Machine (Lectures, Other)

Expressions researched:
"machine" |"machine's" |"machinery" |"machines"

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 19, 1972:

We have got experience every night. When you are lying down on bed, you are dreaming. You have gone somewhere else from your room and you are acting. That means the subtle body is acting. Similarly, when this body's stopped, nobody works, no more working, or the machine is broken, then, at that time, the subtle body carries you to another machine. This body is machine. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). This is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. This is yantra. So just like your car, you are driving one car, the car is stopped for some reason. It is no more working. Then what do you do? You get down. You get another car. Similarly, when this body's not working, then you give up this body; you take another body.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 28, 1972:

There are so many things. So therefore... Because if Moon planet is heavenly planet, they're more intelligent than you. If you have got some machine to reach there, they have got some machine to divert you. Why not think like that? That "These rascals are coming here without any immigration license. Let them be diverted to the deserted portion and disappointed they'll go back." So many things are there. Therefore they are not successful. Neither they'll be ever successful. Take it. I may die. But you take it rightly. They'll never be successful. I have already written these things in my Easy Journey to Other Planets. This is childish. It is not possible.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1972:

The senses, we are acquiring knowledge through our senses, and if our senses are imperfect, how we can acquire perfect knowledge? Just like we are trying to see the planetary system through microscope or binocular, telescope, but the telescope machine is manufactured by a person who is, whose senses are defective. So through the telescope, how you can have perfect knowledge? Therefore one astronomer is placing some theory. After some years, that is made null and void; another theory is presented. Because everyone's knowledge is imperfect. So we cannot expect perfect knowledge from the imperfect person. So our process of knowledge is different.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.15 -- Dallas, March 4, 1975:

The living entity, the soul, is not destroyed after the body being destroyed. The body is destroyed. It is being destroyed every moment. From scientific point of view we are changing our blood corpuscle and another body like the, what is called, film. One after another picture, one after, one after, one after, and when they are displayed, it appears one. But it is not one. There are so many pictures. They put into the machine, and when they work together, it appears that the man within the picture is moving. Actually, that movement is combination of many pictures. Similarly, we are growing. We are not growing, but we are changing body.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.80-95 -- San Francisco, February 10, 1966:

Prabhupāda: So general people, they have got these four kinds of ideas: religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, and at last monism, or become one with the Supreme. That's all. In the Bengal, there is a proverb that mullah do musjik (?). Mullah do (?). Amongst the Muhammadans, the priest is called mullah. So mullah is going very hurriedly, and a person is asking...

Devotee: Your tape is off. It wasn't put in the machine right. It's behind this. It should be in front of it.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he has put wrongly. Stop it. (break) So all these activities are, up to the last stage, to become one. Therefore 99.9%, they will talk of void and impersonalism. They have no idea.

So Kṛṣṇa, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that this emotion, by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, developing love of God, is far, far beyond these four principles of perfection, above the idea of becoming one with the Supreme.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.113-17 -- San Francisco, February 22, 1967:

So he has got switches and he's controlling everything. Not only here, in India also they have now many (managed?). So they can say which train is where it is now. The light also moves according to the train moving. Similarly, if you can manufacture, if you can invent your own energies in different way, as the modern material civilization, they are discovering different manifestations of energy by machine, by electronics, and they are managing from one place, similarly, if it is, materially it is possible, why not spiritually? Spiritual is still finer.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.118-121 -- San Francisco, February 24, 1967:

Devotee: Motor. Someone's running some kind of machine. It's interfering.

Prabhupāda: Oh. All right. So He's quoting another verse from Viṣṇu Purāṇa, where it is stated that viṣṇu-śaktiḥ para prokta: (CC Madhya 6.154) "The energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also transcendental." Energy, that means of the same quality. The same example: Just like sunshine and the sun, they are of the same quality, similarly, the energy of the Supreme Lord, because the Supreme Lord is all spiritual, therefore His energy is also all spiritual.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.110-111 -- Bombay, November 17, 1975:

Under His vigilance all the laws of material nature is going on. Exactly in time the sun is rising, the moon is rising. Everything is going on minutely, very nicely. Parāsya śaktiḥ. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. It is going so nicely that Kṛṣṇa hasn't got to learn how to do it. The machine is so perfect, it is going on perfectly. The flower is coming by His energy. Puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca. The special seed you sow on the ground and a particular type of plant will come out, then rose will come out, a particular flavor will come out.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.112 -- Bombay, November 24, 1975:

You cannot do anything secretly. That is not possible. He is seeing. According to your karma, the next body is offered. Karmana daiva-netrena (SB 3.31.1). Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe... He is seeing. He is witness. Anumanta updrsta. He is seeing everything, upadrsta. So He is asking the material nature, "Now this living entity wanted to act like this. So give him this body." Daiva-netrena. So you'll get a body, yantra. This body is yantra, machine. You are sat down on a machine, and bhrāmāyān sarva bhūtāni—sometimes you are in nice bodies. Nothing is nice. Everybody will die, so there cannot be anything nice. It may be, the duration of life, little more—a dog's duration of life less than man's duration of life. That may be. But nobody is going to live forever. That is not possible.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.113 -- London, July 23, 1976:

Similarly, we see so many living entities produced by the mother, material nature—there must be father. And the father personally says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4)—"I am the father." So why these rascals, they say that there is no God? There must be God, and He has got inconceivable potencies. Everything is being done by Him. If you say nature is doing, nature is a machine. Nature is not the doer.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.125 -- New York, November 27, 1966:

Now, Lord Caitanya is explaining this system, different system, ritualistic, philosophical, meditation, morality, all these in śāstra-kahe. Real Vedic instruction... Just like, what is Veda? Veda means the words of the Lord. That is Veda. Scripture means the words of the Lord. God says, "Let there be light." God says, "Let there be creation." These words are scripture. Now one who takes out... Just like sound is transmitted from a certain place, and one who catches by the machine, he gets the information.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.19-31 -- San Francisco, January 20, 1967:

So therefore their labor of love for discriminating what is māyā and what is not māyā is simply troublesome. Teṣām kleśala eva avaśiṣyate nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām. Just like the skins of rice, when it is taken, there is no more grain. So the grain is separated from the skin by beating. There is a beating machine in India. That is a crude, original way of separating the grain from the skin. So when the skin is out from the grain, if you simply beat the skin, no more there is grain. So similarly, if you make minus Kṛṣṇa, then the study of Bhagavad-gītā is simply waste of time and labor of love. That's all. "Not Kṛṣṇa." This means, this Māyāvāda philosophy means simply taking trouble.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad Invocation Lecture Excerpt -- Los Angeles, April 27, 1970:

So therefore there is complete facility for the small complete units. We are complete units, small. God is great and we are small. So small... Just like a big machine, and there is a small screw. So the complete facility, completeness of that small screw, is to become fitted in the particular place. Then it has got value. And if it is out of touch of the machine, falls down, it has no value. So complete facility is there. Just yourself dovetail into that hole and the screw is placed there, oh, it has value. When a screw is lost, you have to purchase from the store at the cost of two dollars. And when it is fallen down, it is not even worth one cent. The same screw. (break) So we are complete units so long we are attached to Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise useless.

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 1 -- Los Angeles, April 29, 1970:

Can you float even a small piece of grain in the space? You can say "Law of gravity" and so many other things, but you cannot utilize it. Or you can put it in... Your machine, airplane, is running on the space—but so long the machine is working. As soon as your petrol is finished, immediately it will fall down. Immediately. But these big, big planets... This is only one of the small. The sun planet is fourteen hundred thousand times bigger than this planet. So that is also... We can see the sun is floating in one corner of this big space. So how you can say that it is not controlled, it is floating out of its own self? No. The answer is there in the Bhagavad-gītā, that "I enter into this material planets, and then I keep it floating." Gām āviśya aham (BG 15.13), dhārayāmy aham ojasā. Dhārayāmy aham ojasā. Something mak... Just like you float this airplane; so somebody has entered within it, that driver or pilot. So actually, he is keeping this airplane floating, not the machine.

