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Materialist (CC and other books)

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 1.59, Purport:

For a neophyte devotee there are two kinds of persons whose association is undesirable: (1) gross materialists who constantly engage in sense gratification and (2) unbelievers who do not serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead but serve their senses and their mental whims in terms of their speculative habits. Intelligent persons seeking transcendental realization should very scrupulously avoid their company.

CC Adi 4.56, Purport:

The two transcendentalists Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are a puzzle to materialists. The above description of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa from the diary of Śrīla Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī is a condensed explanation, but one needs great spiritual insight to understand the mystery of these two personalities.

CC Adi 4.107, Purport:

Lord Śrī Caitanya exhibited the highest stage of the feelings of a devotee in separation from the Lord. This exhibition was sublime because He was completely perfect in the feelings of separation. Materialists, however, cannot understand this. Sometimes materialistic scholars think He was diseased or crazy.

CC Adi 4.107, Purport:

Materialists are most abominable in their ideas. They think that they can enjoy directly perceivable gross objects by their senses and that they can similarly deal with the transcendental features of Lord Caitanya.

CC Adi 5.14, Purport:

To a gross materialist this kingdom of God, Vaikuṇṭha, is certainly a mystery. But to an ignorant man everything is a mystery for want of sufficient knowledge. The kingdom of God is not a myth. Even the material planets, which float over our heads in the millions and billions, are still a mystery to the ignorant.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

There are unlimited Vaikuṇṭha planets in the spiritual sky, and the ratio of these planets to the material planets in the material sky is three to one. Thus the poor materialist is busy making political adjustments on a planet that is most insignificant in God's creation.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

To say nothing of this planet earth, the whole universe, with innumerable planets throughout the galaxies, is comparable to a single mustard seed in a bag full of mustard seeds. But the poor materialist makes plans to live comfortably here and thus wastes his valuable human energy in something that is doomed to frustration.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

Even if a materialist wants to enjoy developed material facilities, he can transfer himself to planets where he can experience material pleasures much more advanced than those available on earth. The best plan is to prepare oneself to return to the spiritual sky after leaving the body.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

The desire of the mind carries the soul to a suitable atmosphere as the wind carries aromas from one place to another. Unfortunately, those who are not yogīs but gross materialists, who throughout their lives indulge in sense gratification, are puzzled by the disarrangement of the bodily and mental condition at the time of death.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

The difference between the materialist and the yogī is that a materialist cannot determine his next body, whereas a yogī can consciously attain a suitable body for enjoyment in the higher planets.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

Throughout his life, the gross materialist who is constantly after sense gratification spends all day earning his livelihood to maintain his family, and at night he wastes his energy in sex enjoyment or else goes to sleep thinking about all he has done in the daytime. That is the monotonous life of the materialist.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

Although differently graded as businessmen, lawyers, politicians, professors, judges, coolies, pickpockets, laborers and so on, materialists all simply engage in eating, sleeping, fearing and sense gratification and thus spoil their valuable lives pursuing luxury and neglecting to perfect their lives through spiritual realization.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

To come to the stage of manipulating finer elements like mind, intelligence and spirit, one needs appropriate training, an appropriate mode of life and appropriate association. Such training depends upon sincere prayers, devotional service, achievement of success in mystic perfection, and the successful merging of oneself in the activities of the soul and Supersoul. A gross materialist, whether he be an empiric philosopher, a scientist, a psychologist or whatever, cannot attain such success through blunt efforts and word jugglery.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

Materialists who perform yajñas, or great sacrifices, are comparatively better than grosser materialists who do not know anything beyond laboratories and test tubes. The advanced materialists who perform such sacrifices can reach the planet called Vaiśvānara, a fiery planet similar to the sun. On this planet, which is situated on the way to Brahmaloka, the topmost planet in the universe, such an advanced materialist can free himself from all traces of vice and its effects. When such a materialist is purified, he can rise to the orbit of the pole star (Dhruvaloka).

