the cooperation of the Western youths, this movement is going on. I have traveled all over the countries, as I reported, and everywhere I saw, I was very much pleased that saṅkīrtana is going on. And it is improving. It is not declining. That is my greatest encouragement, that even in my absence, things are going on very nicely, improving. That is very hopeful. Not only that—from the Gurukula we are training small children. There are about more than hundred children in Dallas. They are rising early in the morning, attending maṅgala āratik, boys and girls not more than ten years, not more than five, six years. So that is very hopeful. In future they will become nice Vaiṣṇava. And many children are taking birth. They are very nice devotees. In last, in our Śrīpāda Atreya-rsi's small child, about six months old, as soon as I shout out, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," immediately he'll... He'll laugh. Very nice. There are many such children. So all these children, they are Vaiṣṇavas. Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭaḥ sanjāyate (BG 6.41).

Initiation Lectures

Initiations and Lecture Sannyasa Initiation of Sudama dasa -- Tokyo, April 30, 1972:

That means the senses, the chief sense is the mind. If you can engage your mind to Kṛṣṇa, in the service of Kṛṣṇa-sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18)—then your senses are automatically controlled—because mind is the chief sense. Under the mind, all other senses, namely the eyes, the ears, the nose, the hands, the legs, they work. If one is absent-minded, he cannot work nicely because mind is absent or not in order. Therefore our method of controlling the senses is to engage the senses in the service of the Lord.

The first engagement should be that mind should be always absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa. Always engaged. These boys, they are always engaged. Just like in offering arcana to the Deities from early morning up to ten o'clock at night, and then they go to rest. Again rise early in the morning. So somebody is engaged n cleansing the temple, somebody is engaged in dressing the Deity, somebody is engaged in cooking for the Deity, somebody is engaged going in Tokyo city for distributing literature, somebody is performing kīrtana here, somebody is reading our various books. In this way we have got twenty-five hours engagement instead of twenty-four hours. So mind cannot go outside Kṛṣṇa.

General Lectures

Lecture on Maha-mantra -- New York, September 8, 1966:

If the man has attained that powerful brain out of his own accord, then great powerful brain like Professor Einstein, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, they could create another brain like them so that in their absence there would not have been scarcity of scientist and powerful brain. But they could not do that. Therefore they are not creator of the powerful brain. The powerful brain is gift of the supreme powerful brain.

So in every respect, if we think... This is called philosophy. If we have got thoughtful propensities, if we can little think over every matter, you will find that God is present everywhere, and still, He is personally present in His own place. The same example: the sun is present everywhere by heat and light; still, sun, the sun, has its own location. That you cannot deny. Similarly, God is present everywhere.

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

So you have to prove. But there is a process for understanding God, that "I am God." That is a process. But not that one is God. "I am God" means in that way: "Qualitatively, I am God." So we have to find out, meditation, "What is that quality?" That quality is the spirit soul, on account of whose presence the whole body is working. As soon as the spirit soul is absent from this body, this body has no more any value. That you have to understand. And what is that spirit soul? That you have to find out, where it is. Where is the spirit soul... Now, if you medically analyze where is the spirit soul, you cannot find out. But there, in the yoga process, there are different rules and regulations, sitting posture and then breathing exercise, controlling the air passing through this body. In that way, gradually you come to know what is that... Not only you come to know, but the perfection of yoga system is that you can practice to take the soul from six different position, from the navel position to the heart, then to the, it is called, what is called?

Lecture -- Bombay, March 19, 1972:

Hm. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So māyā, or illusion... There are two platforms: māyā and Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is just like sun. It is said that Kṛṣṇa is just like the sun and māyā is just like the darkness. So whenever there is sun, there is no more darkness. Just like at the present moment it is dark night because the sun is absent from our vision. This is called māyā. Sun is always there in the sky, but when the sun is not visible, this is called darkness. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is present always within our heart, everywhere. It is said in the Brahma-saṁhitā, aṇḍāntara-sthaṁ paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam adi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. Aṇḍāntara-sthaṁ. Kṛṣṇa is within the universe, Kṛṣṇa is within your heart, Kṛṣṇa is within the atom. Aṇḍāntara-sthaṁ paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam adi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. You can take it from the śāstras, from the Vedas, that Kṛṣṇa is always present everywhere; therefore He's God, the original Viṣṇu, all-pervasive.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That also he says. Therefore religion means love of God. The means may be different in different processes of religion, but ultimately if one develops love of Godhead, that is the prima facie factor, love of God. So if any religious principle love of God is absent, that is simply show, it is not factual religion.

