Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Just do it

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.8.30 -- Mayapura, October 10, 1974:

So we are giving this chance to everyone. We have constructed this big building, or constructing more and more—why? To give this chance to everyone. Please come here. Chant, join Hare Kṛṣṇa kīrtana, take prasādam and do your best, whatever talent you have got, easily, not very overburdened. If you know something to do, do it for Kṛṣṇa. Everyone knows. Everyone has got some talent. So that talent should be utilized for Kṛṣṇa. And if you think that "No, I shall chant simply," all right, you chant. But don't sleep in the name of chanting. That... Don't cheat. That cheating is not good. If you think that you can chant like Haridāsa Ṭhākura, then you simply chant. We shall supply you food. There is no anxiety. But don't try to cheat. You must be engaged. Yat karoṣi yaj juhoṣi yad aśnāsi, kuruṣva tad mad-arpaṇam (BG 9.27). Of course, if we can chant twenty-four hours, that is very good. But that is not possible. We are not so highly elevated. We must do something for Kṛṣṇa.

So this is... This institution, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is giving chance to everyone. And we are opening centers all over the world for this purpose, that you come, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, hear about Kṛṣṇa, Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, and whatever you can do, just do it for Kṛṣṇa. Then your life is successful.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Lecture -- New York, July 28, 1971:

There are two things: parā and aparā, superior and inferior, material and transcendental. There are material dharmas, religious process. For some material gain, generally, people go to church, go to temple, some material gain. Just like in your church you pray, "God, give us our daily bread." Your daily bread is a material gain. So these gain is already settled up. You'll get your bread. Just like the birds or beast, they are getting their bread without going to the church. They do not go to the church for asking God, "Give us our daily bread." The bread is there in the tree. They go and take as much bread as they like. Similarly, your bread is also settled up, either you go to the church or do not go to the church. That is not a problem. Nobody is dying on the street out of starvation. When you find somebody is lying dead on the footpath, the cause is some might have shot him down or by some other means he's killed. But you no, you'll not find either a bird or a beast or an ant or human being died of starvation. Never. The food is already there. Don't bother. If you have to bother, if you have to tax your brain, just do it for Kṛṣṇa, for God. That is proper utilization of your time. Bread is already there. There is no scarcity of bread in the kingdom of God. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). The Bhāgavata says one should try for that thing which is not available by traveling all over the universe. What is that? This is kevalayā bhaktyā, simple pure devotion. That is wanting. Nothing is scarcity. Everything is complete by the grace of God for everyone. Just like even in jail the government supplies sufficient food. But why people come into the jail? Because they are not honest. Dishonest, criminal. Food is outside jail, inside jail. But what is the difference outside and inside? Inside jail, the men are criminals. Outside jail, they are not criminals; they are lawful. Similarly there is spiritual world and material world, and everywhere God is providing food, either in the spiritual world or material world, for everyone. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. The Vedas says that one person, Supreme Person, is supplying food to this many living entities, bahūnām. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. So for fulfillment of your material desires, you need not go to God. That is, that arrangement is already there.

Initiation Lectures

Initiations -- Los Angeles, May 23, 1972:

Prabhupāda: (Devotees chant prayers responsively) Chant. (devotees chant) Names? (japa)

Devotee: Serge?

Prabhupāda: You know the rules? What is that?

Devotee: No meat, fish or eggs, no illicit sex, no gambling.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. Your name is Śuklāmbara. Śuklāmbara was a great brahmacārī devotee of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You are servant of Śuklāmbara. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

(Another devotee is called; sounds like Carla) (japa) Kaumudī. Do you know the rules and regulations? Yes, tell. (devotee recites rules) So, your name is Kaumudī dāsī. Kaumudī is a nice flower liked by Kṛṣṇa. (japa)

Next. What is your name? You know the rules and regulations? What is that? (devotee recites rules) Hm. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So your name is Rūpa-mañjarī dasi. There are different gopīs. The assistant gopīs is mañjarīs. So Rūpa-mañjarī, you, this maidservant of Rūpa-mañjarī.

Come on. (another devotee is called) What are the rules? (devotee recites rules) Hm. Thank you. Brahmaṇya-tīrtha dāsa. (japa)

Devotee: Will? Will McLoughlin.

Prabhupāda: ... just do it nicely. You know the rules and regulation?

Will: ... meat, fish or eggs, no intoxication, no gambling, no illicit sex.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Thank you. Varuṇa dāsa. Varuṇadeva. Varuṇadeva is the demigod of sea? Yes. You have to control the Pacific Ocean. (laughter) Preaching. (laughter) All the Pacific islands, you have to preach. Is that all right? (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kaumadakī(?)

Delhi Initiations -- Delhi, August 31, 1976:

Prabhupāda: Tejas is not saying and you also not detect. You should be very careful. If you remain ignorant, all ignorant, then where is progress? Everything ignorant I have to find out. So many big, big monkeys, nobody could find out. Big, big monkey, big, big belly. You also did not. That's all... Who is next?

Pradyumna: That is all, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So? (Hindi) (break) Yes. Because some of them, they could not follow Hindi.