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

A purified materialist who has performed many sacrifices, undergone severe penances and given the major portion of his wealth in charity can reach such planets as Dhruvaloka, and if he becomes still more qualified there, he can penetrate still higher orbits and pass through the navel of the universe to reach the planet Maharloka, where sages like Bhṛgu Muni live.

CC Adi 5.51, Purport:

Having missed the goal of life, materialists run after self-sufficiency, not knowing that material nature is already self-sufficient by the grace of God. Thus creating a colossal hoax in the name of civilization, they create an imbalance in the natural self-sufficiency of material nature.

CC Adi 6.14-15, Purport:

"The example cited by materialists that trees automatically come from the earth follows the same principle. Taking advantage of a certain condition, a living entity comes from the earth."

CC Adi 6.14-15, Purport:

"Materialists sometimes give the argument that as straw eaten by a cow produces milk automatically, so material nature, under different circumstances, produces varieties of manifestations. Thus originally matter is the cause. In refuting this argument, we may say that an animal of the same species as the cow—namely, the bull—also eats straw like the cow but does not produce milk."

CC Adi 6.76, Purport:

In the material world, although materialists want to become one with God or compete with God, everyone directly or indirectly engages in the service of the Lord. The more one is forgetful of the service of Kṛṣṇa, the more he is considered to be dying. Therefore, when one develops pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he immediately develops his eternal servitorship to Kṛṣṇa.

CC Adi 6.97, Purport:

Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared and performed many uncommon activities, and some materialists misunderstood Him, but in His appearance as Lord Caitanya He did not show much of His opulences, and therefore fewer conditioned souls were bewildered.

CC Adi 7.27, Purport:

Yet Śrīmat Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī writes in his Caitanya-candrāmṛta that when influenced by Lord Caitanya's Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, materialists become averse to talking about their wives and children, supposedly learned scholars give up their tedious studies of Vedic literature, yogīs give up their impractical practices of mystic yoga, ascetics give up their austere activities of penance and austerity, and sannyāsīs give up their study of Sāṅkhya philosophy.

CC Adi 7.37, Purport:

As an ideal ācārya, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu devised ways to capture all kinds of atheists and materialists. Every ācārya has a specific means of propagating his spiritual movement with the aim of bringing men to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

CC Adi 7.74, Purport:

The transcendental vibration of hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana is imported from the spiritual world. Thus although materialists who are addicted to experimental knowledge and the so-called "scientific method" cannot place their faith in the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, it is a fact that simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra offenselessly one can be freed from all subtle and gross material conditions.

CC Adi 10.85, Purport:

The sahajiyās level three accusations against Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī. This is certainly not congenial for the execution of devotional service. The first accusation concerns a materialist who was very proud of his reputation as a great Sanskrit scholar and approached Śrī Rūpa and Sanātana to argue with them about the revealed scriptures.

CC Adi 12.50, Translation:

"Advaita Ācārya, My spiritual master, should never accept charity from rich men or kings, because if a spiritual master accepts money or grains from such materialists his mind becomes polluted."

CC Adi 12.51, Purport:

A Vaiṣṇava must be very alert not to waste even a second of his valuable lifetime. This is a symptom of a Vaiṣṇava. But association with pounds-and-shillings men, or viṣayīs, materialists who are simply interested in sense gratification, pollutes one's mind and hampers such continuous remembrance of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore advised, asat-saṅga-tyāga—ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra: a Vaiṣṇava should behave in such a way as to never associate with nondevotees or materialists (CC Madhya 22.87). One can avoid such association simply by always remembering Kṛṣṇa within his heart.

CC Adi 15.1, Translation:

I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya because simply by offering a flower at His lotus feet even the most ardent materialist becomes a devotee.

CC Adi 17.212, Purport:

According to the materialistic point of view, observing a religious ceremony invokes an auspicious atmosphere for the material benefit of the entire world. Materialists therefore manufacture religious principles to live comfortably and without disturbance in executing their material activities.