Śyāmasundara: He says that even the idea of God is merely probable but not certain.

Prabhupāda: That he cannot say. As soon as he speaks of authority, there must be a supreme authority. That is God.

Śyāmasundara: For him, the authority is the senses. His authority is the senses.

Prabhupāda: Then why does he say public opinion? Your senses may not be approved by the public opinion. Then where do your senses stand?

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is nice. Soul cannot be experienced by senses, but we can understand when there is a dead man, we can perceive that there was soul, which is now absent; therefore the body is dead. This is called perception.

Śyāmasundara: The dictionary defines intuition as "immediate apprehension by the mind without any reasoning."

Prabhupāda: That is experience. That is experience. Intuition means mature experience. Just like when as soon as there is mosquito, my hand immediately sees. You can say it is intuition, but it is experience, that when there is mosquito my hand must go there and try to kill him. But the experience is so mature that without consideration the hand goes.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Śyāmasundara: Yesterday we were discussing that Schopenhauer's idea that the world is basically an evil place. So he says that there are three means of salvation from this basically evil world. The first means he calls aesthetic salvation, or contemplation of higher ideas which transport us above passion, just like poetry, music, art. By contemplating these higher ideas, you become absent of desire. Desire drops away, and you become transported to a higher plane of not willing, above our will.

Prabhupāda: That is mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā. It is not a new thing. It is called paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59), and actually it is happening. Just like my students, so their former life and this life. They have given up their former abominable life because they have got better life, better thoughts, better philosophy, better eating, everything better. So mind can accommodate something. If you always fill up the mind with Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so there is no chance of the mind being filled up with any other nonsense. That is our philosophy.

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Prabhupāda: But he does not believe in spirit soul, is that not? Hayagrīva: He says, "Life is not determined by consciousness but consciousness by life."

Prabhupāda: So what is that life? When the life is absent why this body, the used body, is dead stone only? Has he got any understanding of that, what is that life?

Hayagrīva: He felt that consciousness is basically social. He says, "Consciousness is from the very beginning a social product and remains so as long as man exists at all."

Prabhupāda: Why? Why he finishes? Why does he not exist? What is his answer to this?

Hayagrīva: What's that?

Prabhupāda: So long man exists, but why he ceases to exist? Why he stops his existence, he becomes dead matter, his body?

Philosophy Discussion on Socrates:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). This is the symptom of self-realized person. If one is self-realized, he is immediately happy, prasannātmā, jolly, because immediately he is on the right. Just like one is going on under some mistaken ideas, and when he comes to the real idea, he becomes very happy: "Oh, so long I was going on such a mistaken idea." So immediately the result will be happiness: "How foolish I was. I was doing like this, doing like that." So right..., as soon as one comes to the right position, he, the symptom is he is prasannātmā. What is that prasannātmā? Na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). Prasannātmā, happiness, means he has no more anything to hanker. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varam: "I don't want any material benediction." Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "My Lord, don't tell You want me for any material benefit. I have seen so much afflict. My father was so big materialistic that even the demigods, they were afraid of him. You have finished it within a second. So I am not after these things." So this is real knowledge, that na śocati na kāṅkṣati, he has no more hankering. The karmīs, jñānīs, yogis, they have got hankering. The karmīs, they are hankering after how to get material wealth, how to get material position, how to get nice woman, how to get nice position. That is karmī. Their business—simply hankering, hankering. bankruptcy (?). And if they have lost, they cry, "Oh, I have lost it, I have lost it, I have lost." Two business. So when one becomes self-realized, these two things are conspicuous by absence: no more hankering, no more lamenting.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, although the soul is situated within the heart, his illumination is spread all over the body. So that is consciousness. So as soon as the soul is out from the heart, which is known as heart failure, when he leaves the heart, then what is the use of this heart? It becomes a lump of matter. Immediately consciousness is absent from the whole body. So it is upon the leaving of the soul this body there is no more consciousness. This is reasoning. Why a second before there was consciousness and after there is no consciousness? If you chopped up the body there will be no protest, there will be no feeling of pain, that "What is that?" This is reasoning, that something is missing. That soul has gone out; therefore the consciousness in the body is absent. That soul is immortal; the consciousness is also immortal. Now the consciousness, by the influence of illusory energy, is engaged in so many material things—consciousness of society, consciousness of nationality, consciousness of this, that, so many.

