Just like we have imposed some rules that illicit sex relationship and intoxication, meat-eating, so many things. So... Of course, intentionally one should not break these laws. But even sometimes we may find that there is some flaw in one's part... Suppose if I see somebody smoking, but he is doing Kṛṣṇa consciousness very nicely. So we should not deride. We shall give him concession to reform. It does not mean that because he has accidentally smoked, smoking, that does not mean he has become immediately disqualified. As Arjuna is showing: "Although they have become avaricious, still, they are my superiors. Still. Still, they are my superiors." This is called unflinching faith. In spite of seeing my respectful superior abominable, not willingly, but by accident, still, I should not withdraw my respect.
Impose (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Caitanya Mahāprabhu, even not accepting Him as incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, if simply you accept Him as ordinary scholar or man, there was no comparison of His scholarship. But He said that "My spiritual master found Me a great fool." What is that meaning? That "A person, even in My position, always remains a fool before his spiritual master. That is good for him." Nobody should impose that "What do you know? I know better than you."
So you know the story that Caitanya Mahāprabhu started civil disobedience, disregarded the section, I mean to say, imposed by the magistrate Chand Kazi that "You cannot hold the saṅkīrtana. The people are disturbed." Just like you are being threatened by the police. So this is not new thing. This thing is going on from the very beginning, even Caitanya Mahāprabhu's time. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu disregarded the notice. "Don't care for this Kazi. Go on."
If we have got the chance of starting a temple here, we shall also let you know how to spend for spiritual consciousness. Yes. Now their family duty is that they are, this Singhania, Sir Padampat Singhania, they have got four or five brothers, and the mother is still living. And the order is that each and every family member must go every day and pay respect to the Deity. And if somebody is absent one day, then he must be fined. A fine is imposed.
The, the big brother, Sir Padampat Singhania, if he's absent one day to pay respect to the Deity, he's fined ten rupees, or ten dollars. You see? And, and next day the brāhmaṇa, or the pūjārī, the worshiper engaged, he goes to collect the fine. He presents, "Yes, yes. I am sorry. Yes. Here is my fine." (laughs) So of course, this is self-imposed, but the idea is that they are spiritually conscious in this way. "Oh, I did not go yesterday to offer my respect to the Deity, Kṛṣṇa. So I must pay fine." This is also spiritual consciousness. This is also spiritual consciousness.
Kṛṣṇa-bhakti nitya-siddha sādhya kabhu naya. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness is an eternal fact. It is nothing that by this organization we are imposing upon you something extra. No. It is within you. It is within every living entity. Any living entity—never mind whether he is human being or animal... When Lord Caitanya was singing this Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, He was passing through jungles, forests, and the tigers, the elephants, the stags, and all, I mean to, forest animals, they joined. They joined. It is such a thing.
This chance is being given by the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We invite people all over the world, "Please come and join with this chanting, Hare Kṛṣṇa." Actually, whatever development has been made, it is only by this process. We don't impose any, I mean to say, regulation in the beginning. No. "Please come and sit down and hear about Kṛṣṇa." Śravaṇam. If you simply continue, if you do not do anything, I guarantee that if you simply come here and hear about Kṛṣṇa, you will be liberated. If you do not do anything, if you kindly come here and hear about Kṛṣṇa. Here or anywhere, śravaṇam.
When we accept any self-realization process, it is practically declaring war against the illusory energy, māyā. So when there's a question of māyā or a question of fight or war there will be so many difficulty imposed by māyā, that is certain. Therefore there is a chance of failure. but one has to become very steady.
It is simply awakened. Not that artificially we are imposing some impression to the minds of our students that they are hankering after "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa..." No. It is a process to remove all the dirty things from the heart. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). And as soon as the heart is cleansed of all dirty things, material contamination, then we can see what is our relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
We are thinking that we are enjoying facilities, but actually they are not facilities. So instead of wasting our energy for so-called facilities, we should apply our energy: "What I am? Why I am suffering? I do not like to suffer. Why suffering is imposed upon me?" This is called knowledge. But by the illusory energy of māyā, the so-called knowledge, our real knowledge has been taken away, and some foolish knowledge has been imposed upon us that we are thinking, "Oh, we are advancing. Advancement of knowledge." By advancement of knowledge, we have manufactured atom bomb so that killing process can be accelerated.
