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Abstain

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 3.4, Translation:

Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection."

BG 4.26, Purport:

The members of the four divisions of human life, namely the brahmacārī, the gṛhastha, the vānaprastha and the sannyāsī, are all meant to become perfect yogīs or transcendentalists. Since human life is not meant for our enjoying sense gratification like the animals, the four orders of human life are so arranged that one may become perfect in spiritual life. The brahmacārīs, or students under the care of a bona fide spiritual master, control the mind by abstaining from sense gratification.

BG 6.13-14, Purport:

The localized viṣṇu-mūrti is the plenary representation of Kṛṣṇa dwelling within one's heart. One who has no program to realize this viṣṇu-mūrti is uselessly engaged in mock yoga practice and is certainly wasting his time. Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate goal of life, and the viṣṇu-mūrti situated in one's heart is the object of yoga practice. To realize this viṣṇu-mūrti within the heart, one has to observe complete abstinence from sex life; therefore one has to leave home and live alone in a secluded place, remaining seated as mentioned above. One cannot enjoy sex life daily at home or elsewhere and attend a so-called yoga class and thus become a yogī. One has to practice controlling the mind and avoiding all kinds of sense gratification, of which sex life is the chief. In the rules of celibacy written by the great sage Yājñavalkya it is said:

karmaṇā manasā vācā
sarvāvasthāsu sarvadā
sarvatra maithuna-tyāgo
brahmacaryaṁ pracakṣate

"The vow of brahmacarya is meant to help one completely abstain from sex indulgence in work, words and mind-at all times, under all circumstances, and in all places."

BG 6.13-14, Purport:

One who, however, follows the rules and regulations of married life, having a sexual relationship only with his wife (and that also under regulation), is also called a brahmacārī. Such a restrained householder brahmacārī may be accepted in the bhakti school, but the jñāna and dhyāna schools do not even admit householder brahmacārīs. They require complete abstinence without compromise.

BG 6.16, Purport:

Anyone who eats for sense pleasure, or cooks for himself, not offering his food to Kṛṣṇa, eats only sin. One who eats sin and eats more than is allotted to him cannot execute perfect yoga. It is best that one eat only the remnants of foodstuff offered to Kṛṣṇa. A person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness does not eat anything which is not first offered to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, only the Kṛṣṇa conscious person can attain perfection in yoga practice. Nor can one who artificially abstains from eating, manufacturing his own personal process of fasting, practice yoga. The Kṛṣṇa conscious person observes fasting as it is recommended in the scriptures.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.3.13, Purport:

No animal, bird or beast is bereft of this sense pleasure. In every species of life, including the human form of life, such happiness is immensely obtainable. The human form of life, however, is not meant for such cheap happiness. The human life is meant for attaining eternal and unlimited happiness by spiritual realization. This spiritual realization is obtained by tapasya, or undergoing voluntarily the path of penance and abstinence from material pleasure. Those who have been trained for abstinence in material pleasures are called dhīra, or men undisturbed by the senses. Only these dhīras can accept the orders of sannyāsa, and they can gradually rise to the status of the paramahaṁsa, which is adored by all members of society.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.12.42, Translation:

Then the thread ceremony for the twice-born was inaugurated, as were the rules to be followed for at least one year after acceptance of the Vedas, rules for observing complete abstinence from sex life, vocations in terms of Vedic injunctions, various professional duties in household life, and the method of maintaining a livelihood without anyone's cooperation by picking up rejected grains.

SB 3.12.42, Purport:

During student life the brahmacārīs were given full instructions about the importance of the human form of life. Thus the basic education was designed to encourage the student in becoming free from family encumbrances. Only students unable to accept such a vow in life were allowed to go home and marry a suitable wife. Otherwise, the student would remain a permanent brahmacārī, observing complete abstinence from sex life for his whole life. It all depended on the quality of the student's training.