Pradyumna: I'll just do it fast. First nāma-aparādha is (Sanskrit verse) Paramam aparādham The saintly persons who are spreading the glories of the holy name, if we abuse them, if we make offense at the people who are spreading the glories of the holy name, then the holy name will never tolerate that. How can the holy name tolerate the abuse of those who are spreading the glories of the holy name? So we must understand that a saintly person, a sādhu, satām, spreading the glories of Kṛṣṇa, talking about Kṛṣṇa, must never be offended. Must always be very careful. Sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). You must know how to associate with the sādhus, to always honor them and worship them and not to make offense. The second offense is that we should not put the..., understand that the names of Śrī Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu-tattva personalities, which are completely spiritual, are the same as the material designations of jīvas like ourselves. There's Viṣṇu-tattva, there is jīva. Viṣṇu-tattva is God; jīva is this ordinary living entity. The name of the Supreme is the same as the Supreme. The name of the jīva is different from the jīva. So we should not confuse these. We should understand the name of Viṣṇu is the same as Viṣṇu. The name of jīva is not the same. So the names of demigods—the demigods are also jīvas—their names are not spiritual. If we call names of some demigods, it will not do us the same spiritual..., it will not give us this spiritual result as calling the name of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Therefore during the time of initiation we change the name. A spiritual name is given. Go on.

General Lectures

Address to Indian Association -- Columbus, May 11, 1969:

In each and each code, each word, there are volumes of meaning, and there are many commentation, commentary by Śaṅkarācārya, commentary by Rāmānujācārya, commentary by..., big, big volumes in Sanskrit language. So how one will understand Vedānta? It is not possible. It may be possible for one person or two persons to understand what is Vedānta, but for the mass of people it is not possible; neither it is possible to practice yoga. Therefore this Caitanya Mahāprabhu's method, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa... He says, the first installment of gain will be ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam: (CC Antya 20.12) All the dirty things from your heart will be cleansed simply by chanting. You chant. There is no expenditure; there is no loss. But as we are chanting, if you kindly chant... You just do it for one week, and you see how much you progress in spiritual knowledge. We are getting many students. Simply by chanting, they are understanding the whole philosophy. They are giving up their bad habits, they are becoming purified, so many things. They are practical. This Society, movement, is started practically not more than two years, 1966, and we have got so many branches. The American boys and girls, they are taking it very seriously and do it very nicely. They are following all rules and regulation, and they are happy. Ask any one of them.

So this is practical, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing the dirty things from the heart simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Yes. And the next thing is that bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam. As soon as your heart is cleansed of all dirty things, then all the problems of material existence immediately solved. Bhava-mahā-dāvāgni. It has been compared with dāvāgni. Dāvāgni means the blazing fire in the forest. In this material existence, nobody wants unhappiness, but it comes, forced, by force. That is the law of material nature. Nobody wants that there may be fire, but especially in this country, wherever in a city we go, the fire brigade is always active. You see? Nobody wants fire, but the fire brigade is active. Yes. There is fire. Similarly, nobody wants so many things. Nobody wants death; there is death. Nobody wants disease; there is disease. Nobody wants old age; oh, there is old age—against my, against my desire. We should have to think that what is the status of this material existence. This human form of life is meant for understanding. The human form of life is not meant for wasting the valuable life like cats and dogs in the matter of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. That is not advancement of civilization. The Bhāgavata says that "This body is not meant for working very hard simply for sense gratification. No." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye: (SB 5.5.1) "To work very hard and satisfy oneself by sense gratification, that is the business of the hogs or dogs, not for human being."

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- December 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: Kṛṣṇa has given us free will to choose or reject the godly life. Should the government take away that free will of whether they choose to...

Prabhupāda: No, that free will is not to be given. It is already there. Rather, Kṛṣṇa says He has given free will, but His personal advice is: "I am now talking to you the most confidential words." Sarva-guhyatamam. "You stop your so-called free will. Just surrender to Me." This is the most confidential. "If you surrender to Me, that is good for you. But if you go on keeping your free will you'll not be happy." There is also free will. When you come to the Kṛṣṇa platform you serve Kṛṣṇa with free will, not that you become a stone. There is free will. Just like our devotees they are dressing Kṛṣṇa nicely, is there no free will? They are cooking for Kṛṣṇa. Is there no free will? The free will is there. The Māyāvādī philosopher says, the Buddha philosopher says, that "Stop this free will, and then you become happy." But our proposition is not to stop free will but purify free will. Purify. Not stop these eyes. Just if it is suffering from cataract, cure that cataract. Keep the eyes. And their proposition, "Get out these eyes and throw it. Then there will be no more seeing what is right and wrong." That is their proposition. Nirviśeṣa-vādī. Nirviśeṣa means no speciality, no varieties. That is nirviśeṣa. And śūnya, zero. When it is zero, then there is no question of right and wrong. So our philosophy is not that. There is no zero, and there is no varieties. We don't say. There is, but it's purified varieties. Tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). Nirmalam means purified. So our process is to purify everything. We don't want to stop. That is not our proposition. They cannot find out any solution. Therefore they want to make stop: "Stop this business." Suppose a business is not going very nicely. It is going at loss. Somebody says, "Close it." But one experienced man comes: "Why should you close? All right, I shall do it properly. You'll get profit." So who is better? One, by disappointment, he says, "Close this business. There is no profit." And another man says, "No, don't close it. We shall make you profit. We shall show you profit. Just manage it properly." This is our proposition. We don't say that "Stop all these material activities." No. Just do it properly so that you get real profit and real benefit. That is our program. We don't want to make it zero, no. Why shall I make it zero? (break) ...can be taken just like there is business, but the workers, the assistants, they have no idea who is the proprietor. So everyone is doing something, taking pocket, something this, take pocket, his pocket, so how the business will go on nicely? That is being done. Everyone, these rascals, they have no idea who is the proprietor of this world. So they are doing in their nonsensical way. Therefore there is confusion.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: If I have to pay you, if you don't accept paper, then I'll have to give you gold or silver, and international exchange is going on. Then there is no inflation, because you'll not accept paper, so what is the use of printing notes? They are printing notes without any gold reserve.