In, in the market you'll have so many commentaries of the Bhagavad-gītā. In India we have counted, there are about six hundred and forty-five different commentaries of Bhagavad-gītā. One Dr. Rele(?) of Bombay, he has interpreted Bhagavad-gītā as the talks between the patient and the medical practitioner. Yes. He has imposed on Kṛṣṇa as the physician and Arjuna as the patient. And in his commentary he has tried to, I mean to say, interpose all the meanings of anatomy, physiology, everything in his own imagination.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Therefore dharma does not mean a faith. It is compulsory. So the compulsory law is that God is great, and we are subordinate or servant of God. You may believe or not believe; the God's law will apply upon you forcibly. Exactly like the state law, you may have faith or no faith; you must accept it. Otherwise it will be forcibly imposed upon you. So dharma, as it is explained in English dictionary, "a kind of faith," that is not proper meaning. Dharma means that you are obliged to obey the laws given by God.
Everyone wants to be puffed up before his friends and relatives. So this is materialism. But the same thing done for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, that "We shall construct this temple for Kṛṣṇa's inhabitation. We shall construct this building for providing the devotees of Kṛṣṇa so that they may be able to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra without any disturbance..." It appears the same thing, karma and bhakti, but bhakti is always in relation with Kṛṣṇa and karma is always in relation with sense gratification. Therefore, the things, the ingredients is originally spiritual because it is Kṛṣṇa's energy. But ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8), when we try to impose our proprietorship, that is materialism. Materialism means forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, there is no materialism; everything is spiritual.
Sanātana Gosvāmī inquired that "I do not want this. I do not want this. But why they are imposed upon me?" This is very intelligent question. "If there is any solution?" That is intelligence, not temporary mitigation of... Temporary... Weather... Just like it is summer or winter. Anyway. Summer, in the summer we are suffering, scorching heat. At that time we are hankering after some cool place. And during winter we are suffering from chilly cold, rain. So these thing will go on.
This body is therefore anartha. Anartha means things which are not required. That is called anartha. Artha means things which we require, positive. And anartha means things which we do not require but unnecessarily imposed upon us. So that is suffering. We are thinking that we are enjoying this electric fan, but actually we are suffering; therefore the electric fan is required. So why this electric fan is required? Because the body is anartha; it has created the situation.
Just like your shirt and coat are covering of your real body, similarly, this material body is covering of the spiritual body. We have got our spiritual body. So when a person comes to the understanding that "This body is anartha, unnecessarily imposed upon me," that is called knowledge. That is called brahma-jñāna. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54).
Real value is to understand ātma-tattvam, "What I am? Why death is imposed upon me? I do not wish to die. Why old age is imposed upon me? I do not wish to become old man or old woman. I wish to remain a beautiful young..." "No, sir, that is not possible." Then where is your freedom? What for you are jumping so much? As soon as the master will call "Yes, sir. Bind me..."
Beginning from Brahmā, whose duration of life is some thousands of millions of years, down to the microbial germs, who live for a few seconds only, he's struggling for existence. Therefore this life is a sort of fight with material nature, which imposes death upon all. This is struggle. Everyone wants to live, but... He may live for some time—for few seconds, for few minutes, or for few years, or for few millions of years. But death will come. And our struggle is how to overcome death.
People still, in India, those who are rich men, they have got their family temple Deities. One temple is there in Kanpur. The family members, they are very rich. The rule is that if the family members do not come in the temple to offer obeisances to the Deity, they'll be fined. The mother, the head of the family... Mother is still living. She has imposed this law, that "Any of my children or grandchildren, if he or she does not visit the temple, then according to this rule, this fine should be realized from them." So if somebody misses to go in the temple one day, the priest presents the bill: "Sir, you have been fined five rupees."
There are so many societies, vegetarian societies, nondrinking societies. That is nice, but they cannot stay. By forming ordinary society or imposing some law by the state, you cannot stop. You have many laws to stop stealing, still there are thieves. That is not possible. You have so many laws not to do something. But because everyone is under the grip of prakṛti, material nature, how he can change? It is not possible. So that is the mistake of the modern civilization.
So for God realization formerly people used to undergo such severe type of penances, and at the present moment we are so fallen, we cannot tolerate these four principles? Is it very difficult? We are imposing some tapasya, that "Don't indulge in these things. No illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating, no gambling." These are the items of tapasya for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So is it very difficult? It is not difficult.