CC Adi 17.260, Translation and Purport:

"All the so-called professors and scientists and their students generally follow the regulative principles of religion, fruitive activities and austerities," the Lord thought, “yet at the same time they are blasphemers and rogues."

Here is a depiction of materialists who have no knowledge of devotional service. They may be very religious and may work very systematically or perform austerities and penances, but if they blaspheme the Supreme Personality of Godhead they are nothing but rogues.

CC Adi 17.276, Purport:

Lusty materialists like the members of the sahajiyā-sampradāya hanker after women, even others' wives. But when they try to ascribe the responsibility for their lusty activities to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, they become offenders to Svarūpa Dāmodara and Śrīla Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 6.167, Purport:

Actually, at the present moment all systems of religion deny the worship of the form of the Lord due to ignorance of His transcendental form. The first-class materialists (the Māyāvādīs) imagine five specific forms of the Lord, but when they try to equate the worship of such imaginary forms with bhakti, they are immediately condemned.

CC Madhya 7.63, Purport:

As far as spiritual advancement is concerned, materialists, politicians and śūdras are generally disqualified. Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya therefore requested that Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu not neglect Rāmānanda Rāya, who was highly advanced spiritually although he was born a śūdra and a materialist.

CC Madhya 7.66, Purport:

Anyone who is a not a Vaiṣṇava, or an unalloyed devotee of the Supreme Lord, must be a materialist.

CC Madhya 8.60, Purport:

Sometimes materialists consider Lord Viṣṇu a material conception. Impersonalists think that above Lord Viṣṇu is the impersonal Brahman. The impersonalists misunderstand the worship of Lord Viṣṇu. They worship Lord Viṣṇu to merge into His body.

CC Madhya 8.90, Purport:

It is a completely mistaken idea that one can worship Kṛṣṇa in any form or in any way and still attain the ultimate result of receiving the favor of the Lord. This is a decision made by gross materialists. Generally such men say that you can manufacture your own way of worshiping the Supreme Lord and that any type of worship is sufficient to approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

CC Madhya 8.90, Purport:

A general example is given: If one wishes to arrive at a certain place, there are many roads leading there, and one can go to that place by any one of these roads. Similarly, these gross materialists say, there are different ways to attain the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They claim that one can conceive of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as goddess Durgā, goddess Kālī, Lord Śiva, demigod Gaṇeśa, Lord Rāmacandra, Kṛṣṇa, the impersonal Brahman or whatever, and one can chant the Lord's name in any way and in any form. Such materialists claim that since ultimately all these names and forms are one, the result is the same.

CC Madhya 8.139, Purport:

Sometimes Kṛṣṇa's activities and attractive features are misinterpreted by gross materialists who accuse Him of being immoral because He danced with the gopīs, but such an accusation results from not knowing that Kṛṣṇa is beyond this material world. His body is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), completely spiritual.

CC Madhya 8.193, Purport:

The spiritual senses are beyond the material senses. A materialist can think only of the negation of material variety; he cannot understand spiritual variety. He thinks that spiritual variety simply contradicts material variety and is a negation or void, but such conceptions cannot even reach the precincts of spiritual realization.

CC Madhya 8.215, Purport:

Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura says that material lust should never be attributed to Kṛṣṇa, who is full of transcendental knowledge. Material lust cannot be engaged in the service of the Lord, for it is applicable to materialists, not to Kṛṣṇa. Only prema, or love of Godhead, is applicable for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. Prema is full service rendered unto the Lord.

CC Madhya 9.191, Translation:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu continued, "Sītādevī, the dearmost wife of the Supreme Lord Rāmacandra, certainly has a spiritual form full of bliss. No one can see her with material eyes, for no materialist has such power."

CC Madhya 10.119, Purport:

While in a miserable condition, a person sometimes seeks the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but this is very difficult for materialistic people to obtain. However, when one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious by the grace of the Lord, the fragrance of the lotus feet of the Lord expands, and in this way a materialist may gain freedom from his miseries.