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 1 -- Los Angeles, May 2, 1970:

The superior energy is controlling the inferior energy. Matter has no power. The big airplane, nice machine, is flying in the sky, made of material things. But unless the spiritual energy, pilot, is there, it is useless. It is useless. Thousands of years the jet plane will stand on the airport; it will not be flying unless the small particle spiritual energy, that pilot, comes and touches it. So what is the difficulty to understand God? So plain thing, that if this huge machine... There are so many huge machineries, they cannot move without the touch of the spiritual energy, a human being or a living being.

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 9 -- Los Angeles, May 13, 1970:

So here it is said, andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye avidyām upāsate. Avidyā means those who are captivated by the external movements, they are, they are worshiping avidyā, nescience, which will not help him. The modern civilization is engaged... There are big, big institutions for technology, how a motorcar can move, how aeroplane can move. So many machinery they're manufacturing. But they are... There is no educational institution how the mover, the spirit soul, is moving.

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 9 -- Los Angeles, May 13, 1970:

We don't say that you don't advance in material education. You advance, but, at the same time, you become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is our propaganda. We don't say that you don't, you do not manufacture motorcar or you do not manufacture these so many machines. We don't say. But we say, "All right, you have manufactured this machine. Employ it in Kṛṣṇa's service." That is our proposal. We don't say stop it. We don't say that you have, don't have any sex life. But we say, "Yes, you have sex life—for Kṛṣṇa. You produce Kṛṣṇa conscious children. Hundred times you have sex life." But don't create cats and dogs. That is our proposal.

Festival Lectures

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

Their brain is gross. Therefore they are much inclined to mechanical way of life. Machine. Machine is gross. You see? We therefore forbid our students, not to be meat-eaters, because by refraining yourself from meat-eating, you will have, you will develop finer... Not only refraining from meat-eating. That is one of the conditions. There are other conditions also. But this is one of the condition. Parīkṣit Mahārāja said, "This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is understandable by liberated class of men." Liberated class means above the brāhmaṇas. "But those who are killer of the animals..." The killer of the animals are two kinds: one, gross killer, killing cows, goats, chickens, so many, gross killer... Another killer is soul-killer. Soul-killer means those who do not take any care for the soul.

Nrsimha-caturdasi Lord Nrsimhadeva's Appearance Day -- Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.22-34 -- Los Angeles, May 27, 1972:

Śyāmasundara said that the computer... What is called, computer? It can do thousands of men's business. So they have discovered this machine. That means thousands of men will be unemployed. That is actually happening in your country due to so many machines. Now, take for example, formerly... You have seen the picture, Kṛṣṇa, Vṛndāvana picture, Kṛṣṇa's father transferring Kṛṣṇa. They were going on bullock carts, no motorcar. You have seen the picture.

Nrsimha-caturdasi Lord Nrsimhadeva's Appearance Day -- Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.22-34 -- Los Angeles, May 27, 1972:

That is the position of modern civilization. Actually, superficially we see that material advancement of material science, people have got so many machines, so many facilities. But actually, they are in trouble. Just like I gave you one example: the computer machine. It can work for thousands of men. So thousands of men means the thousands of men must be unemployed. And especially in your country, they are taking advantage of this machine because the salary is If you want to pay to the worker, a big, big salary. So they want to save. They are taking machine, and they think they will save money, so many workers. But the workers are becoming unemployed. The government has to give them welfare. The government will tax. That's all. (laughter.) Government will not give money, welfare, from government's pocket. The government will increase your taxation. So you are..., you stop payment by importing some machine, now you have to pay that money to the government.

Ratha-yatra -- San Francisco, July 5, 1970:

This Ratha-yātrā is one of the item of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Jagannātha, just try to understand Jagannātha. Jagat means the moving world. Gacchati iti jagat, Sanskrit word, gacchati means which is moving. So all these planets, this universe, even the sun, everything is moving, as we are moving... We are, of course, animate. Even inanimate things are moving. Your motorcar moving, your machine is moving, but they are moving under the control of some animate object. But animate objects moving, some of the animate objects are standstill, just like trees, but ultimately they are also moving in this sense: that one species of life is being transmigrated to another species of life.

Ratha-yatra -- Philadelphia, July 12, 1975:

Therefore you will never feel tired chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. You see practically. You go on chanting twenty-four hours; you will never feel tired. Therefore it is said, golokera prema-dhana. This chanting vibration is coming from the spiritual world. Just like you receive material sound vibration in the radios or television from distant place, there is another machine which can receive the vibration in the spiritual world. So that vibration is Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.

Janmastami Lord Sri Krsna's Appearance Day -- Bhagavad-gita 7.5 Lecture -- Vrndavana, August 11, 1974:

The material scientists who think that the material energy is working independently, they are mistaken. Material energy cannot work independently. We have got experience. However gorgeous a machine may be, unless there is touch of the spirit soul, the machine cannot work. Similarly, the big machine, cosmic manifestation, everything is going on very nicely, but it is being worked out by the plan of Kṛṣṇa.

Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami's Appearance Day -- Vrndavana, October 19, 1972:

Just like you receive through radio machine news from distant place, thousands and thousands of miles away. Now the instruments have improved. They are trying to get information from other planets also. That's nice. But there is another machine which can give you information of the Goloka Vṛndāvana. That machine is nothing manufactured by the material scientists. But there is a machine. What is that machine? That machine is this guru-paramparā. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayoḥ viduḥ (BG 4.2). If you receive the message by the guru-paramparā... The first guru is Kṛṣṇa. Next guru is Lord Brahma. Next guru is Nārada. Next guru is Vyāsadeva. Next guru is Madhvācārya. And so many others. And their branches. In this way, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then the Gosvāmīs. Then Śrīnivāsa, Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. In this way, the paramparā is coming. So this is the machine. How I can understand this machine is correct? Yes, it is correct. How it is correct? You can corroborate. The Bhagavad-gītā says, the original machine, Kṛṣṇa, says, sarva-dharmān parityaja mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. So the same message is being broadcast in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. What we are speaking? We are speaking, "Give up everything. Just surrender to Kṛṣṇa." Is not that the same machine? If you keep the words, the vibration of the machine the same, then it is the same machine. You get the correct information. Kṛṣṇa is speaking-about Himself, about His abode, about the spiritual world, the activities. Kṛṣṇa is speaking everything in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, in Bhagavad-gītā. And we don't require to change unnecessarily. If we present the same thing as it is, as we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, then the machine is there. You can get all the information. There is no difficulty. Just like you are getting by the present machine, radio machine, the message from far, distant place. Similarly, you can get all the information of the spiritual world by the proper machine. The Bhagavad-gītā received through the paramparā, disciplic succession of bona fide spiritual masters. It is not difficult.

So Sanātana Gosvāmī is receiving the message of the spiritual world through the exigency of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So the teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is there. Caitanya-caritāmṛta is there. If you study scrutinizingly Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teachings to Sanātana Gosvāmī, then you also get the machine. There is no difficulty. And as soon as you get the machine, and if you know how to handle it properly, then you get all the information. It is not difficult. And how to handle properly the machine, that is being taught by example, personal example by Sanātana Gosvāmī, that he's approaching Caitanya Mahāprabhu very humbly.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Appearance Day, Evening -- Gorakhpur, February 15, 1971:

So far material comforts, oh, there is no conception in India how they are materially comfortable. Their roads, their cars, their machines... You cannot imagine how American roads are there. There are freeways. In America, there are freeways: without any stoppage you can run your car in seventy mile speed, and four cars going up and four cars going down. And road just like velvet. (laughter) Our roads... So there is no comparison of their materially advancement.

