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Arise (Lectures)

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "O son of Pṛthā, do not yield to this degrading impotence (BG 2.3)."

Prabhupāda: Hm. Degrading impotence. He doesn't want to see (chuckling) His devotee a coward and impotent. So this so-called qualification, impotency and niggard, that is not qualification for devotee. He must be very, in every way, very expert and fit. Kṛṣṇa wants to see. Yes. Go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the enemy."

Prabhupāda: He's specially addressing, "chastiser of the enemy." Where there is no excuse, you must be chastiser. Not that "Because I have become Kṛṣṇa conscious, I'll be very humble." You must be humble, but in need, if there is need, you shall be thunderbolt. That is Kṛṣṇa instructing.

Lecture on BG 2.3 -- London, August 4, 1973:

Pradyumna (leads chanting, etc.):

klaibyaṁ ma sma gamaḥ pārtha
naitat tvayy upapadyate
kśūdraṁ hṛdaya-daurbalyaṁ
tyaktvottiṣṭha parantapa
(BG 2.3)

Translation: "O son of Pṛthā, do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the enemy."

Prabhupāda: So Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa, is encouraging, kśūdraṁ hṛdaya-daurbalyam. "For a kṣatriya to speak like that, 'No no, I cannot kill my kinsmen. I am giving my weapons,' this is weakness, cowardice. Why you are all this nonsense doing?" Kśūdraṁ hṛdaya-daurbalyam. "This kind of compassion, giving up your duty as a kṣatriya, it is simply weakness of the heart. It has no meaning." Klaibyaṁ ma sma gamaḥ pārtha naitat tvayy upapadyate. "Especially for you. You are My friend. What people will say? So give up this weakness of the heart and uttiṣṭha, stand up, take courage." So just see how Kṛṣṇa is inducing Arjuna to fight. People are very much ignorant and they sometimes criticize that "Kṛṣṇa is exciting Arjuna. He is very gentleman, nonviolent, and Kṛṣṇa is exciting him to fight." This is called jaḍa-darśana. Jaḍa-darśana. Jaḍa-darśana means material vision.

Lecture on BG 2.7-11 -- New York, March 2, 1966:

And before that, thousands and millions of years before, this planet was known as Ilāvṛtavarṣa. Ilāvṛtavarṣa. And now, since the time of Emperor Bharata... There was an emperor whose name was Bharata. So from the name of Bharata, this planet's name became Bhāratavarṣa. So up to five thousand years before... Why five thousand years before? Say, up to four thousand years before, although the modern history cannot give account, chronological account, more than 2,500 years, but we are speaking... About four thousand years before, this planet was called Bhāratavarṣa. Now, Arjuna says that "We are going to fight for the matter of this Bhāratavarṣa planet. This is one of the planet in the universe. But if I get the whole planets of this, the complete planets of this universe, and without any competitor, still, the perplexity which has arisen in my mind, that cannot be mitigated." So... Now, see what sort, what sort of responsibility is given to the Kṛṣṇa. Sañjaya uvāca. Now, Sañjaya said,

Lecture on BG 2.13-17 -- Los Angeles, November 29, 1968:

Madhudviṣa: "O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of heat and cold, happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course are like the appearance of winter and summer season. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed."

Prabhupāda: Now the question is, "Yes, I understand that my grandfather is spirit soul and this body is material. Still, by nature I'll be unhappy if my grandfather is killed and my teacher is killed. I'll be unhappy." So Kṛṣṇa is instructing Arjuna that this kind of unhappiness, distress, is this world. You cannot avoid it. These are necessary distresses. The example He's giving that severe cold. In the winter season, in the month of January or some month, the winter is very severe, intolerable. Sometimes somewhere it is below 30 degrees zero. But what is to be done? The people in such part of the world who live... Just like in Canada it goes sometimes 30 degrees below zero. Does it mean that they'll close their offices and work and everything? No.

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- London, August 20, 1973:

Pradyumna: Translation: "O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed (BG 2.14)."

Prabhupāda: This is very important verse. In the previous verse it has been described, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Actually we living entities, we are within the body. The bodily pains and pleasure are not the pains and pleasure of the soul within. It is simply abhiniveśa. It is called abhiniveśa, absorption or misidentify. The example I have given many times. Just like you are sitting in a nice motorcar; another man is sitting on a rickshaw. I have seen in India. So the rickshaw has come in front of the nice motorcar, and the driver is asking that man who is drawing the rickshaw, "You rickshaw!" Means he is thinking, he is sitting in a nice motorcar, so he has become a motor, and the man who is drawing the rickshaw, he has become rickshaw. This is the position. Actually the man who is drawing the rickshaw, he is also human being.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The Blessed Lord said, 'O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of sense desire which arise of invention, and when his mind finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.' "

Prabhupāda: Now if one comes to the understanding, enlightenment, this is the beginning of enlightenment—self-understanding, that "I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. I do not belong to this material world. I am not part and parcel of this country, this world, or this material atmosphere, but I am part and parcel of the Supreme." This is enlightenment. Read it again.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The Blessed Lord said, 'O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of sense enjoyment...' " (BG 2.55)

Prabhupāda: Now if you are interested with so many varieties, material varieties... Suppose I belong to this country, then I have got so much duty, so many duties. If I belong to this world, if I belong to the human society, if I belong to this and that. But if you simply belong to Kṛṣṇa, that is enlightenment. Yes, go on.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 62: "While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises (BG 2.62)." Oh, a new (indistinct). There's a purport.

Prabhupāda: Stop there. So if there is any question you can discuss.

Vīrabhadra: If some of these questions might be very stupid, and if any of them are, then just say they're stupid. Then I can ask Viṣṇujana. The first one is, if you said, "Give me lots of money for Kṛṣṇa," are you a miser? Is that a stupid question? Is that a stupid question?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You first of all know who is miser and who is liberal. Do you know that?

Lecture on BG 2.62-72 -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises (BG 2.62)." Purport. "One who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious is subjected to material desires while contemplating the objects of the senses. The senses require real engagements, and if they are not engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, they will certainly seek engagement in the service of materialism."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Here is the secret of yoga system. Yoga indriya-saṁyama. The real purpose of yoga is to control the senses. Our material activities means to engage the sense in some particular objective or enjoyment. That is our material engagement. And yoga system means that you have to control the senses and detach the senses from material enjoyment, or material pleasure and pains, and divert it, focusing towards seeing the Supersoul Viṣṇu within your soul (self?). That is the real purpose of yoga. Yoga does not mean... Of course, in the beginning there are different rules and regulations, sitting posture, just to bring the mind under control. But they are not end themselves. The end is to stop the material engagement and begin spiritual engagement. So here it is explained. Go on reading.

Lecture on BG 2.62-72 -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "One who is not, therefore, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however powerful he may be in controlling the senses by artificial repression, is sure ultimately to fall, for the slightest thought of sense pleasure will drive him to gratify his desires." 63: "From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool."

Prabhupāda: Our position is, we are constituted of this body. Body means the senses and the controller of the senses or the, what is called, driver, driver of the senses, is the mind. And mind is conducted, thinking, feeling, and willing, the psychology, the science of psychology, that is being conducted under intelligence. And above the intelligence, I am sitting. I am a spirit soul. So how we become victim of this māyā, that is described here, that from anger, delusion arises, and from delusion, bewilderment of memory. Bewilderment memory. I have forgotten completely that I am not this body, I am spirit soul, ahaṁ brahmāsmi; I am part and parcel of the Supreme Brahman, spirit, absolute whole. That I have forgotten.

Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifteen: "Activity, karma, arises from the Vedas and the Vedas spring from the Supreme Godhead. Therefore the all-pervading Transcendence is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice (BG 3.15)."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Purport: "Yajñārtha-karma, or the necessity for work for the satisfaction..."