SB 3.28.4, Translation:

One should practice nonviolence and truthfulness, should avoid thieving and be satisfied with possessing as much as he needs for his maintenance. He should abstain from sex life, perform austerity, be clean, study the Vedas and worship the supreme form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB 3.29.18, Purport:

In order to advance in spiritual understanding, one has to hear from authentic sources about spiritual knowledge. One can understand the reality of spiritual life by following strict regulative principles and by controlling the senses. To have control it is necessary that one be nonviolent and truthful, refrain from stealing, abstain from sex life and possess only that which is absolutely necessary for keeping the body and soul together.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.9.8, Purport:

In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says that to those who are constantly engaged in devotional service with love and affection, the Supreme Personality of Godhead gives intelligence from within, and thus they may make further progress. Being so encouraged, the devotee can never forget, at any moment, the Personality of Godhead. He always feels obliged to Him for having achieved increased power in devotional service by His grace. Saintly persons like Sanaka, Sanātana and Lord Brahmā were able to see the entire universe, by the mercy of the Lord, through knowledge of the Lord. The example is given that a person may apparently abstain from sleep all day, but as long as he is not spiritually enlightened he is actually sleeping.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.12 Summary:

A brahmacārī should very strictly abstain from living with women and should not meet with gṛhasthas and those too addicted to women. Nor should a brahmacārī speak in a lonely place with a woman.

SB 7.12.11, Purport:

The gṛhastha is allowed to indulge in sex life during the period favorable for procreation and in accordance with the spiritual master's order. If the spiritual master's orders allow a gṛhastha to engage in sex life at a particular time, then the gṛhastha may do so; otherwise, if the spiritual master orders against it, the gṛhastha should abstain. The gṛhastha must obtain permission from the spiritual master to observe the ritualistic ceremony of garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Then he may approach his wife to beget children, otherwise not.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 11.8.20, Translation:

By fasting, learned men quickly bring all of the senses except the tongue under control, because by abstaining from eating such men are afflicted with an increased desire to gratify the sense of taste.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 4.30, Purport:

The reason the Lord displays the rāsa-līlā is essentially to induce all the fallen souls to give up their diseased morality and religiosity, and to attract them to the kingdom of God to enjoy the reality. A person who actually understands what the rāsa-līlā is will certainly hate to indulge in mundane sex life. For the realized soul, hearing the Lord's rāsa-līlā through the proper channel will result in complete abstinence from material sexual pleasure.

CC Adi 17.266, Purport:

Any person from any part of the world may be made a brāhmaṇa by the regular process of initiation, and when he follows brahminical behavior, observing the principle of abstaining from intoxication, illicit sex, meat-eating and gambling, he may be offered sannyāsa.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 8.204-205, Purport:

One should not be misled by mental concoctions, supposing his material body to be perfect and deeming oneself a sakhī. This is something like ahaṅgrahopāsanā, that is, a Māyāvādī’s worship of his own body as the Supreme. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has cautioned mundaners to abstain from such conceptions. He also warns that thinking oneself one of the associates of the Supreme without following in the footsteps of the gopīs is as offensive as thinking oneself the Supreme.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

If the Supreme is omnipotent, He should be simultaneously personal and impersonal. One who rejects either of these aspects of the Lord tries to limit the absoluteness of the Supreme. Such logic is described as "the logic of half a hen," by which a fool wishes to profit from the egg-laying half of the hen without having to feed the front half. Those who have been blessed by the spiritual master and the Supreme Lord can easily see through this foolish concept and abstain from futile, time-wasting debates.

Narada-bhakti-sutra (sutras 1 to 8 only)

Narada Bhakti Sutra 2, Purport:

There are many bad habits we acquire in the association of material contamination, chief of which are illicit sexual relationships, eating animal food, indulging in intoxication, and gambling. The first thing the expert spiritual master does when he engages his disciple in regulated devotional service is to instruct him to abstain from these four principles of sinful life.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.40 -- London, July 28, 1973:

So there must be good population. So to have good population, the women should be very chaste. That is the basic principle of Vedic civilization. And to keep the women chaste, it was the function of the responsible father, or, in the absence of father, the elder brother... So he must get the woman, the girl, married. It is compulsory. There was no compulsory for man to marry. Because a man may remain brahmacārī. By training, he can abstain from sex. But if woman is not protected very strictly, it is very difficult. It is very difficult. We are discussing śāstra. Don't think otherwise.