Six Gosvamis Lecture, Sri Sri Sad-govamy-astaka -- Los Angeles, November 18, 1968:

The Absolute Truth is so perfect that if perfectly taken from the perfect, everything is taken, still He's there. Just like this is a watch. If you take its hands, if you take its glass, if you take its machine, then what remains there? Nothing. It becomes zero. But Kṛṣṇa is so full and complete, if you take millions of Kṛṣṇa from Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa is still there. That is Kṛṣṇa's omnipotency. God is omnipotent.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Lecture -- New Delhi, November 10, 1971:

So there is very great opportunity. You cannot compete with the Western countries by your technology, however you may make some sewing machine or cycle or Ambassador car. They are hundred years ahead. You cannot make any competition by machine. If you can give them anything and glorify your country, then this is this movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then they will admit that you have something. Wherever I go, they inquire, "Oh, India is poverty-stricken. Oh, you have come that part." India is advertised as poverty.

Arrival Lecture -- Paris, July 20, 1972:

One of my Godbrothers long ago, he came to England Lady Willingdon challenged the preacher that "In your country the people come here, they take some degree and go to back to their country and become big man. So what you have got to teach us?" Actually, from materialistic point of view we haven't got to teach to the Western country anything. That's a fact. Because your science, your machine, (is) far advanced. But still there is a great treasure house in India, which is spiritual knowledge. You have to take from India.

Arrival Conversation -- Los Angeles, June 20, 1975:

Jayatīrtha: Twenty-four hours on the composers so that we can take full advantage of the machines.

Prabhupāda: And Hayagrīva prabhu, how many papers you are finishing? You can finish fifty papers at least.

Initiation Lectures

Lecture & Initiation -- Seattle, October 20, 1968:

Yes. Unfaithful, those who have no faith, that Lord and His name are absolute. Just like here in this material world, the name and the person is different. Suppose your name is Mr. John. So if I chant "John, John, John," so John may be a hundred miles away. There is no response. But the name, holy name of God, God is present everywhere. Just like the television. Television is being, I mean to say, released in some place. If you have got the machine, immediately the picture is in your room. If it is, materially, it can be so possible, how much possibility there is in spiritual Kṛṣṇa name? Immediately you chant Kṛṣṇa's name, that means Kṛṣṇa is immediately on your tongue.

Initiation Sri Ranga, Romaharsana, Sridhara Dasas -- Los Angeles, July 3, 1970:

Yes. On the strength of chanting, committing sin. Because as Dayānanda explained to you, that this is a purificatory process. So if we think that "We are chanting. It is... I am being purified, so let me become contaminated by acting some sinful activities. I'll purify by chanting," this motive is very bad. This is the greatest offense. Once purified, that's all right, but don't commit again sinful. Sinful life should be stopped. From this day of initiation these four pillars of sinful life—illicit sex life, intoxication, meat-eating, and gambling—they should be broken. Not that "Let me do it. I have go the mantra machine, instrument for counteracting." No. You should not..., no more commit any sinful activities. Once you are purified, no more.

General Lectures

Lecture on Maha-mantra -- New York, September 8, 1966:

If this watch is so wonderful workmanship and we are struck with wonder how nicely it is giving time, how the machine is adjusted, now, before appreciating this watch, how much we have to appreciate the person who has discovered this watch, how much brain he has got? Before appreciating a powerful brain in this world, one should appreciate who has given him this powerful brain. If the man has attained that powerful brain out of his own accord, then great powerful brain like Professor Einstein, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, they could create another brain like them so that in their absence there would not have been scarcity of scientist and powerful brain. But they could not do that.

Speech to Indian Audience -- Montreal, July 28, 1968:

So we Indians, we should know that we cannot imitate the Western countries. They are far advanced. So far materialistic way of life is concerned, you cannot compete with them. Just like some years before there was industrial exhibition in India in which the government was very proud to show that they are manufacturing cycle and sewing machine. When Western part of the world, they are manufacturing so many complicated machineries, we are proud of manufacturing cycle and sewing machine.

Lecture -- Seattle, September 30, 1968:

A yogi, if he has got perfection, if he desires something, that "I want this," immediately it is there. This is called satya-saṅkalpa. In this way, there are many examples. That is greatness. What I... Just like the modern scientists, they are trying to fly some space machine in the good speed so that they can go to the moon planet. So many scientists of America, Russia, and other countries, they are trying. But they cannot. Their sputnik is coming back. But just see God's power.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 2, 1968:

Just try to understand. A typewriting machine, a small screw, when it is missing, your machine is not working nicely, you go to a repairing shop. He charges ten dollars. You pay immediately. That little screw, when it is out of that machine, it has not a value even one farthing. Similarly, we are all part and parcel of the Supreme. If we work with the Supreme, that means if we work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness or God consciousness, that "I am part and parcel..." Just like this finger is working fully in consciousness of my body. Whenever there is little pain I can feel. Similarly, if you dovetail yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you are living in your normal condition, your life is successful.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 11, 1968:

That movement is not possible without the spiritual touch. Just like my body, your body is moving because there is spiritual spark within you, within me. So if you can understand this simple fact, that nothing can move without spiritual power, touch... Just like this watch. This watch is moving. You can say it is machine, but not machine. If I wind, then it will move. Therefore there is spiritual touch. If I don't wind, if I keep it in my box, it will not move. So this simple truth, that without spiritual touch nothing can move, and spirit is God. Therefore you can have immediately God consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 18, 1968:

This is the perfection of yoga. It is not you have to purchase one machine, or television set. It is there, and God is also there. You can see, you can hear, you can talk, provided you have got the machine. You repair it, that's all. The repairing process is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Otherwise, everything is supplied, complete, complete set of machine you have got within you. And just like for repairing, an expert mechanic required, similarly, you require the help of someone expert. Then you'll see that your machine is working. It is not difficult to understand. Nobody can say that it is not possible. In the śāstra we hear also. Sādhu śāstra, guru vākya, tinete kariya aikya. Spiritual realization can be perfected by three parallel process.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 18, 1968:

So therefore, in the first six chapters it has been decided that a living entity is a spiritual spark. It is very difficult to find out where the spark is, because it is so small, minute. There is no material microscope or machine to find out. But it is there. It is there. The symptom is, because it is there in my body, because it is there in your body, therefore you are moving, you are talking, you are planning, so many things you are doing—simply for that spiritual spark. So we are very minute spark of the supreme spirit. Just like there are in the sunshine minute particles, shining particles.

Lecture -- Montreal, October 26, 1968:

Therefore you have to come to the platform of goodness, and there you'll understand what is sun, what is sunlight, without any interruption. So for that reason, just like you have to go by some plane, by some machine seven miles up to be completely in pure sunlight, similarly, you have to attempt... You have got... Kṛṣṇa, or God, has given you the senses, the mind, the intelligence. You have to use them. If you use them for gratifying your senses, then you go down and down and down to the animal life. And if you use them for understanding God and His kingdom and your life, your relationship, that is also possible. So both way you can use your intelligence, your mind, your senses. Both ways.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, November 13, 1968:

You have applied your brain, you applied your energy to invent such nice machine. Let it be engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. Your life will be successful. That's all. The flower from... The tree from which this flower is grown, if this flower is offered to Kṛṣṇa, his life is successful. So it is so nice program, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. All round successful. There is no comparison with this program, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There cannot be any comparison, neither any rivalry with this conception of philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So try to understand, preach it nicely, and be happy, and let them become happy.

Lecture -- Hawaii, March 23, 1969:

So in this way you can understand what we mean by part and parcel. Take materially also, any machine. The part and parcel... Just like here is a machine, tape recorder. There are different parts. One part is required to give, adjust speed; one part is required how to move, how to start, how to stop, how to increase. So different parts. Similarly, we are living entities, and the Lord is also a living entity. And we are originally created to help the Lord. He does not require... Because He's complete. But just to give a crude example, as the part and parcel required: now, suppose this finger is not giving me service. It is diseased. So sometimes doctors advise that "You have to amputate this finger, otherwise it will affect the whole body." Similarly, we living entities, being part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, when we rebel, that is our diseased condition. We, when we don't want to render service to the Lord, that is a state which is called demonic state.