Prabhupāda: Yajñārtha-karma. Yajña means "sacrifice," artha, "for the purpose of," and karma, "fruitive activity." Everyone is engaged in some activity, but what shall be the purpose of such activity? Yajñārtha. Yajñārtha means simply to satisfy Lord Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. That should be the purpose. Yajñārtha-karma, yes.

Lecture on BG 4.11 -- New York, July 27, 1966:

So there is a very nice verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. A brāhmaṇa, he was a family man, just like worldly man, as we are. Now, brāhmaṇas are generally expected to be highly learned, and he was very learned man in Vedic literature. And when he came to his consciousness by reading all this Vedic literature, that "Although I am following the leadership, why I am not happy? Why I am not happy?"... This question should arise in the sane human mind. One should think that "I am following the leadership of somebody, according to my position and according to my circumstances. But still, I am not happy. Why?"

Why we select one leader? The leader should be such a leader that they shall, he shall make happy and prosperous persons who follow him. That is the question of leadership. But actually, if we think in sober mind and cool head, we can understand that although we are following leadership, may be whatever he may be, still, we are not happy. Now, the brāhmaṇa concluded that "This following leadership is the following leadership of my lust." I select one leader according to my lust.

Lecture on BG 4.11 -- New York, July 27, 1966:

And now Lord Caitanya, He also preached this Kṛṣṇa philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And formerly also, great leaders like Vyāsadeva, Nārada, and even at the present moment all big leaders of India...

I am speaking especially of India because this Bhagavad-gītā was first seen in India, in the Indian plain. Of course, it is not meant for India. It is meant for everyone. Just like the sun rises in the east first, then comes to the west, but that does not mean east has the monopoly of the sun and not the west. Similarly, the sun of Bhagavad-gītā might have arisen in the land of India, but that does not mean that it is the monopoly of India. It is meant for everyone. It is meant for everyone. So it is an accepted authority. So mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186).

Lecture on BG 4.13 -- Johannesburg, October 19, 1975:

So you'll find always Kṛṣṇa enjoying. This is Vṛndāvana.

So we are part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa, so we also must be feeling enjoy. Why we are so much distressed—adhyātmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika? This question should arise. If this question does not arise, then we are as good as cats and dogs. That's all. The cats and dogs never inquire. Cat will never inquire that "Why I am starving? Why I am dying? Why everybody chases me? I have to go out." The dog also. So if in the human form of life we remain blind without seeing the problems of life and still we say we are very much joyful, enjoying life, where is your enjoyment? There is no enjoyment.

We are foolishly thinking that enjoying life. That enjoyment, life, means a little sex enjoyment. That's all. That is also very abominable, yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45), very abominable happiness.

Lecture on BG 4.39-42 -- Los Angeles, January 14, 1969:

Revatīnandana: "He, as a part and parcel of the Lord in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is already fully conversant in self-knowledge. As such, he is undoubtedly above the reactions to whatever activities he may carry out." Verse forty-two: "Therefore, the doubts which have arisen in your heart out of ignorance should be slashed by the weapon of knowledge. Armed with yoga, O Bhārata, stand and fight."

Prabhupāda: The doubt was there in the mind of Arjuna in the battlefield, and there was necessity for preaching Bhagavad-gītā. Go on.

Revatīnandana: "The yoga system instructed in this chapter is called sanātana-yoga, or eternal activities performed by the living entity. This yoga has two divisions of action, called sacrifices. One is called sacrifice of one's material possessions, and the other is called knowledge of self, which is pure spiritual activity. If sacrifice of one's material possessions is not dovetailed for spiritual realization, then such sacrifice becomes material. But one who performs such sacrifices for a spiritual objective or in devotional service, makes a perfect sacrifice.

Lecture on BG 4.39-5.3 -- New York, August 24, 1966:

Then, when the man is completely detached from family affection, he takes sannyāsa. This is called sannyāsa. We have no connection with family. So sannyāsaṁ karmaṇāṁ kṛṣṇa punar yogaṁ ca śaṁsasi.

So these things have been discussed in the previous chapters, so Arjuna says that "You have spoken so many subject matters, so there are so many doubts arising in my mind, so kindly..." Yac chreya etayor ekam: "So out of so many things, whichever is the best process..." Yac chreya etayor ekaṁ tan me brūhi suniścitam: "Kindly speak to me that one with certainty." This is called paripraśna.

Now, the spiritual master is speaking, and the disciple is hearing, so as soon as there are some doubts and puzzling, so you should at once place the matter before the spiritual master to get it cleared. So this is the process which Arjuna is following. So he has heard and, up to Fourth Chapter so many things. Now he has got some doubt.

Lecture on BG 6.16-24 -- Los Angeles, February 17, 1969:

Devotee: "This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact. This yoga is to be practiced with determination and an undaunted heart. Twenty-four: One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with undeviating determination and faith. One should abandon without exception, all material desires born of ego and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind (BG 6.24). Purport: The yoga practitioner should be determined and should patiently prosecute the practice without deviation."

Prabhupāda: Now, this determination can be actually practiced or can be actually attained by one who does not indulge in sex life. His determination is strong. Therefore in the beginning it was said, that "without sex life," the determination. Or controlled sex life. If you indulge in sex life then this determination will not come. Flickering determination. You see. Therefore sex life should be controlled or given up. If it is possible to give up altogether, if not, controlled. Then you'll get determination. Because after all this determination is bodily affair. So these are the methods how to get determination.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- San Francisco, September 10, 1968:

You are a kṣatriya, you belong to the warrior class, so if you don't fight, it will not be very good." In this way, on the basis of friendship. But Arjuna also understood that "Kṛṣṇa is not very seriously talking with me, because we are friends." So he surrendered himself. He said that "My dear Kṛṣṇa, I can understand that the problem which has arisen in this battlefield, it is very difficult problem. I have come here to fight, but I have been disturbed with sentiments. So how I can kill my brothers, my teacher, my grandfather, my grandsons, and so on, so on? So, but I know also that these problems, this problematic situation which has arisen, it can be solved by You only." But Arjuna knew it that "Kṛṣṇa is not my ordinary friend. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Therefore he at once surrendered. Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam: (BG 2.7) "I am surrendered unto You as Your disciple. Please accept me and just teach me what is good for me."

Lecture on BG 7.11-16 -- New York, October 7, 1966:

So we should remember this. But due to the illusion, being covered by the illusion, we don't take account of these miseries. But we must remember that we are always in miseries. An intelligent person who is developed in consciousness, he inquires, "Why I am in miseries? I do not want miseries. Why I am in miseries?" When this question arises, then there is chance of becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious. You will find how one becomes, comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You will find, later verses. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtino 'rjuna.

So bewildered by this interaction of these three modes of nature, we have forgotten our eternal relationship with God. And Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that we have to revive. Just like a psychiatrist, they by some lectures revive his consciousness. So we are, more or less, not the person who is going to the psychiatrist, but every one of us more or less mad, bewildered by this material nature. So we have to cure our madness and become situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on BG 9.2 -- Melbourne, April 20, 1976:

Or suppose you are hungry. You are... On account of your hunger you are feeling headache, you cannot see through your eyes properly, you cannot hear, you cannot work—so many things, problems, will arise. But as soon as you put some food stuff, nourishing foodstuff, immediately you'll feel strength and you'll happy, be happy. That is called pratyakṣa. Pratyakṣa means directly. Avagamaṁ dharmyam. If you are hungry and if you are given very nice, nutritious, palatable food, you haven't got to take any certificate from others. You'll understand yourself, "Yes, I am now feeling strength. I am now feeling energy." This is called pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyam. Similarly, if you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness—that is the process—then you'll feel automatically how you are satisfied. Pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyam.

Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, December 29, 1972:

So śāstra says that it can be made easy. It can be made easy. How? Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). If you simply engage your tongue in the service of the Lord. This one method. Simply engage your tongue in the service of the Lord. God will be revealed. (aside:) Come on. God will reveal Himself. You cannot see God. You cannot see Kṛṣṇa. But when He reveals Himself... Just like at night you cannot see the sun. But when the sun reveals himself, it is not by your effort. In due course of time, sun will arise in the morning. You can see the sun, you can see yourself, you can see the whole world. So try to reveal Kṛṣṇa. Don't try to see Kṛṣṇa. Because with your eyes. with your senses, these material blunt senses we cannot see. It is not... Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi.

Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:

He has nothing to do with, personally. We want to see that "If God has created this flower, why don't you see? Why I do not see that He is creating?" That is nonsense. You cannot see God in that way, but you can see Him by His work. Just like you cannot go and see the sun. But when it arises, when it diffuses, the sunshine is there, you can immediately understand that the sun is there in the sky. The sun is always there in the sky. So it requires intelligence how to understand the existence of God. The Vedic information says, parāsya śaktiḥ, na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. "He has nothing to do." Na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate: "Nobody is better expert or craftsman than God." Adhika, sama: "neither equal to Him, nor greater than Him." Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate: (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport) "His energies are working in so many ways," svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca, "that it appears that he has got perfect knowledge and perfect workmanship." Everything is perfect.

Lecture on BG 13.3 -- Hyderabad, April 19, 1974:

We reject immediately. "I think." "It is my opinion." This is going on. Big, big scientists, big, big philosophers. We don't accept. We must see whether he has received knowledge from Kṛṣṇa. And one who receives knowledge from Kṛṣṇa...

Just like Arjuna. Arjuna said to Kṛṣṇa, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam: (BG 2.7) "My dear Kṛṣṇa, the perplexity which has arisen in my mind, it cannot be solved by anyone except Yourself." Because Arjuna knew that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore he surrendered to Him. He surrendered. He was talking like friend. Friendly talking cannot give any good result, simply waste of time. But when there is talking between disciple and the spiritual master, that has got meaning.

Just like my disciples, because they have accepted me as guru, whatever I say, they accept it. Otherwise I have not bribed them. These European, Americans... I have no money. I went to New York with seven dollars.

Lecture on BG 1322 -- Hyderabad, August 17, 1976:

Indian: Prabhu, Vivekananda also stated, "Awake. Arise. Stop not until the goal is reached." What goal did he preach?

Prabhupāda: Ask him, I do not know. (laughter) Call Vivekananda and ask him. You are devotee of Vivekananda, you do not know what did he mean? What kind of devotee you are? You are asking me? What? You do not know? This is going on. He does not know Vivekananda and he is a devotee of Vivekananda. This is not good. You must know what Vivekananda said, what is his ultimate goal of life. You must be intelligent.

Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:

Nitāi: "The demoniac conclude that the world is a phantasmagoria. There is no cause, no effect, no controller, no purpose: everything is unreal. They say that this cosmic manifestation arises due to chance material actions and reactions. They do not think that the world was created by God for a certain purpose. They have their own theory: that the world has come about in its own way and that there is no reason to believe that there is a God behind it. For them there is no difference between spirit and matter, and they do not accept the Supreme Spirit. Everything is matter only, and the whole cosmos is supposed to be a mass of ignorance."

Prabhupāda: Therefore they say chemical evolution. They cannot think of spirit. Go on.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

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

Pradyumna: Translation: "I offer my obeisances unto Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, who is the supreme all-pervading Personality of Godhead. I meditate upon Him, the transcendent reality, who is the primeval cause of all causes, from whom all manifested universes arise, in whom they dwell, and by whom they are destroyed. I meditate upon that eternally effulgent Lord who is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations and yet is beyond them. It is He only who first imparted Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmā, the first created being. Through Him this world, like a mirage, appears real even to great sages and demigods. Because of Him, the material universes, created by the three modes of nature, appear to be factual, although they are unreal. I meditate therefore upon Him, the Absolute Truth, who is eternally existent in His transcendental abode, and who is forever free of illusion." (SB 1.1.1)

Prabhupāda: Vyāsadeva is offering his obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Bhagavate, "unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is known as Vāsudeva." Vāsudeva means the son of Vasudeva.

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

They must live under the conditions of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). You have accepted this material body voluntarily for enjoying this material world. You enjoy it to the fullest extent under the condition of stringent laws of material nature. Now, in the human form of life, civilized human form of life, your consciousness is now developed. There is a chance to understand why you are conditioned. You don't want condition; you want liberation. This question arises in the human form of life, not in the cat's life, dog's life. No. So we should remember this is the difference between other bodies and this body. Here, we become awakened that "Why I am conditioned?" Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī, when he approached Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu... He was minister, great man, very opulent. So the first question was put before Lord Caitanya, 'ke āmi,' 'kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya.

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

"My dear master, I have come to You to ask the first question, that 'What I am? Why I am conditioned to suffer three kinds of miserable condition of life always?' " Why you are using this fan? Because I am conditioned. I cannot bear too much heat or too much cold. As soon as I go out in the park, I was covering. So these questions should arise, that "Why I am conditioned? Sometimes I am covering, sometimes I want fan."

So this is the actual human life, not that simply imitating the animals: how to eat, how to sleep, how to sex. No. Śāstra says that is already established. Don't worry. Just like the swans and the ducks in St. James. They don't worry, "Oh, what to eat?" But they're getting their eatables. They don't go to office, to factory. Even the swans and ducks, and what to speak of human being? This is nature's study, that the swans and ducks, they are getting at home, they are getting their sex life. Immediately, everything is there. According to their standard, everything is there.

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

No advancement. So that inquiry should be there, that "What I am? What I am put into these tribulations of conditional life under the laws of nature?" Unless this question arises in one's mind, he's not a human being. He's animal. Just Sanātana Gosvāmī went to Caitanya Mahāprabhu and although he was minister, very learned scholar, he said, "My dear Lord, people eulogize me as very big man, learned man, minister. But I know that I do not know what I am. This is my position." Grāmya-vyavahāre kaha ei paṇḍita, tāi satya māni. "The people, the ordinary people, common people, they say that 'You are so great scholar, so rich man, minister.' They say like that. But I know that I am fool number one. I do not know what I am." This is the position.

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- Hyderabad, April 21, 1974:

Then he became devotee. This is the... Vāsudeve bhagavati. If you engage yourself in the service, regulative principles... In the beginning you must follow the regulative principles. Then spontaneous love, then you will get.

So these things should be arising.
nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema 'sādhya' kabhu naya
śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya
(CC Madhya 22.107)

This is already there in you; simply you have to awaken it. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness is already there in everybody. It is not that it is an artificial thing. Love for God is there already because we are part and parcel of Him.

Lecture on SB 1.7.5-6 -- Johannesburg, October 15, 1975:

That is not possible." So nobody... Everyone is under the laws of nature. It may be... The duration of time may be little more or less, but everyone must die. This is... And if we want to stop this business of material existence, then here is the recommendation, anarthopaśamam... Anartha. "Why we shall die?" This question does not arise. If I am immortal, as it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā...

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
(BG 2.20)

So this question does not strike us, that "If I am immortal—I have no birth, I have no death..." na jāyate mriyate vā kadācit "...at any time. Not that sometimes I was dying. No, never." Nityaḥ śāśvato yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is the position. "Then why I am accepting this birth and death and old age, disease? This is my problem." So we do not think that, neither we are educated how to stop it.

Lecture on SB 1.8.42 -- Mayapura, October 22, 1974:

We are immortal by nature, but we have covered by another nature, external nature, bahiraṅga-śakti And because we have been entangled with this material body, we have to die. Otherwise there is no death. Na jāyate na mriyate vā. The living entity does not take birth, neither it dies. Then why we are taking birth and dying? The..., this question does not arise to the fools and rascals of this materialist world. I was talking with one very big man in London, Lord Fenner-Brockway. He came to see me. So I asked him this question. He was old man. He was a, I think, older than me. He was eighty-four. So he said, "Yes, I'll die peacefully." You see? This question does not bother even any man. And I talked with that Professor Kotovsky in Moscow. He also said, "Swamiji, after death, everything is finished." You see? Big, big men in Europe, very exalted position, they do not know even that there is life after death. They do not know. And in India, I think, when I spoke in Calcutta, the American Consulate.

