So Arjuna says that "I do not like to kill my grandfather or my guru." Not only ordinary guru. Guru is never ordinary. Guru... That I have explained. Never we should consider guru as ordinary human being. Guru means as king is the representative for giving protection to the people, similarly, a guru or brāhmaṇa is also meant for giving protection to the people from spiritual side. The king, kṣatriya, is meant for giving protection to the people from material side. The vaiśya is to produce from the material side. Everything is systematically arranged. So brāhmaṇa means the intelligent class of men, kṣatriya means the administrative class of men, and vaiśya means the productive class of men, and the śūdra means ordinary worker. These divisions are everywhere.
Material side
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 6
A devotee's ultimate achievement is to take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord in any one of the planets in the spiritual sky. As a result of rigid execution of devotional service, a devotee receives all material opulences if these are required; otherwise, the devotee is not interested in material opulences, nor does the Supreme Lord award them. When a devotee is actually engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, his apparently material opulences are not material; they are all spiritual. For example, if a devotee spends money to construct a beautiful and costly temple, the construction is not material but spiritual (nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate). A devotee's mind is never diverted to the material side of the temple. The bricks, stone and wood used in the construction of the temple are spiritual, just as the Deity, although made of stone, is not stone but the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. The more one advances in spiritual consciousness, the more he can understand the elements of devotional service. Nothing in devotional service is material; everything is spiritual. Consequently a devotee is awarded so-called material opulence for spiritual advancement. This opulence is an aid to help the devotee advance toward the spiritual kingdom. Thus Mahārāja Citraketu remained in material opulence as a vidyādhara-pati, master of the Vidyādharas, and by executing devotional service he became perfect within a very few days and returned home, back to Godhead, taking shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Śeṣa, Ananta.
SB Canto 9
When Rāmacandra entered the forest and Lakṣmaṇa was also absent, the worst of the Rākṣasas, Rāvaṇa, kidnapped Sītādevī, the daughter of the King of Videha, just as a tiger seizes unprotected sheep when the shepherd is absent. Then Lord Rāmacandra wandered in the forest with His brother Lakṣmaṇa as if very much distressed due to separation from His wife. Thus He showed by His personal example the condition of a person attached to women.
In this verse the words strī-saṅgināṁ gatim iti indicate that the condition of a person attached to women was shown by the Lord Himself. According to moral instructions, gṛhe nārīṁ vivarjayet: when one goes on a tour, one should not bring his wife. Formerly men used to travel without conveyances, but still, as far as possible, when one leaves home one should not take his wife with him, especially if one is in such a condition as Lord Rāmacandra when banished by the order of His father. Whether in the forest or at home, if one is attached to women this attachment is always troublesome, as shown by the Supreme Personality of Godhead by His personal example.
Of course, this is the material side of strī-saṅgī, but the situation of Lord Rāmacandra is spiritual, for He does not belong to the material world. Nārāyaṇaḥ paro 'vyaktāt: Nārāyaṇa is beyond the material creation. Because He is the creator of the material world, He is not subject to the conditions of the material world. The separation of Lord Rāmacandra from Sītā is spiritually understood as vipralambha, which is an activity of the hlādinī potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead belonging to the śṛṅgāra-rasa, the mellow of conjugal love in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world the Supreme Personality of Godhead has all the dealings of love, displaying the symptoms called sāttvika, sañcārī, vilāpa, mūrcchā and unmāda. Thus when Lord Rāmacandra was separated from Sītā, all these spiritual symptoms were manifested.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
So material opulence and... Of course, in India, it was not considered to have a big tin car or plastic plates. Material opulence means jewels, gold, silk, butter, that is material opulence. Not plastic pots or plastic bucket, plastic cloth. It has no value. So anyway, India was concerned material opulence, whatever is gotten from the nature, not by industry, not engaging oneself in industry. Therefore, India, the leaders of India now, they are finding that on account of our negligence to the material side of life, we have become poor.