Lecture on BG 2.58-59 -- New York, April 27, 1966:

Just like a person is diseased. He is advised by the doctor that "You shall not take such and such things." So he is starving or he is fasting. Suppose in the typhoid fever the doctor has advised him not to take any solid food. So under the instruction of the doctor, he is not taking any solid food. But suppose his brother is eating some bread. Oh, he likes that "If I could eat." But that means within himself... He is, by force, by the instruction of the physician, he is forced not to eat. But within himself he has got the tendency for eating. But out of fear that "If I eat, there will be very bad reaction of taking solid food," therefore, by force, he is not eating. Similarly, there are so many things which you are refrain from doing by force. No. That sort of abstinence will not make you progressive in spiritual life, by force. No.

Lecture on BG 3.1-5 -- Los Angeles, December 20, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Kṛṣṇa consciousness is itself a purifying process and by the direct method of devotional service it is simultaneously easy and sublime."

Four: "Not merely by abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection (BG 3.4)."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Simply by... It is explained.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:

Nobody will die if he does not get facility for illicit sex or enjoying intoxicants and meat-eating. Nobody will die. All the members of Kṛṣṇa conscious society, they have given up. But for that reason we are not dying. It is not difficult. Simply we have to accept in the beginning there may be little inconvenience, but when you come to the platform, there is no inconvenience. So if we actually want to be cured from this diseased condition of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease, we have to abstain from this sinful life. So it is not difficult. It requires little knowledge.

Lecture on BG 5.22-29 -- New York, August 31, 1966:

Similarly, sense perception, sense pleasure, is reserved for us in our spiritual life. That is actual sense pleasure. Here we are having sense pleasure artificially through this body. Before leaving this body, if we practice to stop sense pleasure as much as possible... There is training, of course. Without training, nothing can be done.So according to Vedic civilization, this training was given, student life, complete abstinence from sex life, then vānaprastha life, complete abstinence, and sannyāsa life, complete abstinence. The whole training was to abstain, to cure.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.21 -- Vrndavana, November 1, 1972:

Therefore, according to Vedic civilization, the first teaching to a student is to give him lesson how to become brahmacārī. How not to become attached in sex life, that is called brahmacārī. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). Tapasā, to become brahmacārī, to become..., abstaining from sex life, it requires tapasya. It is not so easy thing. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa damena śamena (SB 6.1.13). One has to practice how to control the mind, how to control the senses. This is brahmacarya. Tapasya.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- London (Tittenhurst), September 13, 1969:

But my desire is to have unlimited happiness, unlimited life, unlimited knowledge. If you want that, so try this life, this human form of life. Don't waste it simply after sense gratification, but practice austerity. Minimize your sense gratification. Be satisfied whatever is offered by nature or by God. We don't... Not complete abstinence, but regulate it, and the balance time utilized for self-realization.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.137 -- New York, November 28, 1966:

Yoga means God plus myself, plus myself. The system is: those who are too much engrossed with this bodily conception of life, for them, yoga system is very good because it is a practice to withdraw the senses from their engagement in the external world to the inside. Pratyāhāra. And yama, niyama, asana, prāṇāyāma, dhyāna, dhāraṇā, pratyāhāra, samādhi—there are eight different stages of yoga practice. The first practice is yama. Yama, niyama. Under regulative principle, one has to try, endeavor, to control the senses about eating, about sleeping, about working. These are called yama-niyama. Then there are different kinds of sitting postures. They are called āsana. So yama-niyama means the first principle of yoga is to abstain from sex life. That is real yoga.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Prabhupāda: Relations with others, just like you are a family man, you don't encroach upon other families, this is society law. So the animals, they have got their family. Family, what do you mean by family, husband, wife, also two children, that is family. So the animals, they have got. So why you encroach upon the animal family? What is his answer?

Śyāmasundara: Families, when they relate together in communities, are related by certain laws or rights, that one voluntarily abstains from killing and stealing from other families so that no one will do the same to him.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: He says, "Belief in the supernatural, great as though the service is which it rendered in the early stages of human development, cannot be considered to be any longer required either for enabling us to know what is right and wrong in social morality, or for supplying us with motives to do right and abstain from wrong." That is God is not actually necessary for a sense of morality and in communist countries today we see that they instill a social morality in their citizens that is devoid of any conception of God.

