Empower (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"empower" |"empowered" |"empowering" |"empowers"

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Actually, how God's hand has worked out this nice flower. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā God says, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya (BG 7.8). Just like I am drinking water. In the taste of the water I'll see God. God says, Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the taste of the water." And actually, that taste cannot be created by man. The taste in the water, that is God's gift. So as soon as I taste the water, immediately I should remember, "Oh, here is God."

Guest (1): So we believe that the holy spirit empowers artists and composers. And therefore we would say that a symphony was a creation of God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Creation... In everything there is hand of God. Therefore one who has learned to see everything in connection with God, he sees God everywhere, every moment.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Bob Cohen: I asked one. They said..., he said he claimed that Jesus was also eating meat in the Bible. But I don't know.

Prabhupāda: But that's all right. He, he may eat anything. He's powerful. But he has ordered, "Thou shalt not kill." You must stop killing. He is powerful. He can eat the whole world. You cannot compare with Jesus Christ. You cannot imitate Jesus Christ. You shall have to abide by his order. That is your position. Then you are guided by Jesus Christ. That is actually obedience. You cannot imitate. That is explained in Bhāgavata, that those who are īśvara, those who are empowered, they will do anything, but we cannot imitate. We have to abide by his order. "What he says to me, that I will do." You cannot imitate. If you say that "Jesus Christ ate meat," admitting that, in what condition he ate meat, if you do not know, then Jesus Christ is contradicting his statement. He's eating himself meat, and he's advising others not to kill. Do you think Jesus Christ is contradicting?

Bob Cohen: No.

Prabhupāda: He cannot do that. That, that is real faith in Jesus, that he cannot do that. So "Why he has eaten meat, he knows, but he has asked me not to kill. I have to follow it." That is real Christianity. You are not Jesus Christ. You cannot imitate.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discussion about Guru Maharaji -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: He was empowered man, that we can understand. But we cannot accept him God. In our history, God is never killed. God kills others. That we have got evidence. And ordinary men, they took him, and crucified, and nobody, other, of the opposite party was killed. So that makes a little difference.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: A child, he speaks so many things. Who cares for it? Similarly we must know, anyone who's not Kṛṣṇa, he's a madman. He's empowered by this illusory energy. He talks all nonsense. So ours should be that "If you want to understand, then you come to this position. Then you'll understand. You must be educated."

Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Guru is the mercy incarnation of God, mercy incarnation. God is kind to everyone, so He is teaching everyone from within, but still, to make it still more explicit, He sends His mercy in the form of guru.

Prajāpati: The śaktyāveśa-avatāra means Kṛṣṇa coming in a form of a living entity empowered by him for some special purpose.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Candanācārya: Guru is greater than śaktyāveśa-avatāra.

Prabhupāda: No, guru is considered as Kṛṣṇa Himself. Guru-rūpa kṛṣṇa hana avatāra. Just to teach the conditioned soul, guru comes himself, er, Kṛṣṇa comes Himself in the form of guru. Therefore we sing in the Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's prayer, sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ: "In every śāstra, guru is accepted as directly Kṛṣṇa." Sākṣāt. Sākṣāt means directly. Sākṣād-dharitvena: As Kṛṣṇa, is accepted in every śāstra, sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktaḥ **, it is said, uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ **, and this statement is accepted by advanced devotees. It is not only statement, but it is accepted.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 6, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, there are different types of śaktyāveṣa avatāra. So when an ordinary jīva is specially empowered, he is called śaktya aveṣa avatāra, śatktyaveṣa avatāra, vibhūti. Yad yad vibhūtimat sattvam. He is living entity, but especially empowered. Just like for certain business I give sometimes somebody power of attorney, that "He will do this. He will sign for me." Like that. He is also one of the disciples, but for particular purpose, he is given the power of attorney. In this way when a living entity is empowered specifically to do something, that is called śaktyāveṣa avatāra. Aveṣa avatāra. Kṛṣṇa śakti vinā nāhe nāma pracāra. That is explained in the... These are explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. (break) ...śaktya. Mama tejo-'ṁśa-sambhavam. So śaktyāveṣa avatāra is not viṣṇu-tattva. He is jīva-tattva. So the Lord Jesus Christ or Lord Buddha, they come within the jīva-tattva especial power.

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Buddha is śaktyāveśa-avatāra. We accept Lord Jesus Christ also, śaktyāveśa-avatāra; Mohammed, śaktyāveśa-avatāra. Śaktyāveśa-avatāra means a living entity especially empowered and he preaches the philosophy on behalf... That is called śaktyāveśa-avatāra. There are different types of avatāras. Guṇāvatāra, manvantarāvatāra, yugāvatāra, līlāvatāra, śaktyāveśāvatāra, like that. They are described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. About avatāras. You find out Teachings of Lord Caitanya, avatāras. Innumerable avatāras. Come here. Find out this chapter. Avatāra saṅkhyeyaḥ. It is compared, just like in the river, the waves are flowing. You cannot count, or in the... What is that? Avatāra. Read, read that chapter.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1975, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: How they can? He is not pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. How he can do? Kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nāhe nāma pracāra: "Without being empowered by Kṛṣṇa nobody can turn a person to become devotee of Kṛṣṇa." It is not... Artificially, you cannot make. He may make show of gold manufacturing, but he cannot make a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Śaktyāveṣa avatāra, somebody empowered by Him, not Kṛṣṇa Himself. Just like Christ. Christ is also empowered incarnation. Śaktyāveṣa avatāra. Mohammed is also. Anyone who is preaching about God is empowered incarnation. Kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nāhi kṛṣṇa nāma-pracāra. That is there in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. (break)

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He was empowered.

Indian boy (2): He was only one person.