Lecture on SB 2.1.3 -- Vrndavana, March 18, 1974:

Then children. Then embarrassment. Contraceptive. That is also embarrassment. So this embarrassment is going on. And then again death. Then again go to the womb of the mother, and be killed within the womb of the mother, abortion. So the whole life is full of embarrassment. Why? That "why" question does not arise, that "Why I am embarrassed?"

So therefore the Māyāvādīs, they think that "Make me zero, void. Then there will be no pains and pleasure, no embarrassment." Their philosophy is like that. Impersonal, that is also the same thing. Or void. Voidism, the same thing. "Make it zero." Just like the foolish man, when one is embarrassed, he commits suicide. He commits suicide. He thinks, "If I end this body, then my embarrassment will be finished." So these are the circumstances. Why? Now, apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). He does not know "What is the necessity of me, soul, how to get me relieved from that." That he does not know.

Lecture on SB 3.25.9 -- Bombay, November 9, 1974:

Nitāi: "You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the origin and the Supreme Lord of all living entities. You have arisen to disseminate the rays of the sun in order to dissipate the darkness of ignorance of the universe."

Prabhupāda:

ya ādyo bhagavān puṁsām
īśvaro vai bhavān kila
lokasya tamasāndhasya
cakṣuḥ sūrya ivoditaḥ
(SB 3.25.9)

So there is the Supreme Person, Bhagavān. Originally, the... It is very common sense. Just like we require a leader. To organize some business, some nationality, any group of organization, it requires a leader. Without leader, you cannot organize anything. Nobody has got any such experience that without direction, without leader, anything has sprung up automatically, by nature. The foolish philosophers say like that, that the whole cosmic manifestation has come out of a chunk. They say like that. The rascals say like that: "There was a chunk." And wherefrom this chunk came? No, that is not fact. Fact is that there must be a good brain behind all this organization. This cosmic manifestation, there must be a leader. That is the information we get from Vedas. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Nitya, we living entities, we are nitya. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20).

Lecture on SB 3.25.10 -- Bombay, November 10, 1974:

So Devahūti, in the previous verse, accepted her son, Kapiladeva: puṁsām īśvaro vai bhavān kila lokasya tamasāndhasya..., lokasya tamasāndhasya

cakṣuḥ sūrya ivoditaḥ. "You are just like the sun. Sun, when the morning the sun is arisen, then all darkness immediately gone. Similarly, You have arisen..." God, Kṛṣṇa, or His incarnation, when They come, the darkness of this material world, illusion, is dissipated. Just like Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, came, the darkness, illusion, Arjuna's illusion, was counteracted. He was also thinking ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). "Why shall I fight with my relatives, the other side?" So this was darkness, aham mameti (SB 5.5.8). Because either you maintain or..., or you love this illusory position, that is sammoham. This very word is used here: atha me deva sammoham apākraṣṭuṁ tvam arhasi. Sammoha. Samyag-rūpeṇa moham. Sammoha.

Lecture on SB 3.25.24 -- Bombay, November 24, 1974:

So similarly, our consciousness is there. Somehow or other, it is now contaminated. So gradually, this contaminated consciousness has to be purified, and then Kṛṣṇa consciousness automatically will arise, will be awakened, because the Kṛṣṇa consciousness is original consciousness. Somehow or other, it is now covered by material attachment. So how to give up this material attachment and become attached to Kṛṣṇa, developing Kṛṣṇa attachment? The process is sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). That is... Sa eva sādhuṣu kṛtaḥ mokṣa-dvāram apāvṛtam. We have got so many attachment for so many things in the material world, and if you simply... You cannot make it zero; that is not possible. You have to purify. Just like if there is some disease in the eyes, if you simply say, "Pluck it out," that is not treatment.

Lecture on SB 3.26.26 -- Bombay, January 3, 1975:

These things do not strike even their dull brain, that "If ātmā... I am ātmā. I am the soul. I do not die even after the annihilation of this body. But that means I will have to accept another body. But is this very good job? Why not seek after our original position, when there is no more change of body?" This question does not arise even. But it is very easy. For that reason, Bhagavad-gītā is there. Everyone can avoid this birth and death. That is the business of human life, how to stop... Jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya. Vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhaḥ (BG 2.56). Everything is there. This is the aim of life. But not... We are under this false ego, "I am this body." And some of us in the modes of goodness... That is also another kind of bondage: "I am brāhmaṇa. I am very learned scholar." But... That's all right, but still you have to go further, above the brahminical stage, not simply become proud of having nice birth, full of knowledge and learning. That is not sufficient. The learning should be perfect. What is that perfect learning?

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

Pradyumna: "As long as one does not inquire about the spiritual values of life, one is defeated and subjected to miseries arising from ignorance. Be it sinful or pious, karma has its resultant actions. If a person is engaged in any kind of karma, his mind is called karmātmaka, colored with fruitive activity. As long as the mind is impure, consciousness is unclear, and as long as one is absorbed in fruitive activity, he has to accept a material body."

Prabhupāda:

parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto
yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam
yāvat kriyās tāvad idaṁ mano vai
karmātmakaṁ yena śarīra-bandhaḥ
(SB 5.5.5)

It is very quite natural, whatever you do, your mind will be absorbed in that business. Karmātmakam. Therefore our mind should be engaged always in Kṛṣṇa: sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padaravindayor (SB 9.4.18). Then we can be relieved from this śarīra-bandhaḥ. Unfortunately, there is no education that it is a great hamper, impediment, to our progress of life, this material body.

Lecture on SB 5.5.9 -- Vrndavana, October 31, 1976:

Don't keep it. Spend it for Kṛṣṇa. Why? It will be spoiled. Today or tomorrow it will be spoiled. Somebody will take and spoil it. Better, if you spend it for Kṛṣṇa, at least your service will be recognized. Kṛṣṇa will see that this man is spending his hard-earned money for Me. That is called ajñāta-sukṛti. This service to Kṛṣṇa, this inclination, does not arise unless one is very, very, good asset he has got.

Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtinaḥ. Who comes to kṛṣṇa-bhajana? Sukṛtina. Not ordinary man, sukṛtina. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtinaḥ. The duṣkṛtina, he will never come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15), lowest of the mankind, full of sinful activities. How they can come to Kṛṣṇa? It is not possible.

Lecture on SB 5.6.1 -- Vrndavana, November 23, 1976:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.) "Translation: King Parīkṣit asked Śukadeva Gosvāmī: My dear Lord, for those who are completely pure in heart, knowledge is attained by the practice of bhakti-yoga, and attachment for fruitive activity is completely burned to ashes. For such people, the powers of mystic yoga automatically arise. They do not cause distress. Why, then, did Ṛṣabhadeva neglect them?"

Prabhupāda:

na nūnaṁ bhagava ātmārāmāṇāṁ yoga-samīrita-jñānāvabharjita-karma-bījānām aiśvaryāṇi punaḥ kleśadāni bhavitum arhanti yadṛc-chayopagatāni

(SB 5.6.1)

So ātmārāmāṇām, ātmārāmāṇām, self-satisfied. There are two kinds of men: ātmārāma and apaśyatām atmā-tattvam (SB 2.1.2)—one who does not know what is the soul and what is the business of the soul. Apaśyatām atmā-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). Ātma-tattvam... First of all, one has to understand that "I am not this body. I am ātmā, soul. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi." Then we fix up our business. If I do not know what I am... Sanātana Gosvāmī approached Caitanya Mahāprabhu: grāmya-vyavahāre paṇḍita, satya kari māni āpanāra hitāhita kichui nā jāni. This is going on. So-called learned philosophers, scientist, educationist—people call them learned scholars. But Sanātana Gosvāmī refused to accept.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1 -- Melbourne, May 21, 1975:

They are after sense gratification. Nobody is interested to understand God. Everybody is interested in cats' and dogs' business, sense gratification. Therefore out of many millions of men, one can understand that "My life is meant for other purpose." That is called siddhi, perfection, "How I shall make my life perfect?" This desire arises in one man out of millions. And they are simply engaged, how to satisfy senses perfectly. But that will never be done. A sane man thinks that "I have done it so many lives. I have not been satisfied. I have not become perfection. Then where is perfection?" That inquisitiveness makes him eligible. Just like ādau śraddhā. I have already explained. So after becoming siddha, perfect... Perfect means one must know that "I am not this body; I am soul," ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is perfection of knowledge.