Prabhupāda: Morality means to abide by the orders of God. That is real morality. Other things which we manufacture, that you will find different in different countries.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Śyāmasundara: He is a Christian religionist. He's a Christian religionist. They give importance to suffering. "Christ suffered for us, so we..." He says that to abstain from sin means suffering, we are suffering.

Prabhupāda: That is also wrong theory. If Christ is God, or God's son, then why he should suffer? God is subjected to suffering? Then what kind of God He is?

Conversations and Morning Walks

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- February 12, 1969, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: Well, now, I'd like to go over in some greater detail what the disciples may and may not do. I think that's where... I just wanted to get some of the factual background before we went into that. Now, your, the sexual abstinence does not include marriage, I gather.

Prabhupāda: No. Marriage allowed.

Interviewer: Marriage is allowed.

Prabhupāda: I say, "illicit sex." Without marriage, sex relation is forbidden.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1970, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Anyway, we are getting publicity.

Haṁsadūta: (laughs) They're angry. "How can the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa purify the mind? It only closes it to everything else. Purity of the mind lies in knowing all evil and yet abstaining from it. The escapist attitude of the devotees of the movement is reflected in the reply of Adhikārī when he bypasses the question of India's poverty by giving irrelevant answers. The poverty of our country is known to all of us. I am not an atheist, but I find it difficult to digest the sentimentalism in the article."

Prabhupāda: What is that sentimentalism?

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prof. Kotovsky: But does that mean the students, they abstain for normal West European universities their own, all their... How to explain it? Their... For instance, can a normal student from, for instance, from one of the best universities, who is attending lectures in normal way, etc., also be initiated and admitted to your community?

Prabhupāda: No, both ways. Both ways. If you want to be initiated, you are welcome. If not, you come. Try to understand our philosophy. Read our books. There are so many books, magazines. And question, answer. Try to understand the philosophy. It is not that all of a sudden a student comes and becomes our disciple, no. They first of all come, associate, try to understand. Then... We do not canvass. When he voluntarily says that "I want to be your..."

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no canvassing.

Prof. Kotovsky: No, yes. That's what I thought. But what I am most interested in... For instance, not a student but a young worker or a young son of a farmer, he would abstain from his old life and he would be initiated and join your community into a given center. How he would entertain himself?

Prabhupāda: The thing is... I have alre...

Prof. Kotovsky: In the sorts of day to day life...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Kotovsky: Material life...

Prabhupāda: Now, material life, it is...

Prof. Kotovsky: Would he be paid to stay in that center?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am answering. As I told you that this propaganda is meant for creating some brāhmaṇas all over the world because the brāhmaṇa element is lacking, so one who seriously comes to us, he has to become a brāhmaṇa. So he has to adopt the occupation of a brāhmaṇa, and he has to give up the occupation of a kṣatriya or a śūdra. But if one wants to keep his profession, at the same time wants to understand also, that is allowed. Just like we have many professors. There is Howard Wheeler, professor of Ohio University. He's my disciple. So he is continuing his professorship.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Buddhist Monk (1): That's right. You are... One has to... (Sanskrit or Pali:) Śambhuḥ pāpas cākāraṇa, kuśalasya upasampada sac citto parayodapanam etaṁ buddham anuśāsana. (?) Abstain from the unwholesome, the source of all our problems and suffering, lobha, doṣa, moha. Kuśalasya upasampada. Practice the virtues, that is when the mind is rooted in alobha, that is nongreed, liberality, including hospitality; adoṣa, nonhatred, evil, all-loving kindness; amoha opanya (?) wisdom. And why? When one is on the noble, eight-fold path-right understanding, right thinking, right speech, right bodily action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration—there is that oozing joy and delight. And that is the finest substitute. Men, because of avidyā, have not tasted delight. Because of his weakness, they thought mokṣa,... (knock on door)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: He's thoroughly understanding-before killing. Not that "We have (indistinct) reason to kill." No. So we are rather unhappy that in London I've seen thousands of churches practically closed. Nobody is going there. We are not happy to see. This is happening. But why people are abstaining from going to the church? Although there is Pope, and so many priests and other things. Why?

Reporter: It has become an institution, and there is no more religious...

Prabhupāda: Life.

Reporter: ...experience in life.