Matter cannot work without touch of spirit. Matter is dependent on spirit. This is knowledge, not that matter is prominent and spirit is neglected. That is foolishness. Therefore in the present education there is hardly a few persons who are actually in knowledge because they have neglected the spirit side of the activity. They have taken only the material side of the activity. So if you come to according to the Bhagavad-gītā, then it is a civilization of fools. That you may call...(?) They are giving too much stress on the motor car machine and not to the driver. The driver is neglected. This is foolish civilization. Man is neglected.
I think in my childhood when I was a student, Scottish Churches College, I read one magazine from your country. I think that magazine is still current, Scientific America. Is there any magazine? Yes. In magazine I saw one picture. I think that skyscraper was beginning at that time. A man was working very heartily, and the picture is there that for manufacturing matter, a soul is being killed. You see? That is material civilization. They are giving too much stress on the matter, on the material side, but they are neglecting the spirit. That is not civilization. One should give more stress on the spiritual side because that is the active principle. So that is called knowledge. A man is to be understood in knowledge when he is giving, I mean to say, importance to the spiritual side. He is called jñānī. Otherwise they are fools. So jñānam. Jñānam means cid-acid-vastu-vivecanam, to understand what is matter and spirit.
General Lectures
However stout and strong you may be, you have to die. You have to give up this body. This body is temporary, but our tendency is to live forever. The scientists are trying how to keep this body fit. One Russian scientist said that "By material science we shall be able to keep this body forever." They may say like that, but in the history we do not find any evidence that anyone has ever been able to keep this body forever, immortal. That is not possible.
But this tendency can be satisfied if you transfer yourself to the spiritual world, because you are marginal. I have already said that we are in a marginal position. If we like, we can keep on this material side of the nature, and if we like, we can transfer ourself to the spiritual side of nature. And what we are? We are also spiritual sparks. Therefore we cannot adjust with this material nature. Our real hankering is how to go to the spiritual nature. But due to our long association with this material nature, we are thinking wrongly that "I am a product of this material nature. I will have to adjust with the elements here, and... But because there is no other way, so as long is possible, let me live comfortably and satisfactorily." This is our nature. But we get information from Bhagavad-gītā, by simply doing one thing you can make your life permanent, eternal, and never to die again, or never to take birth again. What is that? That Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that,
- janma karma me divyaṁ
- yo jānāti tattvataḥ
- tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
- naiti mām eti kaunteya
- (BG 4.9)
Kṛṣṇa says, "Simply by understanding about My appearance and My activities, janma karma..." Janma means appearance, and karma means activities. Janma karma me divyam: "They are transcendental." Yo jānāti tattvataḥ: "If anyone understands in truth," tyaktvā deham, "then such person, after giving up this body," punar janma naiti, "do not come to take birth again in this material world, but he comes to Me." Mām eti. And if you come back to Kṛṣṇa, wherefrom you generated, then you become eternally living, not to come back again in this material world full of miseries and frustration.
So there is no scarcity if we believe in Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then there will be no scarcity. Actually there is no scarcity. You have been already informed that we have got ninety-five centers and we are spending seventy to eighty thousand dollars per month. But we have no fixed-up income. We are traveling all over the world with party. You can imagine. This is very expensive job. But Kṛṣṇa is supplying us all our necessities. Why not? If you are serving for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, why He will not supply you? Kṛṣṇa is supplying food to everyone, those who are not devotees, and why not to the devotees? What we have done? Those who have denied the existence of God, they are also being fed by Kṛṣṇa, or God. And we are preaching the glories of God. Why we shall be in want? That is not possible. And actually we are not. So this is not very important subject matter. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, automatically, if you take care of the spiritual side of your existence, the material side of your existence will be automatically taken care, automatically.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
These boys have come to me because they have rejected, they don't like. Just like you are coming. Why you are surrendering to me? Because you are not satisfied. So our Indians, they do not see that "These men, they have already everything. Why they are rejecting?" All facility. Because this will not give us real happiness. We are spirit soul. We cannot be happy simply by material opulence. That is not possible. This is Vedic civilization: how people will be happy. They can be happy simply by self-realization, spiritual realization, because he is spirit. Material advancement will never make us happy, that's a fact. People have not become happy. In India they say that we neglected this material side therefore. But actually that is not the fact. They have lost their own spiritual culture; therefore they are not... But still, whatever spiritual culture they have got, still they are happier than others, if I make comparative study. In India still in village you'll find a man with practically no income but he has got his happy home, good wife, a cottage, little bread, but he is happy. Here I see they have no home, no family life. Even ordinary necessities of life means eating, sleeping, sex life and defense. They have no fixed-up eating. In America, in the Bowery street, lying down on the street, drinking. So many. Here also in your country.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Sudāmā: I don't ever want to stop preaching.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Well, preaching, you cannot manufacture preaching. You must do preaching according to the principles ordered by your spiritual master. You cannot manufacture your own way of preaching. That is required. There must be some leader. Under the leadership. Yasya prasādād bhagavat... Why it is said? Everywhere, in the office, there is some immediate boss. So you have to please him. That is service. Suppose in office, in a department there is office superintendent. And if you do in your own way, "Yes, I'm doing my business," and the office superintendent is not pleased, do you think that kind of service is nice? No. Similarly, we have got, everywhere we have got immediate boss. So we must work. That is systematic. If everyone manufactures, invents his own way of life, then there must be chaos.