Philosophy Discussion on John Locke:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like when the, a dog, cat, is born it has no eyes, and it searches out the nipples of the mother. So although his eyes are all closed—you have seen the dogs—but because in his previous life as dog he had the experience where to find out the food, so even though it cannot see, it traces out where is the food. That is past experience and that is the proof of the continuation of the soul eternally. Just like I am living in this room and, say, for ten years I am absent from this room, but after ten years when I come here, immediately I remember where is the toilet, where is my sitting place, everything. So that remembrance comes from the last visit. So a living entity is passing through different species of form. That is his material life. So in some previous life, millions of years, when he was a dog, he knew where to find out his food, so immediately in the dog's body again, he remembers. (break)

Purports to Songs

Purport to Bhajahu Re Mana -- New York, March 30, 1966:

He says that "I am working hard, day and night. And there is no question of winter or summer or rainy season. I have to work hard, day and night. If there is night duty in the winter season, I have to join my office at twelve o'clock at night. So I must go. There is snowfall. If I don't go, then I'll be absent. So I am working so hard, very hard." Śīta ātapa bāta bariṣaṇa, jāminī jāgi re. "And what for I am working?" Now, biphale sevinu kṛpaṇa durajana: "Just to serve persons who cannot protect me, who cannot protect me." We think that my wife, or my husband, or my children, or my relatives, or my friends, and, oh, so many we have got, relationship with this material world And everyone is working to satisfy his relatives. A family man is working so hard because he has to satisfy his wife, children, friends and so many other persons. But one should be conscious that "These friends and relatives, they cannot protect me ultimately. They are Neither I can protect them, nor they can protect me."

Purport to Nrsimha Prayers -- Los Angeles, August 2, 1970:

He has got two business. To give protection to the devotee and to kill the demons. But the result is one. He does good to the demons by killing him and He does good to the devotees by giving him protection.

Nṛsiṁha-deva will give you protection in my absence. I am now going to Japan to get some books printed personally and after that my program is to go to India. Maybe I shall be able to establish some temples there. Of course in India there are many temples, but it does not mean that I shall not also establish some temples. Just like there is overpopulation. It does not mean that one should not beget child. Similarly, there may be many hundreds of thousand temples in India, still our this society, ISKCON, should have their own temples. That is the way since time immemorial. There are hundreds and thousands of temples. So my advice to you, I am old man. So even I may not return, you shall continue this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Purport to Parama Koruna -- Atlanta, February 28, 1975:

Brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ: "Brāhmaṇa means one who knows the Absolute Truth." That is brahma-jñāna. The human life is meant for that purpose, athāto brahma jijñāsā. Everyone should be interested to enquire about Brahman, the Absolute Truth. At least, a class of man must be there in the society. That is the brain, brain of the society, brāhmaṇa. Just like you have got the brain in your body. If the brain is absent, if the brain is gone mad, then your whole body is useless. That is the position at the present moment. There is no brain in the society. All śūdras, no brāhmaṇas. Because nobody is interested with the Absolute Truth.

Everyone is interested how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex and how to defend. That is going on, nationwide, worldwide. Therefore our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is interested to make a section of the people brāhmaṇa, brain. They can guide. It is not that everyone requires; neither it is possible.