Lecture on SB 6.1.11 -- New York, July 25, 1971:

Real prāyaścitta, atonement, is knowledge. Why we are fighting? This knowledge required. Why you are fighting? Why there is miseries? This "why" question, this "why" question is in the Vedas. It is called Kena Upaniṣad, asking "Why?" Unless this question arises in a human mind, "Why?" "Why I am suffering?" that is not human life. This question must arise. "Wherefrom I have come? What is my constitutional position? Where I shall go after death? Why I am put into this miserable condition of life? Why there is birth, death, old age, disease? I do not want all of them." So that, this is called vimarśanam, jñānam, thoughtful, how to solve these questions.

Lecture on SB 6.1.11 -- New York, July 25, 1971:

Suppose if you have got indigestion. You cannot digest food very nicely. So you have to eat such things which are easily digestible, or which may not cause acidity, flatulence, air. The doctor prescribes. So if you neglect those principles, then how you can be cured? Similarly, if you want to eradicate your ignorance, how miserable conditions are arising, problems are arising, and you do not try to subside them with real knowledge, how there can be solution of the problems? Try to understand. Just like if you do not follow the program given by the physician for curing your disease, you cannot be cured. If you violate the rules given by the doctor, then how you can expect cure of your disease? Similarly, if you do not think wisely, like wise man, as they're prescribed in the Vedic knowledge, how you can stop the problems of life? That is not possible. Simply by atonement there may be temporary suppression of something, but it will arise again. The same example can be given. The whole world is trying to stop war.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- Auckland, February 22, 1973:

We should understand this. This foolish brain cannot understand, that... This question must rise: "Why I am put into this tribulation? Why I am in distressed condition? I do not want it. Why I am diseased? I do not want it. Why I become old? I do not want it. Why I am subject to death? I do not want it." These questions do not arise. Arise, but they cannot make any solution. That is less intelligent.

But there is solution. And that solution is possible in this life, in this human form of life, intelligent life, advanced consciousness, not in the animal life. By nature's evolutionary process, we come, gradually, through the 8,400,000 forms of life, we come to human life. And this human life is meant for curing this material disease. What is that? Birth, death, old age and disease. But people are so unintelligent that they do not care for it. They are simply busy in producing some material, temporary comfortable situation of this body. That's all.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- Honolulu, May 15, 1976:

When there is fog, you try so many ways; it cannot go. Then, if somehow or other sun rises, immediately finished. Immediately clear. That is our motto in the Back to Godhead: "Godhead is light and nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead, there is no jurisdiction of darkness."

kṛṣṇa sūrya-sama māyā andhakāra
yāhāṅ kṛṣṇa tāhāṅ nāhi māyā adhikāra
(CC Madhya 22.31)

As soon as there is sunshine, immediately the fog is... It's practical.

So somehow or other, Kṛṣṇa, if we get Kṛṣṇa arisen in our heart... Sa vai manaḥ-kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). If we simply concentrate our mind, that is real meditation, to think of Kṛṣṇa—man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65)—then everything will be cleansed automatically.

Lecture on SB 6.1.32 -- Surat, December 16, 1970:

This is science. "I do not want to be old. Why I become old?" Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yam. Because the living entity is eternal, so why he should become old? Kṛṣṇa never becomes old. Kṛṣṇa's picture you have never seen old. Similarly, you also cannot become old.

So these questions do not arise. They are simply, I mean to say, engrossed with animal propensities—eating, sleeping, mating, and defending—as if these are the problems. These are no problems. We have created these problems. Eating is no problem. The animals, they do not endeavor for doing some work for eating. Eating is already there. The birds, beasts are eating. Similarly, human body, eating is there. For example, we are, these forty heads, we are traveling. So eating is already there. Before our coming, our Padubhai(?) has arranged for our eating. So why should we think for eating? So, but actually that is the fact. There is no problem of eating.

Lecture on SB 7.6.6-9 -- Montreal, June 23, 1968:

They don't care. This is the position of general population. So out of that rascal population, one may be intelligent enough, "What is the aim of life? What I am? Why I am suffering? Why suffering is imposed upon me? I want to be happy. Why happiness is not there? Why it is simply temporary?" So many things, questions. So these question arises in the mind of a person out of many thousands of men. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Siddhaye means one who is trying to reach to the point of perfection; not perfection, but simply trying. And yatatām api siddhānām: (BG 7.3) "And out of many thousands of such persons who are trying to approach the Absolute Truth," kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ, "one can understand Me as I am." Therefore one who can understand Kṛṣṇa, His birth, His appearance, His disappearance, His activities, all these things... That is also confirmed in another place, tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā: "Thus one understanding Me in truth," viśate tad-anantaram, "he is allowed to enter into My kingdom.

Lecture on SB 7.9.15 -- Mayapur, February 22, 1976:

Human life is meant for tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva (SB 5.5.1). We have to execute tapasya, austerity. Why? Now, to purify our existence. This present existence is not purified; therefore we have to meet death. Otherwise we are eternal. "Why should we meet death?" This question does not arise at all. The modern civilization, they do not care for death. This is another daring. Death... They never question that "We are eternal." Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "Why I shall meet death?" But this question does not arise for... They think, "Death? We can finish everything." This is called mūḍha. They do not know things are there, what it should be. They do not know that.

So in order to know all this transcendental subject matter, it is recommended, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet: (MU 1.2.12) "One must approach to the proper guru to understand this subject matter." And that is success of human life. Otherwise, to live like cats and dogs—sa eva go-kharaḥ: (SB 10.84.13) cows and ass.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 11, 1973:

Just like while we are asleep we forget everything of our day's life, and during daytime, we forget everything, what we saw in dream. So these two stages... So this is also dream, this is also dream, and I am observer of the dream. Therefore I am the fact, and this is illusion. Both the conditions. So therefore the question arises: "Then what I am?" That is called brahma-jijñāsā. Sanātana Gosvāmī went to Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu to ask this question, "What I am?" And in, any intelligent man can understand that "I am simply dreaming. At night, I am dreaming something, forgetting night's dream, uh, day's dream. And in day, daytime, I am dreaming something. I am forget the night's dream. So actually both of them are dreams, and I am the observer. Then what I am?" This is the question. Athāto brahma jijñāsā This is the beginning of Vedānta-sūtra. One should be inquisitive. Unless one comes to this point of inquiring about himself, then what I am? Why I am dreaming this daytime and nighttime? What is my actual position?

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 11, 1972:

Prabhupāda: Any, any question arises, you can ask.

Pradyumna: "Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has stated that devotional service attracts even Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa attracts everyone, but devotional service attracts Kṛṣṇa. The symbol of devotional service in the highest degree is Rādhārāṇī. Kṛṣṇa is called Madana-mohana, which means that He is so attractive that He can defeat the attraction of thousands of Cupids. But Rādhārāṇī is still more attractive, for She can even attract Kṛṣṇa. Therefore devotees call Her Madana-mohana-mohinī, the attractor of the attractor of Cupid. To perform devotional service means to follow in the footsteps of Rādhārāṇī..."