Prabhupāda: There is no life. A simple thing, that if you disobey the orders of Lord Christ, how will you become a Christian, first of all? Where is your Christianity? Simply rubber-stamping "I'm Christian" you become a Christian, without following the tenets?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: No, you make the best use of a bad bargain. We shall depend more... Just like in New Vrindaban. They are coming to the city for preaching. So not absolutely we can abstain immediately because we have been dependent so long, many, many lives. You cannot. But the ideal should be introduced gradually. And make it perfect more and more and more and more.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Roost, Hatha-yogi -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Ah, nāty aśnataḥ. It is not that you should not eat, abstain, no. Eat very little. So?

Nitāi: Na caikāntam anaśnataḥ.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Not to eat more, not to eat less. Whatever will sustain you, you must eat.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Alcohol and Drug Hospital People -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Even American government is pleased with this movement because they have spent so much millions of dollars for stopping LSD, and they are surprised that when the people come here, they give up.

Guest (3): Do you teach abstinence or moderation in the use of these things?

Prabhupāda: No, we say "Stop." We don't allow even smoking and drinking tea. That is also intoxication. We are so strict. But still, they give up. None of us take tea. We eat very simple things, vegetables, wheat, rice, little milk, that's all.

Room Conversation -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Harikesa: He says that if you renounce now, you can enjoy later. That if you take some austerity now, like meditation, abstaining from certain things, that later on you can enjoy sex life unlimitedly, have clear intelligence unlimtedly, and ultimately become the...

Prabhupāda: The Mahesh Yogi, TM. Transcendental meditation. But I don't think they say that if you undergo austerities you...

Harikesa: No, that was in the beginning they were saying...

Prabhupāda: Oh now he has changed!

Harikesa: Now he has changed, because it was too unpopular.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No, what is the Commandments?

Guest (4): This is one of them, that the church should be run by a prophet and twelve apostles. We believe in what is called the word of wisdom. This is abstaining.... This is much like your...

Prabhupāda: Church. Church means.... Suppose.... There is no specific message that "The church should be conducted on this principle"? Is there any such message?

Guest (3): I think that the real thing is people have to accept Christ as their savior and make his atonement effective. See, when he made his atonement...

Prabhupāda: What about his Commandments?

Guest (3): Well, his Commandments are.... We believe that Christ gave them to Moses as a...

Prabhupāda: So what are the Commandments? You simply say, "It was given to him, it was given to him, it was given..."

Guest (3): The Ten Commandments?

Prabhupāda: Yes

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Guest (2): I don't want to get in contentions about it, but the scripture also says that who abstains from meat is not ordained of God. So you can take it whatever way you want.

Prabhupāda: What is that? "One who abstains from meat"?

Guest (2): Well, he's trying to say that the Mormons overeat meat. And all I'm saying is, well, the scripture which was revealed to the modern-day prophet Joseph Smith was that "Whoever.... Who does abstained from meat is not ordained of God." And I have no intentions to get contentious about it. So all I'm saying is I'm honored to be here, and it's good to be here.

Prabhupāda: No, no, the point is that in the Commandment it is clearly said, "Thou shall not kill." So what does it mean? That unless there is absolute necessity, we shall not kill.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Maṇihāra (reading): The Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees, as a prerequisite for the serious pursuit of spiritual life, voluntarily abstain from meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication, and gambling. The Kṛṣṇa conscious life style is based on the principles of simple living and high thinking. The devotees rise very early, about 3:30 a.m., and spend the morning hours in meditation and study. During the day, the main activity is preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Many devotees go out to public places to distribute the Society's books and its official journal, Back to Godhead magazine, which has a monthly circulation more than a million copies in fourteen different languages. In addition to book distribution, devotees engage in a variety of activities, including teaching, artistic pursuits and farming. The qualification in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not what kind of work one performs, but that it be done in the spirit of devotion to God. For the first time, Swami Prabhupāda has introduced Ratha-yātrā of Lord Jagannātha of Purī in the Western world. This festival is now being conducted in the major cities of the world like San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, London, Paris, etc. Millions of people relish the taste of pulling the transcendental ratha and partake of Kṛṣṇa prasāda. Another of ISKCON's projects is New Vrindaban, a model thousand-acre Kṛṣṇa conscious community farm in the hills of West Virginia. This is ISKCON's first venture in protecting cows from going to the slaughterhouses."