Hari-śauri: Nothing. It's just imaginary wealth.

Prabhupāda: That's it. Bank will give you loan, they are eager to give you loan, and you haven't got to pay anything in gold and silver. One check, that's all. And with that check you can purchase lots of commodities and hoard it, and price will be increased. If I have to pay gold for (indistinct), then I have limited source. The price will not increase. This is the only way. Introduce gold only, gold and silver. In the British period in our childhood there was practically no notes. Silver. If I have to take payment from you, one thousand rupees, you will give me so much silver. For counting, counting, I have to see whether it is.... There were some imitation, counterfeit. So each coin you have to see, they were saying like that, that, "For thousand rupees I have to occupy so much space."

Hari-śauri: And weighed so much.

Prabhupāda: Yes, and weight was so much. (pause) The time was not so bad. If you take some cash, thousand, two thousand rupees with you, you can safely walk on the street. Now if somebody knows that he has got thousand rupees cash with him, maybe he will be killed. The bank, they are so much afraid, they keep police in bank, police guard, always.

Hari-śauri: They have so much security systems and TV cameras. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...not working?

Hari-śauri: Is there any kind of a pain killer or anything?

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: Nothing we can get from India or anything like that?

Prabhupāda: No, don't worry. It will be.... (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They had no reason to object to something, but they just do it out of their nasty nature. Anyway, so I had the forms filled out, everything. Then we went to a lawyer, we got it notarized, everything in order. And the man this morning said he would give us the passport the same day. Then this other man, higher up, bigger dog, I went to see him, and he said, "No, no, it will take four days." So I said "Why not do it in three days? We can get it Monday." We were very nice, myself and Mr. Battra, Subhavilas went. He's also Punjabi. They were speaking Punjabi. He was, Mr. Battra was even begging him, unnecessary things. And then finally he said "Come back Monday morning," after sitting there for two hours, for no reason.

Correspondence

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Nara-narayana -- Los Angeles 25 February, 1969:

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 14, 1969, and I am just now having the opportunity of replying to your inquiries. So far as the Deities are concerned, this has been discussed many times, so just do it nicely using your best judgment to make Them like the Deities which are there in N.Y. with you as far as possible. Your idea of placing conchshell in the eyes is nice and you may do it. You have the perfect example of the Deities in New York, so if you can similarly make some Deities for our other centers it will be very nice accomplishment.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Bombay 20 November, 1975:

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated November 10, 1975 and have noted the contents. Krsna will guide you how to increase the library distribution. Do not worry. Just do it sincerely and with a cool brain. Regarding Miami temple, you say it is a paradise. So that must be because it must be better than the former place. But they must keep the whole temple site very neat and clean. This is very important and please instruct them on this. Abhirama, he is an intelligent boy. He can do and he can manage. Simply you have to encourage him and see that he shows good example to all the devotees and they will all work very enthusiastically under his leadership.

Regarding Denver, why are they doing business? This creates a bad atmosphere. We shall only do one business and that is book-selling. That's all. As soon as you become karmis after business, then spiritual life becomes damaged. This business should not be encouraged any more. Doing business and not sankirtana, this is not at all good. Visaya chadiya kabe suddha ha'be mana/ kabe hama herabo sri-vrndavana. "When the mind is completely purified, being freed from material anxieties and desires, then I shall be able to understand Vrndavana and the conjugal love of Radha and Krsna, and then my spiritual life will be successful." One has to engage himself in devotional service, giving up the engagement of manufacturing pounds, shilling, pence. Sankirtana is very good, but grhasthas under condition can do other business, only if they give at least 50%, but sankirtana is the best business. Our Denver temple is situated in a very nice place. It is our own house, so it must be managed very nicely. Please encourage Kurusrestha in this regard. He is very good devotee, very sincere and intelligent.

Page Title:Just do it
Compiler:MadhuGopaldas, Lilasara
Created:04 of Apr, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=5, Con=2, Let=2
No. of Quotes:9