Prabhupāda: Madana-mohana, Madana-mohana. Madana means sex attraction. Madana, sex attraction, Cupid, and Kṛṣṇa is called Madana-mohana. One can, I mean, neglect even sex attraction if one is attracted to Kṛṣṇa. That is the test. Madana (is) attracting in this material world. Everyone is attracted by sex life. The whole material world is existing on sex life. This is the fact. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-suhkhaṁ hi tuccham. Here, the happiness, the so-called happiness is maithuna, maithunādi. Maithunādi means here happiness begins from maithuna, sex intercourse.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 13, 1972:

Yes. You cannot argue with the spiritual master. First of all, you have to select a spiritual master where you can completely surrender. And as soon... Just like Arjuna surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. When he saw that "The questions which have arisen in my mind, it cannot be solved by ordinary person," therefore he selected. He told Him that "I can understand, without Your Lordship, nobody can mitigate all the doubts in my mind." Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta (SB 11.3.21). Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi mām (BG 2.7). Therefore original spiritual master is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is original spiritual master. Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye. Kṛṣṇa first instructed Brahma, Ādi-kavi. From Brahma, we have got these Vedas, Vedic knowledge. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa is the original spiritual master. Aham evāsam agre. Before creation, Kṛṣṇa was there. Aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). Kṛṣṇa is the origin of all the devas. Devas means Brahmā, Viṣṇu,

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.2 -- Mayapur, March 26, 1975:

Pradyumna: "I offer my respectful obeisances unto Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda, who are like the sun and moon. They have arisen simultaneously on the horizon of Gauḍa to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and thus wonderfully bestow benediction upon all."

Prabhupāda:

vande śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
nityāndandau sahoditau
gauḍodaye puṣpavantau
citrau śandau tamo-nudau
(CC Adi 1.2)

So yesterday we discussed the first verse,

(vande) gurūn īśa-bhaktān
īśam īśāvatārakān
tat-prakāśāṁś ca tac-chaktiḥ
kṛṣṇa-caitanya-saṁjñakam
(CC Adi 1.1)

Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, He has got manyfold expansion. The first expansion is prakāśa, svayaṁ-prakāśa, Balarāma. And Nityānanda is Balarāma. Vrajendra-nandana yei, śacī-sūta hoilo sei, balarāma hoilo nitāi. We have to understand from the mahājana, Narottama das Ṭhākura. Sometimes some foolish people interpret Nityānanda as expansion of Rādhārāṇī, but that is not the fact. Nityānanda is Balarāma. We have to know from mahājana. We cannot manufacture our own idea. That is blasphemy, sahajiyā. Yata mat tata pat. These things are not accepted by mahājana. Mahājana means who follows the previous mahājana. This is the system. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu strictly followed this principle.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.102 -- Baltimore, July 7, 1976:

This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are hankering after independence, but so long we remain in this material world, there is no question of independence. So intelligent man, when he inquires about, when he thinks over, that "I want independence from so many things, but I am not independent. I am forced to accept, then where is my independence?" When this question arises, then he is human being. Otherwise he's as good as the cats and dogs. Because the cats and dogs, they cannot inquire. Just like an animal is being sent to the slaughterhouse, he cannot say "Why I am... What I have done? Why you are sending me to the slaughterhouse?" He cannot protest. Even he protests, nobody hears him. Nobody hears. He protests by crying, by screaming, but we have made our own theories: "This crying is nothing. It has no soul. We can kill."

So in this way the whole world is going on under a gross atmosphere of ignorance.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.318-329 -- New York, December 22, 1966:

We are born ignorant. And if we are educated more, more, more into the platform of ignorance, then our life is all defeat, parābhava. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. So long one is not awakened to spiritual consciousness... "What I am? Why I am suffering? Is there any remedy? How I can save me?"—these questions should arise. This is called brahma-jijñāsa. The Vedānta-sūtra explains this brahma-jijñāsa. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. Athāto: "Now. Now it is the time for you to inquire about your Brahman realization, of your Brahman life." That Brahman life begins when we understand that "I am not this material body. I am spirit soul." That is brahma-jñāna. And one who has got this knowledge, he is brāhmaṇa. He is brāhmaṇa. One who has actually attained this knowledge, that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul," that is brahma-jñāna.

Now, simply to have brahma-jñāna is not sufficient. When you act like Brahman, that is called Vaiṣṇava. That is Vaiṣṇava. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival -- Philadelphia, July 11, 1975:

They do not enquire why breaking and building? Why not permanent? That question does not arise, and they cannot solve it. They think this breaking and building is the nature. But we are giving information of another nature, which there is no breaking, no building-permanent. They cannot believe it, that there is such thing. What is that? (break) ...carvita-carvaṇānām. That is chewing the chewed. They never question, "Why breaking and building? Why not permanent?" We are doing the same thing with our body. We are breaking. As soon as the body is old, we are breaking and accepting another body, again building. Again old, again breaking, again entering another... This is going on. But the question does not arise, "Why? I don't like this breaking and building, but why I am put into this condition?" That is intelligence. Who wants to die? No. Even a very old man—he is suffering from so many things—still, if somebody comes, "Oh, I will kill you," he says, "Oh, no, no, no! Don't kill me. I don't want to die." Why? If somebody says that "You are old man. There is no use..." Now this is coming. The Communists, they are coming to that point, "This is an old man, simply eating. He is not doing anything. So finish him." What is called? Mercy...?

Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976:

The real problem is mṛtyu. But they have taken it that "It is ordinary." But nobody wants to die. The education is na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). But who knows that I do not die after the destruction of the body? Then why I am put into this position that I have to change this body, I have to die? This question does not arise. Therefore they're abodha. The instruction is na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. There is no inquiry that "If I'm not born, why I am born in this body?" This is question. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. "If I am not subjected to death, then why I am dying?" This question does not arise at all. Therefore everyone is abodha-jāto. Nobody is subodha. Everyone is abodha. The problem is there, but he does not inquire.

Indian lady: Mahārāja, don't you think it's high time that our Indian philosophy or Indian religion, some classes should be started in schools like they used to have?

General Lectures

Lecture Engagement -- Montreal, June 15, 1968:

"I am gone. Oh, my car is gone." Although he is different from car, he thinks like that due to identification, false identification. Similarly, because we are falsely identified with this body, therefore we have got so many problems of life. So if we want to make solution of the problems of life, then we have to understand what I am. And unless this question arises in your mind—not only in your mind, everyone's mind—then we should, we must consider that whatever we are doing, that is our defeat because we are doing everything in false consciousness.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ. Abodha-jātaḥ means one who is born fool. Every one of us is a born fool. Why? From the beginning of our life I know that "I am this body," although I am not this body. Therefore we are all born fools, everyone. And therefore, according to Vedic civilization, one has to take his second birth.

Lecture on Teachings of Lord Caitanya -- Seattle, September 25, 1968:

If there is, all of a sudden, there is thunderbolt, you cannot make any remedy. So threefold miseries are always there, either one or two or three. So Sanātana Gosvāmī is presenting himself that "People call me very learned man, but I am so learned that I do not know why I am suffering from these threefold miseries." These question do not arise. Actually, when people will come to the understanding, when they will inquire that "Why I am suffering from the threefold miseries...?" The threefold miseries is summarized in Bhagavad-gītā by four principles: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). If a man is actually learned and intelligent, he should always see before him that there are four kinds of distresses. What is that? The distress of taking birth, the distress of dying procedure, janma-mṛtyu, and distress of old age, and distress of diseases. So we are very much proud of our advancement of knowledge, but actually there is no solution for these four principles of miseries. There is no remedy.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 18, 1968:

The difference between material life and spiritual life is that if somebody is simply engaged in sense gratification business, that is called material life. And out of many thousands of such materialistic persons, if somebody is trying to understand, "What I am? Why I have come here? Why I am put into so many miserable condition of life? Is there any remedy...?" these questions, when arises, then, practically, his spiritual life begins. And the human form of life is meant for that. In animal life they do not know anything except sense gratification. They have no power. Their consciousness is not developed. Just like in the Green Lake park, there are so many ducks. As soon as somebody goes there with some little food, oh, they go gather: "quack! quack! quack! quack!" (laughter) That's all. And after eating, they are enjoying sex life. That's all. So, similarly, like cats and dogs and these animals, the human life is also like that if there is no question "What I am?" If they are simply directed by the sense urges, they are no better than these ducks and dogs.