No scientist's brain is working. But it is possible. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). These rascals, when they forget that death is not our business, it is artificially imposed upon us, so we must become deathless again... That is the human life perfection. But nobody is caring. We have become so dull. One can avoid birth, death, old age... Because Kṛṣṇa says the soul, the spirit soul, ātmā, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit: "It does not die, it does not take birth." And actually, we are experiencing birth and death, old age and disease.
Just like at night, unnecessarily, the dogs bark, and we cannot sleep. This is called adhibhautika, suffering imposed by other living entities—the mosquitos, the bugs. Then enemies. Suffering. Just like some of our enemies, they are hindering sanctioning this temple. So this is called adhibhautika. And besides that, big, big sufferings there are. Then adhidaivika, accident, which you have no control over. No sufferings you have control. That is not possible.
I'll not expand my lecture, how we are suffering from this material body, but several times I have explained that this body is subjected to so many conditions. Just like adhyātmika we have got some bodily pains, mental inequilibrium and so many things. That is called adhyātmika, pertaining to the body and the mind, sufferings. Similarly, there are sufferings imposed by other living entities. Similarly, there are sufferings imposed by natural phenomena. So because we have got this body, we are subjected to threefold miseries of life. And we are hankering after eternal life, blissful life, life of knowledge. If you want to attain that perfectional stage of life, which is called brahma-saukhyam—Brahman, Brahman means the greatest—then you have to follow some regulative principles of austerity so that your existence will be purified and, Ṛṣabhadeva says, then you'll be eligible to enjoy eternal life.
For thousands of years the Hindu society is so fallen. Therefore so many Mohammedans have increased here. They are not imported. In this way the Hindu population, they have been forced to accept Mohammedan religion. You see? By the Mohammedans. Just like Aurangzeb. He imposed one tax for the Hindus. So all the poor men class, to avoid the tax they became Mohammedans. And there was so much punishment by the Hindus. And so he became a Mohammedan, so-called Mohammedan, by the diagnosis of the bhaṭṭācārya. So this kind of prāyaścitta was current during the fallen days of the Vedic society.
You are habituated to unrestricted sex life, and if I say that "Don't have illicit sex life," it will be troublesome for you. Similarly, so many things are there, we are habituated, and if they are restricted there will be some trouble. So voluntarily accepting some trouble is called tapasya, or austerity. Just like a patient, if he wants to be cured, he has to follow the restriction imposed by the physician. And he follows it. Just like doctor says it, "Oh, you cannot get up. You must lie down twenty-four hours." He doesn't like it, but he has to do it. This is called tapasya, austerity. Penance.
Only the rascals, they think, "We're enjoying." Everyone is suffering. This is a place for suffering. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), Kṛṣṇa says, who has created this place. It is a place of suffering. Every moment you are suffering due to this body, due to the mind, due to the suffering imposed by other living entities. The mosquito will bite, the flies will disturb you, the bugs are there, and then the dogs will bark unnecessarily. You are passing, and his business is barking. Ha? "Bow! Bow! Bow!" (laughter) So this is also suffering. You don't like the next door the dog is barking. So in this way, if you are sober man, you don't want all this suffering, but it is imposed upon you. How do you think that you are living very happy? This is foolishness.
So we should utilize our time very carefully. Puṁso varṣa-śatam... Because here is the calculation that although, supposing that I shall live for one hundred years, puṁso varṣa-śataṁ hy āyus tad-ardhaṁ cājitātmanaḥ (SB 7.6.6). Immediately, those who are not controlling the senses, ordinary, they are immediately at least half minus, fifty years gone for sleeping. And then niṣphalaṁ yad asau rātryāṁ śete 'ndhaṁ prāpitas tamaḥ. So in this way, if you are actually serious... It is not that we are imposing something. We must be serious about the Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, that simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa or simply being Kṛṣṇa conscious, we become liberated.
We are eating, sleeping, mating, that's all. Who knows what is going to be happened after death? Who can..." 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.
If family-wise, everyone is engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, that is very nice. That is not ordinary family. That attachment is not ordinary attachment. But generally people are attached materially. That is condemned here. Śeṣaṁ gṛheṣu saktasya pramattasya apayāti hi. They are called pramatta. Everyone is thinking that "My family, my wife, my children, my nation, my community, that is everything. What is Kṛṣṇa?" This is the greatest illusion imposed by māyā. But nobody will able to give you protection.