CC Madhya 11.8, Translation:

Greatly lamenting, the Lord then informed Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, "Alas, for a person who is seriously desiring to cross the material ocean and engage in the transcendental loving service of the Lord without material motives, seeing a materialist engaged in sense gratification or seeing a woman who is similarly interested is more abominable than drinking poison willingly."

CC Madhya 11.10, Purport:

However qualified a materialist may be, he is no better than a venomous serpent. Everyone knows that a snake is dangerous and poisonous, and when its hood is decorated with jewels, it is no less poisonous or dangerous.

CC Madhya 11.10, Purport:

However qualified a materialist may be, he is no better than a snake decorated with jewels. One should therefore be careful in dealing with such materialists, just as one would be careful in dealing with a bejeweled serpent.

CC Madhya 12.61, Purport:

In his Anubhāṣya, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura states that a materialist mistakenly accepts the body and mind as the source of material enjoyment. In other words, a materialist accepts the bodily conception of life.

CC Madhya 12.61, Purport:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not regard the son of Mahārāja Pratāparudra with the idea that he was a materialist, being the son of a materialist. Nor did He consider Himself the enjoyer.

CC Madhya 12.135, Purport:

As an example of pratiṣṭhāśā, one may attempt to imitate Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura by living in a solitary place. One's real desire may be for name and fame—in other words, one thinks that fools will accept one to be as good as Haridāsa Ṭhākura just because one lives in a solitary place. These are all material desires. A neophyte devotee is certain to be attacked by other material desires as well, namely desires for women and money. In this way the heart is again filled with dirty things and becomes harder and harder, like that of a materialist. Gradually one desires to become a reputed devotee or an avatāra (incarnation).

CC Madhya 12.184, Purport:

Materialists who are overly attracted to the material body, material world and material enjoyment, who cannot control their material senses, are carried to the darkest regions of material existence. Such people cannot become Kṛṣṇa conscious, either by themselves or by congregational effort.

CC Madhya 12.184, Purport:

Materialists always remain blind because they are always guided by blind rascals. A materialistic person considers himself free to act as he likes. He does not know that he is rigidly controlled by the stringent laws of nature, nor does he know that he has to transmigrate from one body to another and perpetually rot in material existence.

CC Madhya 12.184, Purport:

The material world exists outside the spiritual sky, and a foolish materialist cannot estimate the extent of this material sky. What, then, can he know of the spiritual sky? Materialists simply believe their imperfect senses and do not take instructions from the revealed scriptures. According to Vedic civilization, one has to see through the authority of the revealed scriptures.

CC Madhya 12.184, Purport:

Śāstra-cakṣuḥ: one should see everything through the medium of the Vedic literature. In this way, one can distinguish between the spiritual world and material world. Those who ignore such instructions cannot be convinced of the existence of the spiritual world. Because they have forgotten their spiritual identity, such materialists take this material world as the all in all.

CC Madhya 16.281, Purport:

Materialists consider Vṛndāvana-dhāma an unclean city because there are many monkeys and dogs there, and along the bank of the Yamunā there is refuse. Some time ago, a materialistic man asked me, "Why are you living in Vṛndāvana? Why have you selected such a dirty place to live after retiring?" Such a person cannot understand that the earthly Vṛndāvana-dhāma is always a representation of the original Vṛndāvana-dhāma.

CC Madhya 16.281, Purport:

Sometimes materialists, forgetting the pastimes of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma, go to Vṛndāvana, accept the land's spiritual facilities and engage in material activity. This is against the teachings of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

CC Madhya 19.150, Purport:

Outsiders who have no knowledge of Nārāyaṇa are envious of both Nārāyaṇa and His devotee. Consequently when they see that Nārāyaṇa's devotee is opulently situated, they become even more envious. But when the devotee of Nārāyaṇa asks such foolish people to come live with him in the same comfortable situation, they do not agree because they cannot give up illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling. Therefore the materialist refuses the company of a nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa, although he is envious of the devotee's material situation.