Lecture -- Hawaii, March 30, 1969:

So somebody has arranged how the sun is rotating. Just like your sputnik rotates in the space by the scientist who is playing on the electronic machines in the laboratory, and the sputnik is rotating. So why don't you think that the sun is also rotating under some guidance? How you can deny it? So that is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā: yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro. It has also a lifetime duration. As soon as that lifetime duration is finished.

Lecture -- London, September 14, 1969:

So we are, I mean to say, becoming free from the sinful reactions of our past activities. But if we think that "Because I am now..., I have got a machine of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, so I shall commit as much sin as possible and it will be counteracted by this process," oh, that is the greatest sin. You cannot do that. You cannot make Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra as agent of nullifying your sinful activities. Similarly, you cannot make God or His agent or His representative as a machine for counteracting your sinful activities. You should stop. Therefore niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaraḥ. Niḥśeṣa. You must cease all kinds of sinful activities. We prescribe to our students that "You should not do this, you should not do this, you should not do this." That is a warning that these are the different gates of sinful activity.

Conway Hall Lecture -- London, September 15, 1969:

So this is our position. We are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. There are many examples I can give you. Just like a machine part, a screw. If it is fallen down from the machine, it has no value. But if the machine is in trouble for want of that screw, you'll purchase that screw to set in and spend many dollars. Similarly, we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. If we remain attached with the Supreme Lord, then we have got value. Otherwise we have no value. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66): "You just be attached to Me. Then your all problems are solved."

Lecture -- London, September 26, 1969:

Then the next question is, "What is the sun globe?" If you have got power, if you have got capacity to manufacture some machine... Just like you are trying to go to the moon planet. Similarly, if you can have some capacity to enter into the sun planet, then you study what is the sun planet. And then again, further if you study, then what are the living entities in the sun planet? And when you study the living entities in the sun planet, who is the head? Who is the chief of the living entities in the sun planet? Just like we are foreigners. We have come here.

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

hey are trying to create life in the laboratory, although they have not been able to create even an ant. Suppose he's able to create some living entity. Just like the scientist is very proud for inventing this flying machine. But just see how many millions and trillions of flying machines are flying in the sky created by God—without any machine. So you cannot surpass the intelligence and energy of God. Therefore you simply appreciate. That is your perfection.

Speech to Maharaja and Maharani and Conversations Before and After -- Indore, December 11, 1970:

These are not legends. They are fact. Those who are not intelligent, they take it as legend. There are so many descriptions which is not within our experience—we take it as legend. Now, I gave some gentleman the example that the coconut tree, on the tree there are coconut and there are one-kilo water. Now, how the water is transported there? Where is the pipe? Where is the pumping? Because you have got experience if you want to get water high, you have to pump and you must have pipe. So where is the pipe and where is the pumping machine?

Lecture at Krsna Niketan -- Gorakhpur, February 16, 1971:

The exact example is that, like that, the film. Every second, changing one picture, one picture, one picture, one picture. And it appears that it is only one picture. One who does not know how the machine, cinematographic machine is working—the foolish persons—they say, they think that the picture is one and it is moving. No. It is changing. Similarly, the body is also changing. The exact example is changing of dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni. That is the exact word used in the Bhagavad-gītā. So even for an ordinary living being, we cannot see how the body is changing, how the living entity is changing from body to another. It is so swiftly, every moment, every second, it is taking place. How you can see? So there is no death; it is simply changing.

Lecture at Krsna Niketan -- Gorakhpur, February 16, 1971:

It is completely under the hands of the nature. Similarly, everything is. As you cannot explain, cannot know how the hairs are growing, similarly, you cannot know how you are changing. It is, by nature, it is being done so nicely. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala... (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). It is taking place. A flower is fructified. Can you explain how it is fructified? It is taking place. The foolish persons, they say "Automatically." No. The machine is so expert that it is taking... The machine is working. The nature is working, but we are not so expert to understand. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. We are thinking it is taking automatically.

Lecture at Krsna Niketan -- Gorakhpur, February 16, 1971:

There is no control how you are being taken. Yantrārūḍhāni. Yantra means just like carriage, a machine. You are sitting on a machine, and under the direction of the Lord, Īśvara... He is sitting in your heart. So māyā is driver, and Kṛṣṇa is dictating, "Drive this person in such and such body," and māyā is there, offering the body. Kṛṣṇa is seeing you, that you are doing, you require such and such body, and He's ordering māyā that "You give him such and such body." So māyā is offering you. You are simply under the control. You are simply thinking, "I shall do that, I shall do that," and everything is there by Kṛṣṇa's order. So you think of Kṛṣṇa; then Kṛṣṇa will give you another body, spiritual body.

Pandal Lecture at Cross Maidan -- Bombay, March 26, 1971:

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to educate people how to live in spiritual atmosphere, and then there will be peace and prosperity. Unless one is in spiritual life... Because factually we are spiritual entities. Mamaivāṁśaḥ. We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the whole spirit, and we are His part and parcel. Just like a machine and there is small screw, a part of the machine. The screw, although it has no value, but because it is a part of the machine, big machine, if that screw is missing, you will have to purchase at any price. It has got value. The same screw, when it is without the machine, it has no value because it is only a small particle of the machine.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, July 20, 1971:

Just like a foolish man, when he sees that machine is working automatically, machine is not working automatically. There is a driver. A foolish man cannot see behind the machine a driver. That is our defect in vision. A machine, there is electronics working very wonderfully. But behind that electronic work, there is a great scientist who is pushing the button. It is very simple to understand. Machine is matter. It cannot work out of its own accord. It is working under some spiritual direction. Just like this machine, the tape recorder, is working, but it is working under the direction of a living entity, a human being. The machine is all complete, but unless it is manipulated by a spirit soul, it cannot work. Similarly, take it for granted that the whole cosmic manifestation is a great machine, nature.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, July 20, 1971:

No machine can work without a soul. I was talking of this computer. What is called? Computer? Eh? Computer. But still, a trained man requires to handle the computer. Then what is the meaning of this computer? Whatever machine you make... Similarly, we should understand that this great machine, which is known as cosmic manifestation, material nature—there is a supreme spirit which is manipulating. That is Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa says. It is confirmed. So our process of knowledge is very easy and perfect. The scientists, they are searching out what is the ultimate cause or ultimate control of this material nature, and they are putting, theorizing different propositions. But our means of knowledge, very easy and perfect because we are hearing from the perfect person, Kṛṣṇa. And He says, mayādhyakṣeṇa (BG 9.10). So immediately we know that all this cosmic machine, which is working so nicely and wonderfully, behind this machine the driver is Kṛṣṇa. Exactly behind a machine here, there is a machine driver, similarly, behind this big machine of material nature, there is Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture Excerpt -- London, August 13, 1971:

We are eating, but how the eatables are being transformed into secretion, how they are becoming blood, how they are being passed through the heart, and it becomes red, and again diffuse all over the veins, and in this way the body is maintained, we know something, but how the work is going on, how this factory is going on, how the factory, machine, is working, we have very little knowledge. So indirectly we know that "This is my body." "Indirectly" means we have heard, but we have no direct knowledge. But Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme, the original of everything, He knows everything.

Pandal Lecture -- Delhi, November 13, 1971:

Just try to understand. We are given a kind of machine, yantra, this body, a particular type of machine. Actually it is machine. It is a physiological machine. But the machine has developed by māyā prakṛti because I wanted it. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati. Īśvaraḥ, the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His Paramātmā feature, antaryāmī, He is situated in everyone's heart in my heart, in dog's heart, in demigod's heart, everyone. Not only in the heart of the living entity, but He is within the atom.

