All-attractive means

Expressions researched:
"All-attractive means"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

All-attractive means He must be good; otherwise, how He can be attractive? A bad, someone who is bad, he cannot be attractive.

Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Edinburgh, July 16, 1972:

So our present situation is that the whole civilization is going on under the wrong impression that everyone is the body. That is not a fact. Therefore, this Kṛṣṇa kīrtana, this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, it has got a special effect. It is... Don't think this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is ordinary sound vibration. It is spiritual vibration. It is called mahā-mantra. Mahā-mantra. Just like... I do not know in your country whether there's snake chanters. In India still, there are many snake chanters, enchanters, I am sorry. So they chant some mantra, and a man, snake-bitten, can be revived to his consciousness. Anyone Indian present here, they know. Still. Especially I have seen in Punjab, there are many snake enchanters who know the how to chant the mantras. So if it is physically possible that a dead man... Of course, when a man is bitten by a snake he's not dead. He becomes unconscious. He's not dead. But by this chanting of mantra, he comes to his consciousness. Therefore, it is the system in India, if a man is bitten by a snake, he's not burned, or he's not taken as dead body. He's floated in some lifeboat and given to the water. If he gets chance he may come out again to consciousness. So similarly, we are, at the present moment, due to our ignorance, we are sleeping. We are sleeping. Therefore, to awaken us, this mantra, mahā-mantra, is required to awaken. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Just like these boys, these European boys and girls who are along with me... I have got about, more than three, four thousand disciples like that. They are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. And not that whimsically they are chanting. They are fully convinced. If you talk with them, they will talk very nicely on philosophy. Everything sane, as a sane man. So how they are doing? Four years ago, they did not know what is the name of Kṛṣṇa. Perhaps they might have seen in the English dictionary the name of Kṛṣṇa as stated "a Hindu god." But actually, that is not the fact. Kṛṣṇa is the name of God. Kṛṣṇa means the all-attractive, all-good. All-attractive means He must be good; otherwise, how He can be attractive? A bad, someone who is bad, he cannot be attractive. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, this very word, means all-attractive. He has got all the good qualities, all the opulences so that He is attractive. That is the right description of, or right nomenclature of God. If God has got any name particular which is full in everything, that word is Kṛṣṇa. It is a Sanskrit word, but it indicates... Kṛṣṇa means God. In the śāstra it is said, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Īśvaraḥ means controller, and paramaḥ, the supreme. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). That is the instruction of Vedic literature. So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not a sectarian religious movement. It is a scientific philosophical movement. Try to understand it.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

All-attractive means He's not only attractive to the devotees but to the nondevotees. It's not that Kṛṣṇa is one-sided, He's attractive to the devotees. No. To the nondevotees also.

Lecture on SB 1.1.1 -- London, August 7, 1971:

So God's name... Actually, there is no God's name. There is name, but He has got so many names. His name is given according to His pastimes. Just like according to... It has got meaning. You cannot give any name to God without bearing any meaning. That is the Vedic significance. When we say "Kṛṣṇa" name of God, that means He's all-attractive. All-attractive means He's not only attractive to the devotees but to the nondevotees. It's not that Kṛṣṇa is one-sided, He's attractive to the devotees. No. To the nondevotees also. Just like Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa was also attracted by Kṛṣṇa. He was attracted to Kṛṣṇa as enemy. There are two kinds of attraction. We can become attracted to somebody as friend as well as enemy. That is also attraction. If you think of some person that "This man is my enemy. I want to kill him, or I want to do some harm to him. How I shall do? How shall I capture him? He goes on the office, on the road. So I can capture him in that way..." So many. Just like in America the President Kennedy was killed. So the man who killed him, he made it a plan, thinking of President Kennedy always. That is attraction.

All-attractive means, therefore, that Kṛṣṇa is attractive to everyone, either one is Kṛṣṇa's devotee or nondevotee. The best example is Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa heard that the eighth son of his sister, Devakī, would kill him. Since that time, he became attracted to Kṛṣṇa. "Oh, somebody's coming in the name Kṛṣṇa, as my sister's eighth son. So He will kill me. So let me kill my sister, the source of Kṛṣṇa." So he first of all wanted to kill his sister. That is due to attraction of Kṛṣṇa. He was very kind to his sister. After the marriage of his sister he was taking very jubilantly his sister and his brother-in-law in a chariot, and he was personally driving, because Devakī happened to be younger sister of Kaṁsa. Naturally, everyone has got some love for younger brother and sister. So he was affectionate. Although he was a nondevotee demon, still, natural attraction one cannot avoid. Just like a tiger. Tiger is killer of everyone. But still, the tiger and the tigress have got affection for the cubs. That is natural. So he had the natural attraction for his sister, but when he heard that his sister would be the killer of him, he immediately wanted to kill his sister. That story you know. It is stated in the Kṛṣṇa book beginning.

So the idea is... Satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi (SB 1.1.1). Namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. So Vyāsadeva is offering his obeisances to the son of Devakī, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

All-attractive means He is full of all opulences.

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: What are the basic beliefs of the Kṛṣṇa religion?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa means God. So God, this word, does not explain the nomenclature of God. Now this Kṛṣṇa is Sanskrit word, and it conveys the full meaning of God. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. All-attractive means He is full of all opulences. In this world we are attracted by one who is very rich, we are attracted by one who is very famous, we are attracted by one who is very highly educated, we are attracted by someone who is very beautiful. Similarly, these are features of attraction. And when all these attractions are reposed in one place without any rivalry, He is God. That is the conception of God. So Kṛṣṇa means all these six opulences in fullness together. That is the full definition of God.