CC Madhya 20.99, Purport:

Actually Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī belonged to a brāhmaṇa family because he belonged to the Sārasvata division of the brāhmaṇas and was well cultured and well educated. Somehow or other he accepted a ministership in the Muslim government; therefore he had to associate with meat-eaters, drunkards and gross materialists.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 3.201, Purport:

The philosophy enunciated by the Māyāvādīs is called ghaṭa-paṭiyā ("pot-and-earth") philosophy. According to this philosophy, everything is one. Such philosophers see no distinction between a pot made of earth and the earth itself, reasoning that anything made of earth, such as different pots, is also the same earth. Since Gopāla Cakravartī was a ghaṭa-paṭiyā logician, a gross materialist, what could he understand about the transcendental devotional service of the Lord?

CC Antya 4.197, Purport:

A materialist might see Sanātana Gosvāmī’s body as being full of itching sores that exuded foul moisture and a bad smell. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, however, said that actually the aroma of his body was the excellent scent of a mixture of sandalwood pulp, camphor, musk and aguru.

CC Antya 6.275, Purport:

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura remarks that people who are under the bodily conception of life are called materialists. If we accept the offerings of such people, place them before the Lord and invite Vaiṣṇavas to partake of the prasādam, that attempt will gain us only a material reputation, not the actual benefit of service to a pure Vaiṣṇava.

CC Antya 6.276, Purport:

If one accepts money from such materialistic persons to offer food to the Deity and Vaiṣṇavas, a pure Vaiṣṇava does not accept it. This causes unhappiness for the materialists because they are fully absorbed in the bodily conception of life. Therefore they sometimes turn against the Vaiṣṇavas.

CC Antya 6.278, Purport:

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura suggests that people who are materialistically inclined and sahajiyās, or so-called Vaiṣṇavas who take everything very casually, are both viṣayīs, or materialists. Eating food offered by them causes contamination, and as a result of such contamination, even a serious devotee becomes like a materialistic man.

CC Antya 9.68, Purport:

A materialist does not actually know why one should become a devotee. A devotee's only concern is to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

CC Antya 9.75, Translation:

"Gopīnātha Paṭṭanāyaka is a pure devotee who worships You only for Your satisfaction. He does not care about his personal happiness or distress, for that is the business of a materialist."

CC Antya 14.51, Translation and Purport:

"When My mind lost the association of Kṛṣṇa and could no longer see Him, he became depressed and took up mystic yoga. In the void of separation from Kṛṣṇa, he experienced ten transcendental transformations. Agitated by these transformations, My mind fled, leaving My body, his place of residence, empty. Thus I am completely in trance."

In this verse, the outward activities of the kāpālika mendicants have been described, but not their actual life. The kāpālika mendicants are tantric materialists who carry skulls in their hands. They are not Vaiṣṇavas and have nothing to do with spiritual life; therefore they are untouchable.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 23:

Conditioned souls, beginning from Brahmā, the engineer of this particular universe, down to an insignificant ant, are all creating something, but none of them are independent of the Supreme Lord. The materialist wrongly thinks that there is no creator outside his own good self, and this is called māyā, or illusion.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 23:

Due to his poor fund of knowledge, the materialist cannot see beyond the purview of his imperfect senses; thus he thinks that matter automatically takes its own shape independent of a conscious background.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 23:

Devotees have no need to compete with materialists because they are on the path back to Godhead, back home where everything is eternal, full and blissful. Such transcendentalists are a hundred percent nonenvious and are therefore pure in heart.

Nectar of Instruction

Nectar of Instruction 1, Purport:

Jñānīs, karmīs and materialistic planmakers generally attract the attention of conditioned souls, but when the materialists cannot fulfill their plans and when their devices are frustrated, they become angry.

Nectar of Instruction 2, Purport:

Unfortunately, materialists who have neither faith in the plan of God nor any aspiration for higher spiritual development misuse their God-given intelligence only to augment their material possessions. They devise many systems—such as capitalism and materialistic communism—to advance their material position. They are not interested in the laws of God or in a higher goal.