Prabhupāda: So this is the description of the Absolute Truth. You can explain in your own way. Just stand up and explain. They'll be glad. The Absolute Truth explanation.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The Absolute Truth?
Prabhupāda: Yes, you can explain in your scientific way.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: We impose that, ah...
Prabhupāda: Stand up and say. They'll be glad to hear.
So now the whole society is faithless, godless, very precarious condition. So this process, our process, we don't impose any difficult rules and regulation. Please come here and chant with us and dance with us. At least, there is no loss on your part. If you think there is no gain, but at least there is no loss. So I should request you to come and join with us in our kīrtana.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
Please come and join with us, the Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting. Actually, that has become successful. In Tompkins Square, I was sitting underneath a tree and chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra alone. And these young men, they used to assemble and dance also in the tune, for three hours—from two to five. In this way, we got our followers, associates. And gradually it developed into organization. So in the beginning we did not impose so many rules and regulations. There is no rules and regulations. First thing required: ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Unless one's heart is cleansed, he cannot accept rules and regulations. That is not possible.
Sri Isopanisad Lectures
So we should very seriously execute this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Without any deviation, very seriously. We should not be neglectful, that this is fashion or something imposed. No. This is the most important function. Human life is meant simply for developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He has no other business. But unfortunately we have created so many engagements so that we forget Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is called māyā. This is called māyā. We are forgetting our real business. We are engaged in different, so many businesses. Misleaders. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31).
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Udaya means awakening. It is not an artificial way of giving something, imposing something to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. No. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there in everyone's heart. It has to be awakened by certain process. That process is śravaṇa-kīrtana, nine different types of devotional service:
- śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ
- smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
- arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ
- sakhyam ātma-nivedanam
- (SB 7.5.23)
So anywhere... It doesn't matter, either in India or outside. People thought like that, that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the monopoly business for the Indians or for the Hindus. They were thinking like that: "It cannot be preached. Nobody will take it." But I thought, "If Kṛṣṇa is God, why it will not be taken by everyone? It must be taken." So I was not very much hopeful to become successful.
Initiation Lectures
So the general rule is that if one is inquisitive... Just as we follow in our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness society we ask everyone to come. We don't make any imposition that with such and such qualification one can sit here or hear. No. All these students who are initiated, they know we don't impose anything. "You must be such and such, you must be such an such educated, you must be Hindu or you must be brāhmaṇa, or you must be white or black..." No such restriction. Anyone. This is universal. Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, everyone is welcome.
So these four principles of restriction they should follow, and chant at least sixteen rounds daily, and gradually he'll get fixed up in this conviction and will have attachment and taste, and then love of Kṛṣṇa will automatically... It is there in everyone's heart. Love of Kṛṣṇa, it is not a foreign thing that we are imposing. No. It is there, everywhere, in every living entity. Otherwise how these American boys and girls are taking it if it is not there? It is there. I am simply helping. Just like matches: there is fire, and one can help only simply rubbing, that's all. There is fire.
General Lectures
Intoxication. Oh, it is very difficult. Why they avoid Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Just like our friend Allen Ginsberg, he says, "Swamijī is very conservative." And so many friends, they ask me, "Swamijī, why you impose these rules?" You see? The people are so unable. Their inability is so strong that these four principles only... You want sex life? All right. We say that you get yourself married. But that is also difficult. Intoxication? Nobody has learned smoking from the beginning of his life. It is simply by association.
No one wants to become diseased, but everyone becomes diseased. Everyone dies. It is not that rich man will not become old and the simply poor man will become old. No. Everyone will become old. It is not that... When a child takes birth, the condition within the womb of the mother, air-tight packed, cannot move—we forget, but that is a great suffering. The suffering of death, suffering of birth, suffering of disease and suffering of old age—these are imposed on the living entities, those who are criminals. Criminals means revolted against the service of the Lord.
So austerity means we are not imposing upon you that you go to the forest and live in a cave or you don't eat or don't see any human being—you just meditate for three hundred years. No. That is not possible. That is not possible. You cannot go to the forest, you cannot go to the mountain, neither you can meditate. All these are not recommended in this age. That is not possible. If somebody imitates or tries to imitate, he is simply wasting time. Only austerity is that don't have illicit sex life just like cats and dogs, because marriage is recommended in the human society.