Sudāmā: Yeah, that's true.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now we are world organization. There is spiritual side, and there is material side also. That is not material side. That is also spiritual side, means systematic management. Otherwise how it will be done? Just like Gaurasundara sold the house, and there is no trace of the money. What is this? He did not ask him, anyone. He sold the house, and where is the money, there is no trace.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee: I was wondering if it was all right to work hard for Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. To minimize this material work means the energy should be employed for Kṛṣṇa. Minimize work this, means this side, material side. And save time and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. That is the principle. And if you are busy from the early morning to go to the working place and up to ten o'clock, then where you get for chanting, time? So therefore you save time from material activities and engage it for advancing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is life.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Śāstrījī:
- dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ
- saṅgas teṣūpajāyate
- saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ
- kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate
- krodhād bhavati sammohaḥ
- sammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ
- smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo
- buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati
Prabhupāda: So this is the material side. Similarly, spiritual side also, the same. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). If the sādhu-saṅga is there, then gradually he becomes a devotee.
Dharmāviruddho kāmo 'smi, "Sex life which is not against religious principles, I am that." Not that sex life, as soon as you like, sex. That is not gṛhastha. That is gṛhamedhī. Dharmāviruddha. Dharma-aviruddha means simply for begetting nice child you can have..., not for enjoyment. Putrārthe kriyate bhāryā. This is Vedic principle. Putraḥ-piṇḍa-prayojanam. A bhāryā, wife, is accepted only for having son. Not for any other purpose. Putraḥ-piṇḍa-prayojanam. This is material side, but still, it is religious. First education is brahmacārī, how to train him to avoid sex life. And still if he's not able, then he is allowed to become a gṛhastha, a little concession. Otherwise, the whole Vedic civilization is: how to avoid sex life. Brahmacārī—no sex life. Vānaprastha—no sex life. Sannyāsa—no sex life. Only gṛhastha, under control. That is gṛhastha. Gṛhastha does not mean one who is doing everything whimsically on account of getting this concession. He's not gṛhastha, he's gṛhamedhī.
The aim should be spiritual culture, at least for human beings. The cats and dogs, they cannot understand what is the distinction between spirit and soul, er, spirit and matter, but a human being can understand. This is spiritual side, this is material side. The spiritual side is important. Therefore the goal is how to understand the spiritual side. That is the goal. If we don't cultivate the spiritual side, simply we take care of the bodily side, then we remain animals. And because people are taking only care for the body, this is animal civilization. Human civilization means to take care of the spiritual side. If there is no such attempt to take care of the spiritual side, simply for the material side, then we are no better than the animals. Because they cannot take any care of the spiritual side. They can take care of the material side.