Nectar of Instruction 3, Purport:

Under the direction of the bona fide spiritual master, one has to make everything favorable for Kṛṣṇa's service. For example, at present we are using a dictaphone. The materialist who invented this machine intended it for businessmen or writers of mundane subject matters. He certainly never thought of using the dictaphone in God's service, but we are using this dictaphone to write Kṛṣṇa conscious literature.

Nectar of Instruction 10, Purport:

On this planet we find many businessmen, politicians and others who are simply interested in material happiness. They attempt to earn money by all means, not considering whether such means are pious or impious. Such people are called karmīs, or gross materialists.

Nectar of Instruction 10, Purport:

"Materialists who work hard like dogs and hogs simply for sense gratification are actually mad. They simply perform all kinds of abominable activities simply for sense gratification. Materialistic activities are not at all worthy of an intelligent man, for as a result of such activities, one gets a material body, which is full of misery."

Nectar of Instruction 10, Purport:

Materialists foolishly make many plans to become happy in this material world. They do not stop to consider that they will live only for a certain number of years, out of which they must spend the major portion acquiring money for sense gratification. Ultimately such activities end in death.

Nectar of Instruction 10, Purport:

Materialists do not consider that after giving up the body they may become embodied as lower animals, plants or trees. Thus all their activities simply defeat the purpose of life. Not only are they born ignorant, but they act on the platform of ignorance, thinking that they are getting material benefits in the shape of skyscraper buildings, big cars, honorable positions and so on.

Nectar of Instruction 10, Purport:

The materialists do not know that in the next life they will be degraded and that all their activities simply serve as parābhava, their defeat.

Easy Journey to Other Planets

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

For a long time the materialist was limited within the boundary of the eight material principles mentioned above. Now it is encouraging to see that he has a little preliminary information of the antimaterial principle and the antimaterial universe. We hope that with the progress of time the materialist will be able to estimate the value of the antimaterial world, in which there is no trace of material principles.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

There are, of course, the mental speculators who comment upon the antimaterial principle. These fall into two main groups, and they arrive at two different erroneous conclusions. One group (the gross materialists) either denies the antimaterial principle or admits only the disintegration of material combination at a certain stage (death). The other group accepts the antimaterial principle as being in direct opposition to the material principle with its twenty-four categories. This group is known as the Sāṅkhyaites, and they investigate the material principles and analyze them minutely.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

The transcendentalists and the materialists are two distinct classes of men.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

The gross materialists, however, do not believe in the antimaterial worlds of the Personality of Godhead. They are therefore unfortunate creatures, although sometimes very talented, educated and advanced otherwise.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

For example, when a man falls ill, he goes to a physician who prescribes medicines which eventually cure the suffering patient. Similarly, the materialist is ailing, and he should consult an expert transcendentalist-physician.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

In order to drive out all misgivings which the gross materialists of the world may have, Arjuna asked all relevant questions, and the answers were given by Kṛṣṇa so that any layman can understand them.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

The individual living being can very easily enter the antimaterial world by practicing antimaterial activities while residing in the material world. But those who are truly gross materialists, who depend on the limited strength of experimental thought, mental speculation and materialistic science, find great difficulty in entering the antimaterial worlds.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

The gross materialist may try to approach the antimaterial worlds by endeavoring with spaceships, satellites, rockets, etc., which he throws into outer space, but by such means he cannot even approach the material planets in the higher regions of the material sky, and what to speak of those planets situated in the antimaterial sky, which is far beyond the material universe.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

Those who desire eternal life enter into the antimaterial universe through mystic powers at certain opportune moments created by the demigod-administrators of cosmic affairs, administrators unseen by the gross materialists who reside on this seventh-class planet called "Earth."