Lecture -- Delhi, December 13, 1971:

Suppose you have to manufacture something, a small watch. That particular watch has to be manufactured. But Kṛṣṇa has created so nicely that two machines—one male machine, one female machine—and they're joining and so many machines are coming out. Not that each and every particular machine body has to be tackled (?). Kṛṣṇa has made so nice arrangement, His intelligence is so sharp, that the potency is there that one male machine, one female machine, and they are producing unlimited number of machines. You have to manufacture a machine, a car, in the factory in so many ways. This is Kṛṣṇa's intelligence.

Lecture at Caitanya Matha -- Visakhapatnam, February 19, 1972:

Immediately something wonderful happens, but it is not that the machine is working, it is the scientist who is pushing on the button. Similarly, don't take, this is nonsense that nature is producing. No, nature cannot produce. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā,

mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ

sūyate sa-carācaram

hetunānena kaunteya

jagad viparivartate

(BG 9.10)

Mayādhyakṣeṇa, under My supervision the nature is working. Not blindly. This is not something ignorant. This is crude knowledge. Just like a child, he sees that aeroplane is running on the sky. He may think that the airplane is running automatically, by itself. No. The machine, without being touched by the pilot, cannot work. The machine may be perfect, very nice, but the pilot is required. So, at the present moment the civilization is trying to avoid God, the brain of God. That is foolishness.

Town Hall Lecture -- Auckland, April 14, 1972:

So everything is clear. Dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre samavetā (BG 1.1), assembled, yuyutsavaḥ, for fighting. And who are they? It is the question of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the father of the Duryodhana, and he is asking his private secretary, Sañjaya. Sañjaya was relaying the fight in the battlefield, and Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind. Just like television. So he was seeing the fight from the heart. It means there is still more finer science, that you don't require machine to see it by television, what is going outside. You can see within your heart. So this Sañjaya was seeing the battle, and he was relaying to Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

Lecture at Art Gallery -- Auckland, April 16, 1972:

So He is the greatest artist. Just like nowadays, the electronic age, the artist or the scientist just pushing on one button and it is working so nicely. Nowadays it is very easy to understand. In the aeroplane the pilot is simply pushing on button, and such a huge machine, just like a small city, it is flying in the sky, and the wings are working, the machine is working.

Lecture at Art Gallery -- Auckland, April 16, 1972:

So where is your science in that way? Where is that artist within this material world? Where is that pleasure of that artistic work? These things should be enquired. It is called athāto brahma jijñāsā. In the Vedānta-sūtra this is the first aphorism, that "In the human form of life these enquiries should be made. These studies should be made." This is a fact. You cannot manufacture such machine that automatically a rose flower is coming out.

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Los Angeles, May 21, 1972:

If you want to fly in the sky, then you have to make some machine. But a small insect, he is flying very freely, without any mechanical... You cannot make such a small machine like an insect. That is not. But God has given him potency, although he's a very insignificant small ant, insect, he can very freely fly. You cannot live within the water. If you want to live within the water, you have to make so many arrangements, submarine and this and that, so many things. But a small fish, he doesn't care even the ocean. Playing.

Lecture at Indo-American Society 'East and West' -- Calcutta, January 31, 1973:

Similarly, Western people may know something very nicely, the Eastern people may take little time. Just like for technology, they go to Western countries to learn how machine works. So they also learn it. In Eastern..., in India, they're also learning. So now the time is ripe that we should not think in terms of Eastern and Western. We should be hankering after real knowledge. That is wanted. That is the point of unity.

Lecture -- London, August 23, 1973:

Under His direction the material nature is working. That is intelligence. Material nature, matter... Matter cannot act independently. That is not possible. Just like this microphone is a combination of material things—some iron, some other metals. But it has been adjusted, created by some living entity. Not that matter has automatically come into intermingling with this other and become a microphone. That is not possible. Take any machine. It may be very wonderful machine. Just like nowadays the wonderful machine is computer.

Lecture -- London, August 23, 1973:

So it acts very wonderfully, but there must be a expert man to push the button. Otherwise, it will not act. Without that expert man, this wonderful machine is lump of iron. That's all. It has no value. Take any machine. Similarly, this huge, gigantic machine of cosmic manifestation where innumerable planets are floating in the sky just like cotton swabs, don't think that it is so acting automatically. No. There is direction behind it, or there is brain behind it.

Lecture -- London, August 26, 1973:

They cannot understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is not possible. It is in the human form of body when the consciousness is developed. In the tree also, there is consciousness. It is now scientifically proved. When you cut tree or take its leaves, it feels, and that is recorded in the machine. This machine was discovered by Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, a great physicist in Calcutta. So everyone has got consciousness, there is no doubt about it. But the developed consciousness is found in the human being. And the topmost development of consciousness is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore we are appealing to the people in general all over the world that "Now you have got developed consciousness than the lower animals, birds, trees, beasts. Now you develop further so that you can awaken your original consciousness, which is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then your life is successful." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

Yogeśvara: His first question was do we use machines and modern methods on our āśramas and farms.

Prabhupāda: We have no objection. We want to be self-sufficient. That is our point of view. We have no objection with... It is not that we don't touch machine. We don't say like that. But we want to be self-sufficient. That is our point. We have not taken a vow that we shall not touch any machine. No, no. We're not like that.

Public Speech -- Bad Homburg, Germany, June 22, 1974:

Even scientists have proved this consciousness is there in the tree also. If you cut the tree, there is sensation, feelings of pain, and that is recorded in the machine. So here it is hinted that this consciousness is spread all over the body. That is eternal. The body is not eternal. As soon as the consciousness is gone, the body is dead. Therefore we should take care of the thing which is consciousness. That is the soul.

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Atlanta, March 2, 1975:

So now life is, my, perfect." This is not perfection, because we are under the grip of the laws of material nature. Material nature is controlling. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). How the material nature is controlling? She has got machine, three modes of material nature. So kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). They are contacting either of these three modes of material nature and thus being infected.

City Hall Lecture -- Durban, October 7, 1975:

Yantra means machine. So Kṛṣṇa is situated in everyone's heart. That is all-pervading. And He knows what the soul wants, so He is given the opportunity. As he wants to work, he is given a particular type of body, machine, yantra. Yantra means machine. And he is seated there, and in this way he is wandering in different species of life and different planets for different times. That is going on. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). So if we stop this business, if we hear Kṛṣṇa-sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66)—then our life is successful.

Evening Lecture -- Bhuvanesvara, January 19, 1977:

That īśvara, that Paramātmā, is sitting also within this body, but He's observing what the jīvātmā wants to do. According to that, He is supplying a machine. This machine means this body, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. This machine is manufactured by the external energy, māyā. So therefore we are jīvātmā; we are different from the Paramātmā. Those who are equalizing Paramātmā and jīvātmā, they are not in perfect knowledge. Either purposefully they are misleading, or they do not know the perfect knowledge.

Lecture -- Bhuvanesvara, January 29, 1977, (with Oriyan translator):

Īśvara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramātmā, is sitting in everyone's core of the heart, and He is witness, witnessing everything. So according to our karma, we are getting a body or a machine for movement given by māyā. So therefore we are getting different types of body. The reason is kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). The different types of body we are getting on account of association with the material qualities.