Prabhupāda: Take care of the cows, and?

Maṇihāra: It says, "This is ISKCON's first venture in protecting cows from going to slaughterhouses. Over four hundred cows give twelve hundred litres of milk daily, providing natural, healthy products like butter, ghee, etc. And especially milk sweets like gulabjamon, rasagullā, etc."

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They say, "Why you should avoid? This is life. Why you are brainwashing?" One boy was there in the beginning. What was his name? Ranchor, his name, I gave him. So his father argued, "Why you are avoiding illicit sex? This is life! Why you are afraid? I'll give you car. I'll give you girls. You enjoy. What is this philosophy, nonsense philosophy." His father was arguing. I think everyone's father argues like that. Lord Roland said, he said, "Why you are prohibiting this thing? This is our life. It is impossible."

Hari-śauri: The thing is in society still, even now, there are people who abstain from it. There are vegetarians.

Prabhupāda: There may be very few, one or two. That is insignificant. One million, two person, he is. At least especially in your country.

Hari-śauri: The thing is that they don't claim that they are brainwashed. So we're a society where we're doing all these things, combinedly.

Prabhupāda: "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." If the majority are fools and rascal, if you say something sane, then they'll ask... The man, the sane man, he is insane. He's crazy.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Kāmo 'smi, that should be. That kāma is not that, that whenever they like, have sex and then go away. That is his kāma . Once you have sex life and the woman first of all debauches like... You have to make it public that "I am going to have garbhādhāna-saṁskāra." It is not a secret thing. It is a ceremony. And then, when she is pregnant, no more sex. No more sex means so long the child is there, ten months, and unless the child is grown up at least six months, no sex. That means once you have sex and then abstain for sixteen months. You know what is that dharma? So who is such a foolish man that for once having sex and then abstaining...? Therefore those who could not abstain, they used to keep many wives.

Correspondence

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Rayarama -- Delhi 4 October, 1967:

Boys are a little stronger in getting out of the intricacies of Maya. Mrinalini, Jadurani & all other girls who are so qualified, good-looking, intelligent, educated & seriously engaged in Krishna Consciousness, should always be give protection from the attack of maya. In my philosophy there is no abstinence from sex life but K.C. should teach us that sex life is the cause of us becoming conditioned to the material nature. Therefore advanced Krishna Consciousness student should know it well that sex life also should be dovetailed with Krishna consciousness.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Janardana -- Los Angeles 16 January, 1970:

Therefore with reference to all Vedic Scriptures our members are all Brahmanas and therefore we offer them the sacred thread although they are born, according to Vedic culture, in the families of other than Brahmanas or even than the Sudras. But that does not mean they cannot be purified. Actually they are being trained in such a way, their hearts are being purified by chanting the Mahamantra. And after some days when the Spiritual Master sees that one has followed the regulative principles faithfully and has abstained himself from the restricted items like illicit sex life, etc. and has chanted regularly 16 rounds then say after a year or six months when he appears to be purified in the judgment of the Spiritual Master he is offered the sacred thread, and he is given the chance of Deity worship in the Temple.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Sanat Kumara, Daniel, Yudhisthira -- Los Angeles 24 June, 1975:

I am pleased to accept you as my initiated disciples. They have given me a very nice report of your activities and I am glad to know that the government authorities are taking interest in our movement. It is a good sign. So you go on with your preaching and be very careful to follow the rules and regulations, chanting 16 rounds daily and abstaining from eating animal flesh, intoxicants, gambling, and illicit sex.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Jennifer Lynne Davis -- Los Angeles 9 June, 1976:

Simply follow the regular program of chanting 16 rounds of Hare Krishna Maha-mantra daily and abstain from illicit sex-life, meat-eating, gambling, and intoxication. In this way you will surely make rapid progress in Krishna Consciousness.

Page Title:Abstain
Compiler:Deepika, Sureshwardas
Created:17 of Dec, 2008
Totals by Section:BG=5, SB=9, CC=3, OB=2, Lec=11, Con=15, Let=4
No. of Quotes:49