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

The Vaikuṇṭhas are spiritual planets which are manifestations of the internal potency of the Lord, and the ratio of these planets to the material planets (external energy) in the material sky is three to one. So the poor materialist is busy making political adjustments on a planet which is most insignificant in God's creation.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

To say nothing of this planet earth, the whole universe with innumerable planets throughout the galaxies is comparable to a grain of mustard seed in a bag full of mustard seeds. But the poor materialist makes plans to live comfortably here and thus wastes his valuable human energy in something which is doomed to frustration.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

Even if a materialist wants to enjoy developed material facilities, he can transfer himself to planets where he can experience material pleasures much more advanced than those available on the earth planet. But the best plan is to prepare oneself to return to the spiritual sky after leaving the body.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

The materialist's suggestion that beyond the material sky there is "some other form" which is beyond the boundary of visibility and which is strange and inconceivable is but a faint indication of the spiritual sky.

Easy Journey to Other Planets 2:

The materialist, however, is simply concerned with this mortal life, which can be finished at any moment. Furthermore, as this body will die, so the entire universe, this gigantic material body, will be annihilated, and whether we are fortunate or unfortunate, on this planet or another planet, everything will be finished.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book Introduction:

This book, Kṛṣṇa, which is filled with kṛṣṇa-kathā, will thus appeal equally to the liberated souls and to persons who are trying to be liberated, as well as to the gross, conditioned materialist.

Krsna Book 10:

And while one is living, whatever the external condition of the body may be, within there is only stool, urine and various kinds of worms. Thus being engaged in jealousy and violence to other bodies, materialists cannot understand the ultimate goal of life, and without knowing this goal of life, they generally glide down to a hellish condition in their next life.

Krsna Book 54:

Balarāma instructed Rukmiṇī that her affection toward her brother Rukmī, who had created enmity with so many persons, was a perverse consideration befitting an ordinary materialist. Her brother's character was not at all admirable, considering his treatment of his friends, and yet Rukmiṇī, as an ordinary woman, was affectionate toward him.

Krsna Book 56:

The word "materialist" means one concerned with gratification of the senses within this material world.

Krsna Book 70:

"Dear Lord, who can estimate Your mercy and Your powerful activities? You are present always as the insurmountable force of eternal time, baffling the indefatigable desires of the materialists, who are thus repeatedly confused and frustrated. We therefore offer our respectful obeisances unto You in Your form of eternal time."

Krsna Book 80:

The devotees become jubilant by hearing the descriptions of the personal activities of the Supreme Lord, whereas the impersonalists, who are actually more attracted by the impersonal feature of the Lord, are only superficially attracted by the Lord's personal activities. As such, in spite of coming in contact with the pastimes of the Lord, the impersonalists do not fully realize the benefit to be derived, and thus they become just as morose as the materialists do in pursuing their fruitive activities.

Krsna Book 87:

As part of devotional service, Vaiṣṇavas protect the body for the service of the Lord, but those who are gross materialists accept the body as the self. They worship the body by the yogic process of meditation on the different bodily parts, such as maṇipūraka, dahara and hṛdaya, gradually rising to the brahma-randhra, on the top of the head.

Krsna Book 87:

The fact is that ultimately the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person. But because He acts through His different potencies, which are impossible for the gross materialists to see, the materialists accept Him as impersonal.

Krsna Book 87:

The artist's work is clearly exhibited in a painting of different blooming flowers. But the gross materialist, without seeing the hand of God in such artistic manifestations as the actual flowers blooming in nature, concludes that the Absolute Truth is impersonal.

Krsna Book 87:

The pure devotee ignites Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the hearts of the conditioned souls, and thus the blazing fire of the spiritual world becomes manifest even within this material world. Some sparks fall onto water; they immediately lose their original brilliance and become extinct. They are comparable to the living entities who take their birth in the midst of gross materialists, in which case their original Kṛṣṇa consciousness becomes extinct.