General Lecture -- (location & date unknown):

The nature has given me this body according to my karma. Just like the landlord has given me this house to live, but it is not my house. This is a fact. So if I live in this house and later on claim, "Oh, this is my house," the whole trouble begins. Similarly, everything which we are utilizing for our comforts, for our livelihood, everything is given by God. This body is given by God, the maintenance also given by God. You are maintaining this body by eating fruits, flowers, grains, or even meat. But who is supplying? You cannot create all these things in your machine-made factories. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He is supplying. This is God consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Departure Talks

Departure Lecture -- Mexico City, February 18, 1975:

Just to get relief from sweeping... There is no relief; they have got other troubles. But they are thinking, "Now we haven't got to sweep. It is a great relief." Similarly, a simple razor can be used for shaving, and they have got so many machines and, to manufacture the machines, so many factories. So in this way if we study, item by item, this kind of civilization is called demonic civilization. Ugra-karma. Ugra-karma means ferocious activities.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: That is explained in Bhagavad-gītā,

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ

hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati

bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni

yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

(BG 18.61)

That the body is a machine. The soul wanted to walk or move in a certain specific way, and He has given these instructions. Just like if you want to go by car, the car is there; if you want to go by bus, the bus is there; if you want to go by railway, the railway is there; if you want to fly by airship, the airship is there. Similarly, the soul is desiring in a particular way, and God is supplying through His material agent a..., that particular type of body. Therefore the bird is flying, the fish is within the water, and the uncivilized men or animals within the forest and civilized men in the city. In this way different, 8,400,000's of different bodies are there according to the desire of the soul, and the machine of the body is supplied by nature under the order of God. This is explained.

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Prabhupāda: Then why death takes place, if there is no cause?

Śyāmasundara: It's just like any machine which is born and dies.

Prabhupāda: When you say machine, machine is made by somebody. You cannot compare it to a machine. A machine is created by somebody. There is beginning of the machine.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Miracles means you cannot conceive how it is being done. The same example, as I said, that if you want to paint one rose flower you require so many things, but that also is not real rose flower. But imitation, it may be perfect, but you have to take so much trouble in collecting the paint, the colors, and your energy, then duration of work, and some day it may come out perfect. But the same energy is working so swiftly that you see automatically a rose flower is coming out. The same example again: just like this airplane, there are thousands of complicated electronic machinery arrangements, but you see that the pilot is simply pushing a button. That's all.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Prabhupāda: Not idea. Somehow or other—they are both scientists—they thought it (that) the sound can be captured. So they were making research. Now, they said—Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, he found first, how sound can be captured but because he was Indian, the British government did not give him the credit. They gave it to Marconi and it was discovered (indistinct) Jagadish Chandra Bose. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose personally told. I was present in the meeting in my childhood. That is a fact. One Baptist Mission Church in College Square, I saw Sir Jagadish, he spoke there. Then you challenge that "Now I shall give something which no others, which is (indistinct)". So he gave that the trees have sense, sensitive (indistinct). They can feel when you cut. That machine (indistinct). In Calcutta I have seen Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose Institute, we have got in (indistinct).

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: Who made this mechanical? As soon as you bring the question of mechanical, there must be a brain who set up the machine. Mechanical means, just like your, what is that, telex is working. That is mechanical. That's all right. But behind this machine. there is a big brain who has made this possible. Now you are seeing at the present moment that by pushing one button you get your business done, mechanically, but who made this machine. That is important. This machine has not come out itself. There is iron and there is some, it is made of iron. So iron has not molded itself to that machine; there was a brain who has made the machine possible. Now when you are using, because you have no, if you have no knowledge... Just like in our childhood we used to think that there is a man within the gramophone box. This is childish. It is not mechanical. Everything has got a plan, design, and behind that plan and design there is a brain, big brain. What do you say, here is a scientific man?

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So then it is to be understood that different natural laws are working, and they are working under one controller, and that is God. Just like we are taking so many services from this electricity current, but all this electricity current are working under one leader in the powerhouse, the resident engineer. From him, the original electricity current is coming, is generated. And we are utilizing the same current in different varieties, purposes. So then, just like electric current, the same electric current working in this machine, in a way; another machine another way. It may be contradiction, but the power is the same. According to the machine, the same example: one machine is cooler, one machine is heater, although the current is the same. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Everywhere God's energy is working as if natural.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: No. They are becoming more inferior. There is no necessity of computer machine.

Śyāmasundara: So even though there may be an evolution from simple to more complex, there's no evolution from inferior to superior.

Prabhupāda: That is not improvement. No. Now human society has become very complex. I don't trust you, you don't trust me. I keep my dog so that you may not come in my house—"Beware of Dogs"—and if you enter I can fire you, there is law.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: Energy means somebody's energy. I am sitting here, I am pushing one button, the energy is immediately created, and it goes. Just like this telex machine. So somebody is pushing the button.

Karandhara: The energetic.

Prabhupāda: And then energy, immediately produced. Computer machine, the machine is doing nothing out of his own accord. Somebody is going and pushing the button. Then it will..., the energy is created. Similarly, according to our Vedic knowledge, as soon as God wishes, immediately the energy is set off, set into action, and then other things come automatically.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: Just like they can take a heart out of a living being and they put it in a machine and keep it alive and then they transplant it to some other person.

Prabhupāda: The same intelligence, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13), they're trying to find out life in this lump of matter. That is their defect.

Śyāmasundara: They'll spend so many billions of dollars, and years of work.

Prabhupāda: The same example. Just like computer machine. They do not find that the machine is made by a brain which is different from this material. But he's trying to find out a brain from this. This is their childish... The brain is different from machine. The machine is lump of iron. And the one who is working with the machine is a different from the machine. That they do not know. That they do not know. That is their defect. Now what is this computer machine will do unless there is a worker in the computer room, highly salaried man?

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

They have got śāstra, and from the śāstra it is understood one who is accepting this body as the self, he is no better than cow and ass. That is our culture. He has not still found out that the worker of the machine is different. This body is just like machine. May be composed of highly mechanical arrangement, electronic parts and this and that, so many things, but after all, it is a machine! And this machine must be worked by somebody. He must be living. He is not machine.

Śyāmasundara: They can't create a machine that will act like a human?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Even if it can act, still it has to be worked. Unless I push the buttons, you cannot work. That they are missing. Just like you say that computer machine is the same, or so many things, but as soon as you say that "I want this," immediately. But you have to push the button. This machine is working when I push this plug into the electricity.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Even they... But ultimately the mechanic (is) able to work on the computer machine.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: That is education. Every individual person, he is a soul, and he has got a particular type of body. Especially in the human body he requires education. What is this animal and what is higher than human race, these are Vedic description. So there are 8,400,000 different forms of life, and the body is being evolved. The body is machine, and the individual soul desires and he gets a suitable body made by material nature under the order of God. This is Vedic idea, as it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). God is existing within the core of everyone's heart, and the individual soul is desiring something, and upon the order God he is given a machine made by material nature. So this is evolution, and even a man, although he is human form of body, he can again degenerate to animal form of body according to his desire. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13).

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Prabhupāda: (break) You are creating disturbance, I say, "Get out." (indistinct)

Śyāmasundara: He says that the world is a machine for the making of gods. The world...

Prabhupāda: Another nonsense. Another nonsense. (indistinct) Uncover it. (Sanskrit). A rascal is beautiful so long as he does not speak. If he remains silent, then he looks very beautiful.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Prabhupāda: Cerebral mechanism, that is a machine. Just like this microphone is a machine. It helps speaking loudly. It has nothing..., machine has nothing to do with the voice, but it helps the voice louder so we can listen, so far the machine is concerned. Actually the voice is different. Therefore our Vedic śāstra is called voice, śruti. So if the śruti, the voice, vibration of this voice is proper, then the machine can help us to understand that. But if there is no voice, what is the use of the machine? Just like dead body: the same brain is there, what is the use? The same ear is there. So it is not the brain that helps; it is the voice, it is the instruction which helps. Therefore we take instruction of Kṛṣṇa. So that is the Kṛṣṇa's point. Kṛṣṇa says, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7). When people becomes rascal, without any God consciousness, and the so-called demonic leaders keep the society in darkness, dharmasya glānir bhavati, at that time, to stop these demons talking nonsense, and to raise the devotees who are interested, Kṛṣṇa comes. That is Kṛṣṇa's coming. Then He leaves behind Him instruction of Bhagavad-gītā so that His devotees can preach for the benefit of the society. So it is not the brain; it is the voice, the instruction, which is important. So a human being has got this nice machine and he can take. But if the leaders are blind, they do not know what is the use of this brain, then it is useless.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Hayagrīva: Now this is the last point, and I want to just for the record to correct this on Śyāmasundara's presentation because you took exception to this, and I believe that it was..., you wouldn't take exception to it. I don't know. It says Bergson refers to the "essential function of the universe as being that of a machine for the making of gods."