Lecture at International Student Society -- Boston, May 3, 1969:

Then you will be benefited. So in this Bhagavad-gītā you will find so many nice information that if you see... If you don't see, that is another thing. You have to see that "Why I am put into so many miserable conditions of life although I do not want it?" That should be your question. If this question does not arise in your mind, that means still you are in the animal state of life. That is the human stage of life, when one inquires that "I do not wish to suffer. I do not want this suffering, but I am put into this suffering. Why?" This "why," for this "why," there is Upaniṣad which is called Kena Upaniṣad. So this "why" question must be there in the developed stage of human consciousness. And when that "why" question comes, there is an answer. There is answer in the Bhagavad-gītā, in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and all Vedic literatures. So although people are not very much interested with all these questions and answers, but they are essential. If they do not question and seek for the answers, then they are simply wasting their the opportunity of human life.

Lecture at Christian Monastery -- Melbourne, April 6, 1972:

Guest (8): Swamijī, something you said was the connection between the necessity for obedience to the state and necessity for their obedience to God. To take an example that occurs to many young man in this country, and I suppose in America, the question of military service arises where the state demands their absolute obedience, and many young people feels this clashes with their obedience to God. How do you advise people to resolve this sort of conflict?

Śyāmasundara: About the draft. If one has to obey the state and go to war, how is that the same as obeying God?

Prabhupāda: Well, God consciousness does not prohibit war, but it must be for the right cause. Just like in Bhagavad-gītā we see that the instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā was given to Arjuna in the battlefield. And in the beginning Arjuna did not like to fight. He was a good, good man, religious man, devotee. Naturally, he was not inclined to fight with his relatives, kinsmen. He said, "Kṛṣṇa, the opposite side, they are all my brothers and nephews and fathers and grandfathers. So there is no use of fighting like this, to kill them and take the... Let... Let them enjoy." That was his conclusion. But Kṛṣṇa induced them, induced Arjuna, "No. This is the right cause.

Lecture at St. Pascal's Franciscan Seminary -- Melbourne, June 28, 1974:

So these questions they do, and there is some talking, "ki-chi mihi." So not that kind of question. The questions "What is God? What I am? What is my relationship with God? What is the ultimate goal of life?" These questions and answers should be in the human society. Unless these questions arises—"What is God? What is this material nature? Who has created it? How it is created? How it is going on?" so many things... The main principle is naturally, if we are philosophical minded, we inquire that "How this world is created? Who has created?" And there are many different ways of answering. But the Vedānta-sūtra answers that the, whatever we are seeing, all this cosmic manifestation, the creator is God, Brahman. Athāto brahma jijñāsā, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). So God, or the Supreme Truth, Absolute Truth is that from whom everything has come. So that is the beginning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1),

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Hayagrīva: Oh, he says insofar as the soul is perfect it controls the body, but insofar as the soul is imperfect or its perceptions are confused, the soul is slaved by the passions arising out of corporeal representations.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: In other words, uh...

Prabhupāda: That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā very nicely, that the soul is in this material world, and he is influenced by the three modes of material nature. So according to his position under the influence of three different kinds of modes, he is getting this body. It is on account of his free will. Just like if he wants to eat anything and everything up to stool, then he is given the body of a pig. If he wants to eat direct blood, sucking, then he gets the body of a tiger. And if he wants to eat first-class nutritious food, then he is given the body of a brāhmaṇa. In this way we are getting different types of bodies according to our desire. We are creating different types of desires, that "We shall be happy in this way, we shall be happy in this way." Just like we see practically, somebody is going to the restaurant, he thinks, "By eating here in restaurant I shall be happy." And somebody is going to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness temple, he is thinking that "I shall be happy by eating here."

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: Well, his point is that these contradictions-saying that "There is a God," "There is no God"—these contradictions only arise because the reason attempts to apply its categories to the transcendent of the absolute, whereas these categories are only applicable to empirical experience. In other words, by reason alone I cannot...

Prabhupāda: This is by reason only. I see everything is growing; therefore the whole cosmic manifestation must have grown from a source. This is reason.

Śyāmasundara: This is transcendental reason.

Prabhupāda: No. Common reason. Every matter is growing from a certain source, so therefore this material world must have grown from a certain source.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: But whenever there are disputes arising between states, then there must be war.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is natural. Just like in our ordinary lives, citizens, they disagree. They go to the court.

Śyāmasundara: But here he says there's no higher body between two, jurisdiction between states, that it can only be settled by war. There's no court or higher authority for judging between states.

Prabhupāda: There is higher body if there is religion, if there is philosophy, if there is learned section, brāhmaṇas, Kṛṣṇa conscious people. There is higher authority.

Śyāmasundara: He says there's no potent world authority.

Prabhupāda: No, you have killed all these things, but the system is there. Therefore the brahminical culture is above the kṣatriya culture. Therefore this division must be there; brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. The administrators, the kings, they are kṣatriyas, but above them the brāhmaṇas are there. But because there is no brahminical class—they have all killed them-therefore he says there is no authority.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Hayagrīva: In The Descent of Man Darwin writes, "The belief in God has often been advanced as not only the greatest but the most complete of all the distinctions between man and the lower animals. It is, however, impossible to maintain that this belief is instinctive in man. The idea of a universal and beneficent creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man until he has been elevated by long, continued culture."

Prabhupāda: Yes. The culture is important. If he gets the chance of cultured association, then he elevates. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). If he, according to his cultural life, he can go to the higher planetary system, he can remain where he is, he can degrade, and he can go back to home, back to Godhead. Therefore culture is very important in human form of life.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Hayagrīva: He says in the realm of philosophy and religion, certainty is impossible. He says, "The moment philosophy supposes it can find a final and comprehensive solution, it ceases to be inquiry and becomes either apologetics or propaganda. Any philosophy that in its quest for certainty ignores the reality of the uncertain in the ongoing processes of nature denies the conditions out of which it arises."

Prabhupāda: There is uncertain when you do not accept the reality. The reality is God, and God is explaining how things are going on, but you take it as mythology. Then how you will know?

Hayagrīva: No way.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Śyāmasundara: He is describing three types of salvation. That was the first type, momentary. The second type he calls ethical salvation. He says that because the aim of our life is the final satisfaction of the will, after which no more desires will arise, this being our aim of life...

Prabhupāda: That means the supreme will. He does not know that. Satisfy the supreme will. Just like father wants to do something, his son, his spiritual master or the teacher want. So yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo **. Our philosophy is to please the supreme, the spiritual master, the representative of God or God. That means supreme will. Not my will, but the supreme will. That is highest perfection. That is salvation. Just like a person who is working under the guidance of a superior man, actually they do so. Just like in factories there is a foreman. So ordinary workers, they are working, but the foreman is giving direction. Similarly, that means he is fulfilling the desires of the superior. He is not doing whimsically. He is doing according to the direction of the superior man present there. So this is the philosophy, that if you can satisfy the supreme will, then you are liberated. Just like Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is supreme will, order.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Hayagrīva: "...and may therefore be demanded back the next hour. All pain rests on the passing away of such allusion. Thus both arise from defective knowledge."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: "The wise man therefore holds himself equally aloof from joy and sorrow, and no event disturbs his composure."