Krsna Book 87:

A materialist sticks to the world for sense gratification, but a Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī, although not accepting anything for his personal sense gratification, knows the art of utilizing everything for the service of the Lord.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.7:

Conditioned human beings are expert at dealing with this material body and mind. These gross materialists, who cannot see beyond materialistic activities, find it impossible to believe that besides our material universe, a spiritual universe exists. Completely identifying with the body, such materialists are like animals, simply eating, sleeping, mating, and defending.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.7:

Many modern scientists have taken up the role of priests facilitating such gross activities, which are unbeneficial and fatal. These scientists have made available a variety of products meant simply to titillate the senses, thus creating a deadly competitive mood among the materialists, which has in turn caused an obnoxious atmosphere in society.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.7:

A grade higher than this mean class of gross materialists are those who believe in the transmigration of the soul. These are the fruitive workers who perform pious activities such as giving in charity, but their only motive is to ensure that their next life is one of luxury and sense enjoyment.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.7:

These materialists do not know that karma-yoga, activity performed without fruitive desire, is the best form of activity. Therefore they often think that the karma-yogīs are as attached to this material world as the gross materialists. The sole motive of the karma-yogī, however, is to instruct the members of society for their benefit.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.1:

Philosophical inquiry into the existence of the soul will remain a subject beyond the reach of these gross materialists. The gross sense enjoyers are actually to be counted among the animals, because man has more serious matters to attend to than just titillating his senses.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.2:

The highest esoteric truth is that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Absolute Truth and that both the living entities and the material world are His subordinate energies. Those who fail to understand this principle are materialists, while those who do understand it and are trying to reestablish their relationship with Lord Kṛṣṇa are liberated souls, devotees of the Lord.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 4.3:

The Māyāvādīs try hard to look like spiritualists, but in fact they are gross materialists. They may be able to confuse and mesmerize the public with word jugglery, but in truth their so-called renunciation is as false as the monkeys', for they have become mere beggars looking for distinction, adoration, position, and wealth.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

One can conquer duality, illusion, and so on only by spiritual elevation to the state of directly perceiving the Supreme Lord and seeing everything in relation to Him. The only method of achieving this state of consciousness is buddhi-yoga. For the devotee of the Lord, this kind of vision develops easily. Conversely, the empirical philosophers, fruitive workers, and gross materialists cannot possibly attain this stage.

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 1:

Throughout the world at the present moment, almost all the leaders, scholars, and mahātmās are more or less materialists, without any taste for transcendental knowledge.

Message of Godhead 2:

Persons who are a little above such gross materialists believe firmly in life after death and thus try to rise a little above the plane of gross sensory enjoyment of this one life.

Message of Godhead 2:

Neither the sinful nor the pious materialist can understand the essence of karma-yoga as the means to attain liberation from the always uncongenial bondage of work. The expert karma-yogī therefore behaves just like an attached materialist to teach the people in general about the way one can get rid of the tangle of action and reaction in ordinary work.

Message of Godhead 2:

The Personality of Godhead therefore says as follows: "O descendant of Bharata, better you continue to perform work like an attached materialist who is not conversant with transcendental knowledge, so that you can recruit men to the path of karma-yoga, or work with transcendental results."

Sri Isopanisad

Sri Isopanisad 11, Purport:

The whole point here is that even Hiraṇyakaśipu, the most powerful of materialists, could not become deathless by his various plans. What, then, can be accomplished by the tiny Hiraṇyakaśipus of today, whose plans are thwarted from moment to moment?

Sri Isopanisad 13, Purport:

In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.25) it is clearly said that those who worship the pitṛs, or forefathers, attain the planets of the forefathers, that the gross materialists who make plans to remain here stay in this world, and that the devotees of the Lord who worship none but Lord Kṛṣṇa, the supreme cause of all causes, reach Him in His spiritual sky.

Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)

Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 4, Purport:

The atheists are faithless on account of their many misdeeds in their present and past lives. They fall into four categories: (1) the gross materialists, (2) the immoral sinners, (3) the number-one fools, and (4) those who are bewildered by māyā despite their mundane erudition.

Page Title:Materialist (CC and other books)
Compiler:Alakananda
Created:25 of Mar, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=63, OB=51, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:114