Prabhupāda: That is his misconception. That I have explained, the wheel. The wheel is going on. The wheel has got different parts but it is resting on the axle.

Hayagrīva: No, but is the universe a machine for the making of gods in the sense that it's a vehicle to make people Kṛṣṇa conscious?

Prabhupāda: No, this is wrong. The machine, the wheel is already depending on the axle. Axle is already there. Without axle, the wheel cannot move.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Prabhupāda: Delirium, yes. He is talking all nonsense, this diseased condition. So he has to cured from the diseased condition, then he will understand, "Oh, this is my position," brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54), he becomes immediately joyful, "Oh, I am talking in delirium, nonsense." This is...

Hayagrīva: So instead of a machine for the making of gods, it's more like a hospital for the curing of souls.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, it is hospital. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means curing the disease. That is described in Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170), nirmalam. Nirmalam means purified. So when he becomes free from all this designation... The designation begins with this body, and the body accidentally born in Europe, he thinks, "I am a European." Born in America, "I am an American." Born in a Christian family, "I am Christian." He is born in Hindu family, "I am that." That is all misconception.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Prabhupāda: So this is going on. So-called philosophy, scientific advancement, but the central mistake is there that he is thinking in terms of his body. That has to be corrected. Then it will be pure consciousness and normal life.

Hayagrīva: Now let me get this right. He doesn't say that it's a machine for the making..., that man becomes... He's not saying that man becomes God. He never says that.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hayagrīva: But that a man may evolve to a state like unto the demigods. Is that a possibility?

Prabhupāda: What is demigod? That, there is a difference between demigod and a man. A demigod is in the better position, that's all. Just like a high-court judge and layman. Both of them human being, but the high-court judge in a better position, that's all, but both of them human being.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Prabhupāda: Decision means because you are imperfect, human beings are imperfect, so their machine, these motorcars, there are so many accidents, so many killing. But because God is so perfect, although all the planets are rotating in their speed, just like this earth is rotating... What is the speed? At least in twenty-four hours it is completing 25,000 miles. That means its speed is about 1000 miles at least. And similarly, other planets are also moving, similarly. And the sun planet is moving at 16,000 miles per minute or second, calculated. But all these planets are moving in this way, so much speed, but they are not colliding. The perfect arrangement is there, and they are floating.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Prabhupāda: Yes. No theory. This is practical. Now, as a big machine, the screw is a part, so if every part works nicely, the machine goes nicely. So if we understand... Just like I think last night I was explaining mukha baho rūpa divya: the gigantic body, the brāhmaṇa class, they are the mouth. So one must do the duty of the mouth. The mouth speaks, vibrates and eats. So our proposition is to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and eat Kṛṣṇa prasādam. Then the mouth duty, the brāhmaṇa's duty, is performed. Similarly, the kṣatriya's duty—again we come to that varṇāśrama-dharma. So everyone is factually part and parcel of God and executes his prescribed duty, then it is perfect.

varṇāśramācāravatā

puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān

viṣṇur ārādhyate puṁsāṁ

nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam

(CC Madhya 8.58)

If you want to satisfy the Supreme Lord, then you must execute the functions as they are prescribed in the varṇāśrama system. Then everything is all right. The same example: If all the parts of a machine is in order, working, it will make no trouble.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who cannot think of a supreme controller, he is an insane man. He is not a sane man. How he can propose? Where is his experience? Everything is going on under some control. Even this wonderful machine, computer, that requires an operator. So how one can think of without controller things are going on very systematically? This is insanity. It has no meaning.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: They think that it is automatically coming, by nature, nature. They cannot explain. That is not philosophy. But we have to see wherefrom this activity comes. We get answer from Bhagavad-gītā that behind all these material activities there is a brain, there is a... That is God. Just like this machine is working, acting. It is talking. As soon as you press one button it's talking. But a child will say, "Oh, how wonderful this machine is talking." This is childish. One who has got sense, he'll know this talking is not coming automatically. Somebody has talked, and it is simply a record. That is intelligence.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: So the middle stage, so then you have to learn. You are not perfect, so you do not know. So one who does not know, his speculation, what is the value? Just like a child, if he does not know how the machine is working, how, then his speculation on this machine, what is the value of it? Without perfect knowledge, simply speculation, that is going on. The modern civilization, they prefer simply speculation without any basic truth. That is the defect. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās (SB 7.5.31). And they have become leaders, philosophers, scientists. Bhāgavata condemns them: andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās. They are blind themselves and they are trying to lead other blind men. So their leading, their science, their philosophy are practically useless. They cannot give any benefit to the human society. Childish.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: Yes. These modern economic concept, they think that this anxiety is the impetus for economic development. They also say like that. Just like in America especially, they are never satisfied. They are manufacturing another machine, another machine, another machine. That hankering after another, another, they think it is really progress. In one sense it is all right, all right, but the attempt should be made, when there is goal. Just like you know how to rise up to the 102nd story that Empire Building. Now they're going step by step, and you know that "I have not completed the step, that I will go further, further, all right," but you know that "I have to go to 102nd story." But if you do not know, this is simply waste of energy.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Prabhupāda: That is also will of a person. The maker of the computer machine, he has will.

Śyāmasundara: That's right. A computer machine has a will also.

Prabhupāda: Will..., not will. It is so mechanically arranged, it is acting. Just like a tape is singing...

Śyāmasundara: Oh.

Prabhupāda: ...outside your door: "Prabhupāda is singing." But I am not singing.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Prabhupāda: No. Sleeping too much is bad in all circumstances. So, stop the machine. Stop this machine. Tomorrow is good.

Philosophy Discussion on Martin Heidegger:

Prabhupāda: Anything which is born must die, must get old, must be diseased. Anything, even you take material things—this machine—it has got a date of birth, and there will be a death when it will stop functioning. And it is getting older. That is the law. But here is Kṛṣṇa says that "You can stop death, simply by understanding Me." And if you stop birth, punar janma, then you stop other things. Because death is there, then there is birth, but if there is no birth, there is no death. You have to think like that, that these are the problems of anxiety: birth, death, old age, and disease. So here Kṛṣṇa says that you can stop your birth. Punar janma naiti: no more birth. Then I can stop all other things.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: That we are teaching. That we have shown. But he remains unconscious state. That is (indistinct). That we are teaching. We are simply, loudly stating, "Please wake up. Please wake up. We are not this body. We are not this body." So these are the (indistinct) dream. You cannot raise him to the consciousness. He is fully packed up in matter. That is not possible. But he is also conscious. That is proved by (indistinct). He applied machine: in the remote part he is feeling the pain when you cut. But it is not very manifest. Just like children, they are not so conscious, you operate.

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

Śyāmasundara: Right now, the level of their experiments are relatively small. For instance, they have created teaching machines where a child is put in front of the machine and a question is asked, and if the child answers it correctly he gets the reward.

Prabhupāda: Another nonsense. The thing is that the Vedic conception of raising children, brahmācārya, that system is perfect.

Śyāmasundara: Not by machine.

Prabhupāda: No, this is (indistinct). We are not machines.

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

Śyāmasundara: Suppose we had a machine and one of our children was given the question "Who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead?" And then there were three possibilities, and if she pushed "Kṛṣṇa," some reward would come out.

Prabhupāda: She has to push some button to take out Kṛṣṇa.