Prabhupāda: The other day, yesterday, I was explaining that this side good, this side bad, the same thing. Stool is stool. So this side or that side. But here in this material world, they are accepting this temporary or false, whatever you call, platform, and we are manufacturing in that false platform, temporary platform, "This is good, this is bad." Why? Where is the good and bad? They are all temporary, or false. We don't say false; we say temporary. The Māyāvādī philosopher, they say false. So that is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that the pains and pleasure of this material world, it is experienced by the (indistinct). The spirit soul does not touch this. It is different. He is not concerned with this material, but he is illusioned that "This pains and pleasure is mine." Therefore Kṛṣṇa advises in the Bhagavad-gītā that this pains and pleasures, simply touching the skin, body. But I am not this body. That is the first instruction.

Philosophy Discussion on Jacques Maritain:

Śyāmasundara: So he says because men are a combination of spiritual personality and material individuality, he says because of the spiritual personality we can know God, and because of the material individuality evil arises, because of the material body.

Prabhupāda: No. If we have no perfect knowledge of the individuality... Individuality does not mean always evil and good. Just like in Vṛndāvana, the gopīs, they have got individuality, but that individuality is for Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they are all one. The objective is one. The example was given by my Guru Mahārāja that according to Vedic system, when one's husband is away from home, she does not dress herself very nicely, so she does not look very attractive. But the same woman, when the husband is at home, she dresses very nice. Now, this dressing or not dressing, they are two contradictory things, but the aim is the one; therefore that is one. The aim is the husband. For the husband's satisfaction she dresses and sometimes not dresses. So these two things, dressing and not dressing, apparently may be contradictory, but (if) the aim is one, they are the same. Similarly, there is variety in the spiritual world, but all the varieties, their central point is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the varieties are also one.

Philosophy Discussion on Jacques Maritain:

Śyāmasundara: He means more in the sense that because of this material body, this material position, that is where evil arises, by identifying with this material condition only. Their real nature is spiritual. Personality is spiritual.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is contaminated. The varieties are there in the spiritual world. The same varieties when they are presented here with material contamination, it is called perverted. Just like the example in the Fifteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, ūrdhva-mūlam adhaḥ-śākham (BG 15.1), reflection on the bank of a river, reservoir of water, the tree is reflected, varieties are there. The trees or trunks, branches, twigs, flowers, everything is reflected, but they are all false. Real variety is there, on the bank of the river. Because it is reflection, it appears that everything is there in the perverted way, and then they are all false.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Śyāmasundara: No. He doesn't say one way or the other. He is merely trying to analyze the sex impulse. He says that due to repressed childhood sex desires that these neuroses arise in a person's personality, and that by analyzing...

Prabhupāda: Our process is not repression. We don't repress. Therefore we give facility, that "You have got sex impulse. All right, you have it, but with your wife, legalized wife."

Śyāmasundara: He thinks more in terms from the very beginning of birth there is sex impulse.

Prabhupāda: That is admitted. We say that as soon as there is an embodied living being, he must have hunger, he must have sex impulse. (indistinct), we find in the animals these impulses are there, so why so much philosophy? They are already there. What is the use of philosophizing?

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Hayagrīva: ...and on Sigmund Freud, you discussed with Śyāmasundara Prabhu the sexual aspects, but not the theological aspects. Freud wrote two basic books on religion, Future of an Illusion, and there was a great deal in Leonardo da Vinci, A Study in Psycho-sexuality. He writes, "Psychoanalysis, which has taught us the intimate connection between the father complex and belief in God, has shown us that the personal God is psychologically nothing but an exalted father. Youthful persons lose their religious belief as soon as the authority of the father breaks down." So he sees God as basically a father complex arising out of the need of help of the little child.

Prabhupāda: That little child, how he can give up the idea of father? And how Mr. Freud can give up the idea? Was he not born by a father?

Hayagrīva: He feels that...

Prabhupāda: He dropped from the sky? Huh? Did, did he?

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

Prabhupāda: Then the question arises, how to rectify these defects?

Śyāmasundara: He says by changing the social environment. By changing the social environment.

Prabhupāda: But he cannot do.

Devotee: But in my experience changing the social environment...

Prabhupāda: The social environment is already there, but still you will be punished.

Śyāmasundara: But his idea is that if you reward them for not stealing that they will not steal. If you reward them sufficiently.

Prabhupāda: First of all let him come to the point of not stealing. Then you will be all right.

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Prabhupāda: That's all." So there is no question of profit. If you have produced one kilo, give one-fourth kilo to the king as tax. That is real social system. Actually, according to our Vedic system, everything belongs to God and the king is supposed to be representative of God to manage things. So for his managerial work he requires some money. Therefore I have taken some land for my livelihood. So whatever production is there, I pay one-fourth to the king for management. This is nice system. As soon as the tax is realized in terms of pound, shillings, pence, whole difficulty arises. I have produced ten mounds of rice and out of that one-fourth I give to the government or to the king. So I have no anxiety. If I produce twenty mounds, I give one-fourth. If I produce ten mounds, I give one-fourth. If I don't produce I don't give. This is perfect system.

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Prabhupāda: So then what is duty?

Hayagrīva: He says, "Our knowledge of God arises from the enactment of our duty."

Prabhupāda: So what is your duty? That God must be giving you the duty, "You do this," then you understand God; you know your duty. But if you have no conception of God, then where is your duty?

Hayagrīva: Well duty, one's duty...

Prabhupāda: These are vague philosophy.

Philosophy Discussion on Plotinus:

Prabhupāda: This is our conception. This Plotinus is all, all our, practically ninety percent our conception. This is the...

Hayagrīva: But the visible cosmos is beautiful, and the evil does not arise from the creator.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That the individual soul, being attracted by this illusory energy, he comes here for sense gratification. It is not by the desire of the Supreme One. By his personal desire. So God gives him freedom. So he begins the life from a very exalted position in this material world—sometimes like Brahma. But on account of material activities he becomes entangled, so much so that degradation from the exalted position like Lord Brahma, he comes to become a worm in the stool.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Hayagrīva: Augustine believes that the physical body comes first, and then the spiritual. "What is so in a natural body arises a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. But it is not the spiritual which comes first, but the physical and then the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, earthy. The second man is from heaven, heavenly. But the body which, by the life-giving spirit will become spiritual and immortal, will under no conditions be able to die." So that man must first come as a, as man, as a mortal, physical being first, in order to attain immortality.

Prabhupāda: Why man? Every living entity has a mortal body. So to enter into the mortal body, that is a kind of punishment. And then there is evolutionary process from lower grade of body to higher grade of body. That is quite reasonable, that every living entity or soul is part and parcel of God, but on account of some sinful activities or disobedience to God, as they believe Adam on account of disobedience to God they lost Paradise and came to this material world, similarly, the soul belongs to the Paradise, or heaven, or Kṛṣṇa, but somehow or other he falls down within this material world, and he gets first a body like Adam. But again, on account of his further, low-grade activities, he goes down, sometimes as human being or sometimes as more than human being—the demigod—and sometimes as animal, trees, plants. In this way he goes down, degradation, or goes up by elevation. But he is always aloof from the material body, but according to his desires and activity he gets different body.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Aquinas:

Hayagrīva: Well, but the material universe must have been created out of nothing, because it could not have arisen out of God's spiritual nature.

Prabhupāda: No. The material nature is also inferior nature of God. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). Apareyam, the material nature, means earth, water, fire, air, ether, and the subtle materials, mind, intelligence, ego. They are all emanation from God, so actually they are not unreal but inferior. They are, it is called, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. They are separated material energy. We can have a little idea, just like we are speaking in the microphone, and it is being recorded in the tape recorder. When the tape recorder is replayed, the sound coming from exactly like the original person's sound, but it is not in touch with the person, but it has come from the person. If somebody does not see wherefrom the sound is coming, he can conjecture that such and such person speaking, although such and such person is away from that speaking engagement. Similarly, this material world is emanation, is expansion, of energy of the Supreme Lord, but it is not that this material world has come into existence from nothing. No. It has come from the Supreme Truth, but it is inferior energy.

Page Title:Arise (Lectures)
Compiler:SunitaS, RupaManjari
Created:24 of Jul, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=78, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:78