Sarva-dharmān: Everything give up. That is India's Vedic civilization. They are not concerned with the material advancement. Simple life. That's all. And our present leaders, they are thinking that "brainwashed." They are not deeply thinking, "Why our great sages and ācāryas recommended this life, not the skyscraper life? Why? They were not less intelligent." They are not thinking in that way. They are thinking that "Because we neglected the skyscraper thoughts, we are so backward." At least this rascal Nehru was thinking like that. "So finish this." The Russia is... What is called? Opiate, brainwashed. These things are accepted like that. "It has no value, simply some prejudice and superstition, and they are thinking like that and they are spoiling their material side of life." This is their idea. "What is this? No meat-eating?"
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Let them oppose. You do your duty. Introduce this Vedic culture in your country. It will be... In future they will appreciate. There will be history how Vedic culture was... And the whole nation will be benefited—from material side. And spiritual side there will be..., what to speak of? These literatures, this art, this strength,(?) this philosophy... Everything wonderful.
Prabhupāda: Śūdra is to be controlled only. They are never given to be freedom. Just like in America. The blacks were slaves. They were under control. And since you have given them equal rights they are disturbing, most disturbing, always creating a fearful situation, uncultured and drunkards. What training they have got? They have got equal right? That is best, to keep them under control as slaves but give them sufficient food, sufficient cloth, not more than that. Then they will be satisfied.
Hari-śauri: If that's done then how will those who have some potential to be educated, how will we recognize them?
Prabhupāda: Either educate them or control them. Give them facility of education. But there is no education at all. Even for the whites there is no education. So we are stressing on the point of education. You educate certain section as brāhmaṇa, certain section as kṣatriya, certain section as vaiśya. In that education we don't discriminate because he's coming of a śūdra family. Take education. Be qualified. Then you talk. Not by votes.
Satsvarūpa: Lord Caitanya, when Rāmānanda Rāya brought this up He said it was not possible in this age to introduce this.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Not... He did not say possible. Ihā bāhya. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was interested only on the spiritual platform. He had no idea of material side. He rejected material side.
Satsvarūpa: But don't we do that also?
Prabhupāda: No. Our position is different. We are trying to implement Kṛṣṇa consciousness in everything. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally took sannyāsa. He rejected completely material. Niṣkiñcana. But we are not going to be niṣkiñcana. We are trying to cement the troubled position of the... That is also in the prescription of Bhagavad-gītā. We are not rejecting the whole society. Caitanya Mahāprabhu rejected everything, ihā bāhya. Rejected meaning, "I do not take much interest in this." Bāhya. "It is external." He was simply interested in the internal, the spiritual. But our duty is that we shall arrange the external affairs also so nicely that one day they will come to the spiritual platform very easily, paving the way.
Prabhupāda: Take perfect knowledge of God from Me." Why don't you do that? Boliye. What is the reason? Boliye, Swamiji. When God is speaking that "You take from Me perfect and complete knowledge of God," so why don't you take it?
Indian man (1): We are still attached to material side.
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, but we are denying. Is it not? When... Suppose a big man. You do not know what he is. But if the man says, "You want to know me? All right, I shall disclose all my secrets to you. Try to understand." So why don't you..., do not take it? If you want to know the person, and the person is explaining himself, why don't you take it? Why theorize that "God is like this. God is like this"? What is the meaning? When the person has come to explain about himself... Asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu: (BG 7.1) "Hear." Hearing is the process of knowledge. Therefore our Vedas are called śruti. The knowledge has to be acquired through ear. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that "Don't try to see a sādhu by your eyes. You try to see a sādhu by ears."
Correspondence
1972 Correspondence
Recently I have received from one Sannyasi complaint about another Sannyasi who is not chanting regularly. So our view is that we shall be strictly following the rules and regulations. Monetary matters are secondary. On principle, we should better starve than neglect our rules and regulations. We are trying to present an ideal Society to the world, so although we are very rigidly following these principles, still, we are very liberal to everyone. For this reason we are being appreciated everywhere. So anyway, I am not at all dissatisfied with you, but it is my duty to point out the mistakes. You are in charge of the Germany organization. Please do it nicely there, not very much on the material side, more on the spiritual side. Example is better than precept. Every one of you must be the perfect examples, then everyone will follow.
| Page Title: | Material side |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, MadhuGopaldas |
| Created: | 01 of Dec, 2008 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=2, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=5, Con=10, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 18 |