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

Prabhupāda: Here the thing is that these are all childish suppositions. The real thing is that he should be educated. He should be educated. This should be done. He should be educated from the very beginning that "You are not this body." This is the beginning of real religion. He is talking this way and that. Education is required. Without education these things cannot be taught—by rewarding, by this way, by that way, by machine... It is all nonsense, everything. The first education is that every children should be taught from the very beginning that "You are not this body," and he should be taught the nature of the soul. Then he will come to the Supreme Soul.

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Prabhupāda: That is his ignorance, because this body is dead. That what is the difference between the dead body and the... The same Marx and same Lenin was lying, but because there is no spirit sould it was considered as dead. This is imperfect understanding of the man, of the body. Otherwise, I mean to say, man of sense studies there must be a spiritualism and materialism. Spiritualism..., spirit means the force behind the matter. It can be understood very easily that matter as it is, it is inactive. A machine may be very well made, but without a person, a living being, the machine is useless. So that is the difference between spirit and matter. Matter can be active only in touch with the spirit. Similarly, the body is active when there is soul within the body. This can be easily understood, unless one is very dull. Spirit cannot be denied.

Philosophy Discussion on Plato:

Prabhupāda: No. Just like I have created a machine to manufacture something. I am, I set on in motion, and the products is coming automatically, products are coming automatically.

Hayagrīva: Automatically.

Prabhupāda: Simply I have to set up the machine. Just like in a press, the machine has to be set up, and automatically you will see the magazines are coming all complete. The printing, the binding—everything complete; you simply take it now. There are many machines like that, that you set up the machine and simply stand and see how from the raw state it has come into the finishing state. So bījāhaṁ sarva-bhūtānām. He has created such a seed that you sow the seed and that the tree will come. This is God's machine. He has created the seed only.

Philosophy Discussion on Plato:

Prabhupāda: We say that the living entity is part and parcel of God, mamaivāṁśa. Under the circumstances he has got almost all the qualities of God, but partially, because God is great and we are minute. So even though we have got all the qualities of God—not all, certain percentage, say seventy-eight percent—in minute quantity. Just like God has creative power, we have got also creative power. We have created the 747 flying machine. All right, get credit for that, but you cannot create a flying ball like sun floating in the sky. That is difference between God and me. You can take credit that you are keeping suspension in the air a big machine, 747, but it is not in your power that you can float millions and millions of planets floating in the air. That is not possible.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Prabhupāda: Yes. When he, we remain in contact with God, the sin cannot touch. That is the explanation given in the Bhagavad-gītā: daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). According to our desires we are associating with the different qualities of material nature, and we are getting different types of body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya. Nature is the agent of Kṛṣṇa, God, so as we desire, Kṛṣṇa gives us the facility by giving us a body which is a machine. Just like father and the son. The son insists, "Father, give me a cycle." So the affectionate father gives him a cycle.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Aquinas:

Prabhupāda: No. The form..., material body is imitation, is false. Real body is the spiritual body. Because the spiritual body has form, the coating of the spiritual body by matter takes a form, as I have already explained, that the shirt and coat originally has no form, but when the shirt and coat is cut by the tailor according the form of the man, it takes a form. So actually this material form is illusion. It is not form. It, it takes the form, and when it is old enough, no more use, it again comes to the original position, earth. "Dust thou art, dust thou beist." This form is made by the material nature. It is just like a machine. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). The soul has its own form, but he is given a machine, a particular machine, which is this body, and therefore he enjoys by wandering throughout the whole universe in different conditions of life.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Hobbes:

Hayagrīva: Hobbes compares man to a machine ultimately made by God, but he does not see this machine as controlled directly by God but by the Leviathan, by the, by the king, the ruler.

Prabhupāda: No. God is situated in everyone's heart, and He is seeing every minute action of the soul—what he is desiring, how he is manipulating the machine. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Specifically it is indicated that God is situated in the heart of the living being and He is observing what he desires. So according to his desire, God is so kind He is supplying a machine. If he wants to enjoy this material world as a human being, God gives him opportunity to become a human being, and if he wants to enjoy this material world as a dog, He gives him the body of a dog. If he wants to enjoy as a hog, He gives the body of a hog. If he wants to enjoy as demigod, He gives him the body. So this is God's mercy. So long the individual living being wants to enjoy this material world, so according to his eagerness to enjoy in that way, He gives the facility, and that facility is the particular body. This body is material. It is supplied by the material nature, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). The machine is made by the material ingredients, upon the order of Kṛṣṇa, or God, for the enjoyment of the living entity. So he sits in that machine and travels. Just like we have got a car, we can travel, similarly we get particular machine and we travel in some species of life in some planet. There are innumerable planets, and 8,000,000 species of life. So according to the contact with material nature, the living entity is desiring something, and God is so merciful that He is giving him facility. But actually, because God is friend, when he is prepared to understand from God how he will be happy, He says that "You give up all this nonsense plan. You just surrender unto Me." Then he is perfect. Otherwise if he desires, God will supply him unlimited number of machine for going here and there, up and down, within this universe.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Prabhupāda: So by machine, by electric, what is called, batteries, let it work and it will act accordingly, breathing. But does it mean it will bring life? So they say breathing is stopped; therefore life is stopped. So breathing can be revived, but where is the life? They say the blood has become white. So blood can be colored. So anything of this body, analyze perfectly and bring life; then you say that life is combination of this matter. You cannot bring it; therefore it must be concluded that life is different from this combination of matter. This is reasoning. This is human reasoning. And if you still keep yourself that this body is, it is everything, then you are animal.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Hayagrīva: He looked on animals as machines that react, and the basis for this view is..., he called it radiosenation, or language, because they do not have language...

Prabhupāda: They have got language.

Hayagrīva: They react as machines.

Prabhupāda: They have got language. You do not understand it.

Philosophy Discussion on John Locke:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The word begins ataḥ paurva-dehikam. You can stop the machine and find it. (break) You can record it. Tatra taṁ paurva-dehikam buddhi-saṁyogam. Yes, that is. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness, culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is never lost. It goes on, unless it is perfect. Therefore it is stated, sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. Even little acting on Kṛṣṇa consciousness can save one from the greatest danger—as it was done by Ajamila. He cultivated Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the beginning of his life, then he fell down, he became the greatest debauch. But at the end of life again he remembered Nārāyaṇa and he got salvation. Tatra taṁ buddhi-saṁyogam (BG 6.43). Read Bhagavad-gītā carefully. All answers are there. This philosopher cannot go beyond Bhagavad-gītā.

Purports to Songs

Purport & Explanation to Hari Hari Biphale -- Los Angeles, December 26, 1968:

This chanting, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, this is not material vibration. This sound is..." What is called? Captured? Just like we capture sound. The sound is in the air. So this sound... There are different layers of air, but this sound is in the highest layer, in the transcendental, spiritual layer, beyond this material world. From that sound it is captured. It requires strong machine to capture that sound. Golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana.

Purport to Parama Koruna -- Atlanta, February 28, 1975:

So there is necessity of a class of men who will act as the brain of the society. That is called brāhmaṇa. That is real human society, where there are four classes of men: one acting as brain, one acting as arms or armies or protection, one acting as belly, or the food digesting machine... Unless you eat and digest food, how your body will be maintained? So everything is very scientifically designed in the Vedic civilization. So in the Kali-yuga there is scarcity of brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa is vairāgya. A brāhmaṇa is not interested with pounds, shilling, pence, "Get money and enjoy." That is not brāhmaṇa's business. What us enjoyment? That is illusion. You cannot enjoy because you are conditioned by the stringent laws of nature, and where is enjoyment? There is no enjoyment. But they are thinking, "I am enjoying." This is called illusion, māyā. There cannot be any enjoyment. When you are not free, when you are conditioned under the stringent laws of... You do not like to die. You are forced to die. You must die. You cannot say, "No, I will not die." No, that is not possible. So where is your freedom? But we are declaring, "Now we are independent." This is all illusion.