Prabhupāda: Empowered by God. God created Brahmā, and he was empowered to create the universe.

Indian boy (2): There should not have been two people, a female and male?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian boy (2): There should not have been two people, a male and a female, to create everything?

Prabhupāda: Yes, male and female.

Indian boy (2): Then, apart from Brahmā, there would have been something else.

Prabhupāda: No, Brahmā created male and female.

Morning Walk -- November 14, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Of course, one cannot preach Bhagavad-gītā unless he is empowered by Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. Kṛṣṇa śakti vinā nahe nāma pracaraṇa. It is not possible.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: They'll go to hell (laughter). To pick up some sand, as if sand is not there.

Sadāpūta: Śrīla Prabhupāda, is māyā especially empowering the scientists to come up with nonsense?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Sadāpūta: It is all coming from Kṛṣṇa, though, isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because you want to be fool, Kṛṣṇa makes you a better fool.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: This Mahā-Viṣṇu places His glance over the material energy, and by a reflection of His transcendental body He amalgamates Himself within the material elements. As the source of the material elements, the material energy is known as pradhāna, and as the source of the manifestations of the material energy it is known as māyā. But material nature is inert in that she has no independent power to do anything. She is empowered to make the cosmic manifestation by the glance of Mahā-Viṣṇu. Therefore the material energy is not the original cause of the material manifestation. Rather, the transcendental glance of Mahā-Viṣṇu over material nature produces that cosmic manifestation."

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Some have said like that. In my matriculation class I wrote some essay and I got out of 100, 85 marks. But the teacher came to the class, "Who has written this?" So I stood up, and he thanked me, "Yes, it is very nice." He especially came to thank me for that essay.

Gargamuni: At least from the human standpoint, it is not humanly possible to have so many books in such a short time. There is no other author, at least that we know.

Jayapatākā: I showed your "As Brilliant as the Sun" to Tarun Kanti Gosh and one other minister, and when they saw that, then after, for ten minutes, all they could say was how Prabhupāda, how he is empowered by Lord Gaurāṅga.

Prabhupāda: They said like that.

Jayapatākā: Yes. That's a good movie because it simply shows how you are doing so many books.

Gargamuni: We also showed that to that Atul Krishna Goswami. He came to Māyāpura. When he saw that he was so..., that movie, they had never seen such a thing, the process of printing the books.

Prabhupāda: He has good idea about...

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His second question is, "Considering that the Bible describes Jesus as the savior of the people of God, not only of Israel but of every man's sins, does it not minimize his actual position to say that he is simply an avatāra, and does it not contradict the teachings of the Bible...?" First of all he says isn't that minimizing him to say that he's an avatāra?

Prabhupāda: We accept him as avatāra, śaktyāveśa-avatāra, empowered incarnation of God. That we accept.

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is going on, but time immemorial. That is not the solution.

Mr. Koshi: They have seen to have more control over people than others. When a person is empowered, his actions can affect so many people.

Prabhupāda: So what kind of people?

Mr. Koshi: Cats and dogs.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Śva-viḍ-varāha. They have been described in the Bhāgavata as dogs, camels, asses and hogs. Śva-viḍ-varāha-uṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ. (break) The leader of hogs, dogs, camels and asses. Our civilization is brahminical, brāhmaṇa. That is wanted.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So where is a Christian? In my opinion there is not a single Christian. Do they follow all ten commandments? 2) We accept Jesus Christ as śaktyāveśa-avatāra, an empowered incarnation of God. 3) The Bible should be accepted literally and not symbolically. There is no symbolical meaning of the sacrifice on the cross. The people were so rascal. They attempted to kill him because he was speaking of God. We can understand the position of that society.

Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Then whole meeting, people are coming, Russian people. When Indira is empowered they are coming to hear her, and she is gone. Rascals. What is the value of their vote? Sometimes giving vote here, sometimes giving vote there.

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: He is seventy-five. He was saying that... He's written some sentimental books about Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's flute and this and that. But anyway, he was just saying that he couldn't imagine how you could do so much. You know, he said, unless you were empowered by God, you could not have done this. He said with great difficulty he had published one book in America, and you'd published so many books, sales, and making devotees, and establishing centers. He wasn't feeling well, but he said he would really like to come here and offer...

Prabhupāda: Bombay?

Girirāja: ...his obeisances.

Prabhupāda: Why not invite them? And immediately you should have invited him.

Girirāja: No, yes, I did.

Prabhupāda: So you can stay there. We have a good place.

Conversations -- May 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So there is a medium of literature, medium of professor, medium of the cinema, but still, medium of the personality who in (indistinct) presented it himself. And you, of all people, that attracted by transcendental personality. What with these social religions; there are many authorities and leaders have gone there, and social-religious reformers who practice the yoga, jñāna, karma, etcetera, etcetera. But the one person imbued and empowered fully, transcendental form, by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself, and by his guru, Prabhupāda. It is not that... Nobody can empower.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, not to your banker. To Prabhupāda's bank, the Bank of Baroda. Then I also mentioned that I am enclosing a copy of the power of attorney, that "Prabhupāda has been ill so he has difficulty in signing and he has duly empowered the following two persons." And that power of attorney will also be sent to them. So I'm also going to write a letter to Chandra requesting him to give Vrindavan help, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So he will carry all these letters.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So what he's going to do... Today I'm giving you... And I explained to Vrindavan, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that originally these receipts, these postal receipts, were meant for all of the five former family members, but as he's doing business now and he requires some money, that Your Divine Grace is giving him this money as a good chance. And I said that he should utilize it to develop the business. And in the future, when there is sufficient money, he may pay to the individuals the amount that they would have gotten from these postal receipts. But first of all use it and develop the business. Is that all right?

Prabhupāda: It will be success...