You profess any type of religion—then just test whether your religion is perfect or you are perfect, whether you have developed your love for God than any other love. We have distributed our love in so many things. When all those love will be concentrated simply on God, that is perfection of life. Love is there, but because we do not know, because we have forgotten our relationship with God, therefore we are imposing our love on dog. That has been our disease.
Our business is, in the human form of life, how to get out of the clutches or conditions of māyā. We are actually trying to do that. All the scientific improvement, material advancement of knowledge, means that we are trying to avoid the conditions imposed by material nature. That is actually we are doing. Why you have invented this electric fan? Call it, that is material science improvement. Because in the excessive heat we are troubled. And wherefrom this excessive heat comes? It comes from the material nature. Therefore our struggle for existence is to fight with the impositions of the material nature. So Kṛṣṇa says that in this way fighting, you cannot get out of the clutches of māyā.
There are three kinds of sufferings in this material world: ādhyātmic, ādhibautic, ādhidaivic. Suffering on account of my own body and mind—this suffering is not imposed by anyone else. I do it. The same thing, that I cannot digest but I eat more, so there must be dysentery. You must suffer. This is due to my body and mind. That is another one kind of suffering. Another suffering is imposed by other living entities. Just like your enemy or an animal—or there are ants, mosquitos, flies, they are all causing suffering. You are killing them, and they are trying to give you suffering. This is called struggle.
All of a sudden, there is no rain, no rainfall, and now for want of rainfall, there is no food grain. Excessive heat, excessive chilly cold; earthquake, famine... So many, by natures, imposed by the natures. Flood. So there are three kinds of sufferings in the material world, and everyone is suffering either by one, two or three or..., but nobody can say that "I am completely free from suffering." That is not possible.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: What is that law in the mind, you may think or may not think, the law will act. (laughter) Simply speculation. It has no meaning. It is called jugglery of words, that's all. To some foolish men, he is accepted as a great philosopher, but it is simply jugglery of words, that's all.
Śyāmasundara: He says because the mind imposes a priori these laws upon nature as both necessary and universal, that proves that the mind is creative and that it's not a blank slate or tabula rasa.
Prabhupāda: Mind is creative, that's a fact. Creative. He is creating and again rejecting. That is the mind's business, saṅkalpa-vikalpa.
Prabhupāda: Yes, unless one is pessimistic of this material world, he is animal. A man knows what are the sufferings of this material world: ādhyātmic, ādhibautic, ādhidaivic. There are so many suffering pertaining to the mind, to the mind, sufferings offered by other living beings, and sufferings imposed forcibly by the laws of nature. So the world is full of suffering, but under the spell of māyā, illusion, we accept this suffering condition as progress. But ultimately whatever we do, the death is there. All the resultant action of our activities, they are taken away and we are put to death. So under these circumstances there is no happiness within this material world. I have fully arranged for my happiness, and any moment, just after arrangement, we are kicked out; we have to accept death.
Hayagrīva: He sees God emerging as man's striving for perfection.
Prabhupāda: No, that God is there. Man's perfection will depend on his ability to understand God. God is already there. It is not that a perfect man is by imagination creating God. Anything created by man, that is controlled. God is the supreme controller. So man is dying under the control of the Supreme, so how man can create God? He is already under the rules of God, that he must die, he must suffer from disease, he must become old. So if he cannot control what is already imposed by God, how he can think of God? How he can create a God? That is also another insanity. First of all you become independent of the laws of God, then you can think of creation of God. You are completely under the supremacy of the Supreme Lord. How you can think of creating God? That is another insanity. So all these atheistic person who are thinking that "We can create God," "God is imagination," they are all insane person.
Śyāmasundara: So he says that the noncaused ego posits the nonego, or it gives them meaning, existence. It gives...
Prabhupāda: That is our philosophy, nonego means although I have got my identification, I am, still I have sacrificed everything for Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa says "You do this," I don't say, "I will not do." I don't impose my will. I sacrifice my individuality. Kṛṣṇa says, I must do. Therefore my ego is not there.
| Page Title: | Impose (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Serene |
| Created: | 29 of Apr, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=48, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 48 |