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Mental (Lectures, Other)

Lectures

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 29, 1972:

Pradyumna: (reading) "...may be divided into two classes: one class may be for achieving a certain goal, and the other may be for avoiding some unfavorable circumstances. In Sanskrit these activities are called pravṛtti and nirvṛtti, positive and negative action. There are many examples of negative action. For example, a diseased person has to be cautious and take medicine in order to avoid some unfavorable illness. Those who are cultivating spiritual life and executing devotional service are always engaged in activity. Such activity can be performed with the mind or with the, with the body or with the mind. Thinking, feeling and willing are all activities of the mind, and when we will do something, the activity comes to be manifest by the gross bodily senses. Thus, in our mental activities, we should always try to think of Kṛṣṇa and try to plan how to please Him, following in the footsteps of the great ācāryas and the personal spiritual master. There are activities of the body, activities of the different senses, and activities of speech. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person engages his words in preaching the glories of the Lord. This is called kīrtana. And by his mind a Kṛṣṇa conscious person always thinks of the activities of the Lord as He is speaking on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra or engaging in His various pastimes at Vṛndāvana with His devotees. In this way, one can always think of the activities and pastimes of the Lord. This is the mental culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not inactivity. This we have discussed yesterday. Actually the activity is being influenced by the soul. But it is being expressed through intelligence, mind and body. The activities are coming from the spiritual platform, but because it is now contaminated by the material coverings, the activities are not very adjusted. Diseased activities. The thinking, feeling, and willing... This thinking, feeling, and willing now polluted on account of material coverings. Therefore we have to revert to the thinking, feeling, and willing by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As it is explained here, that we shall always think of Kṛṣṇa's activities, we shall always feel for satisfying Kṛṣṇa, and we shall always will to enact as He desires.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 8, 1972:

Acyutānanda: "Even though a person is highly educated academically, if he cannot go beyond the sphere of mental activities, then he is sure to perform only material activities and thus remain impure."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our so-called advancement of education means to live on the mental platform. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathena (SB 5.18.12). They have no information of the spiritual platform. They... After bodily concept of life, the next platform is mental and intellectual concept of life. But spiritual life is beyond mental and intellectual concept of life. So unless one comes to the spiritual platform, even on mental and intellectual platform, he cannot do anything good to the society. Hm.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Calcutta, January 25, 1973:

Devotee: "Every living entity under the spell of material energy is known to be in an abnormal condition of madness. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, 'Generally the conditioned soul is mad because he is always engaged in activities which are the causes of bondage and suffering.' Spirit soul in its original condition is joyful, blissful, eternal and full of knowledge. Only by his implication in material activities has he become miserable, temporary and full of ignorance. This is due to vikarma. Vikarma means actions which should not be done. Therefore we must practice sādhana-bhakti—which means to offer maṅgala-ārātrika (Deity worship) in the morning, to refrain from certain material activities, to offer obeisances to the spiritual master and to follow many other rules and regulations which will be discussed here one after another. These practices will help one to become cured of madness. As a man's mental disease is cured by the direction of a psychiatrist, so this sādhana-bhakti cures the conditioned soul of his madness under the spell of māyā, material illusion."

Prabhupāda: Anyone who is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is to be taken as crazy, or mad.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 13, 1972:

Pradyumna: "Only by his implication in material activities has he become miserable, temporary and full of ignorance. This is due to vikarma. Vikarma means actions which should not be done. Therefore we must practice sādhana-bhakti, which means to offer maṅgala-ārātrika (Deity worship) in the morning, to refrain from certain material activities, to offer obeisances to the spiritual master and to follow many other rules and regulations which will be discussed here one after another. These practices will help one to become cured of madness. As a man's mental disease is cured by the directions of a psychiatrist, so this sādhana-bhakti cures the conditioned soul of his madness under the spell of māyā, material illusion."

Prabhupāda: So, as they are mentioned, the first principle is that every devotee must try to rise early in the morning. That is first business. This practice should be done first. No one should sleep more than six hours. Or, if you want to, sleep more... But you must rise in early in the morning. At four o'clock, attend the ārātrika, maṅgala-ārātrika. Maṅgala-ārātrika means auspicious beginning of your day. If you stand before maṅgala-ārātrika... In Vṛndāvana you see now, every temple, as soon as there is four o'clock, the ding-dong bell immediately begins. People can rise early in the morning, take bath in the Yamunā and visit the Deities in the temple.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.9 -- Mayapur, April 2, 1975:

And panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi. These airplanes, vāyu-ratha... Vāyu-ratha means airplane. There is airplanes. There are different speeds. What is the speed? The speed is mental speed. Now their speed, say, eighteen thousand miles per hour. But if there is question of mental speed, it is more speedier than the vāyu speed. We have got experience. Many thousand miles, by your mind, you can reach within a second. So with the mental speed, airplane, if you start today and go for many millions of years, still it will be not possible to find out wherefrom the explosion is coming. That's it.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.100-108 -- New York, November 22, 1966:

We are always under threefold miseries. We may accept or not accept; that is our position. I am in miserable condition due to others' arrangement—my enemies, other animals or other enemies. And I am in miserable condition due to material disturbances, nature's disturbances. And I am always under miseries due to my bodily and mental conditions. These called, these are called threefold miseries. So out of these three... We are always under three kinds of miseries, but sometimes one is slackened, other is greater, in this way, but we are always under miserable condition. When a sane man comes to this understanding, he is eligible for spiritual evolution. And one is dull, who cannot understand what are these miseries, then he has no need of approaching a spiritual master or inquiring about transcendental subject.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.124-125 -- New York, November 26, 1966:

I shall love my country. I shall love my..." Oh, no, you cannot love. It is not possible. Because you are missing the central point. These are facts. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā (SB 5.18.12). One who does not love God, he cannot have any good qualification. Why? Mano-rathena asato dhāvato bahiḥ. Because he'll simply speculate on the mental plane and he will fall down under the spell of this material energy. He has no standing. However materially, academically qualification he may be, it is clearly stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā. We have given you the list, twenty-six qualifications. As we become advanced in devotional service, all these good qualities will develop automatically. There is no need of legislation. There is no need of, but, anything, but all those good qualities will develop. Otherwise, what is the meaning of Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 21.62-67 -- New York, January 6, 1966:

And one who makes progress in the science of Kṛṣṇa under regulation and under principles, they are called spiritualists. So materialists, the disease is that harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā mano-rathena asati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). Unless we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness fully, we shall hover over the mental plane. We find so many philosophers, doctors of philosophy, they can go on speculating, mental plane, manaḥ, but actually they are asat. Their activities will be seen in materialistic. There is no spiritualistic realization.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.11-15 -- New York, January 9, 1967:

Kṛṣṇa consciousness begins from there. If by chance, in this way... Just like the football is being kicked. Some way or other, if he goes out of the line the kicking is stopped. Similarly, we also, if we get the shelter and association of a bona fide saintly person, then this business of being kicked by lust and anger is stopped by his instruction, by his advice. Santa chindanti asya mano-vyāsaṅgam ukti. The whole trouble is in the mind. Mind. Just like there is a knot. So knot is to be cut or it is to be opened. So this mental knot with this material attraction is cut by the instruction of saintly persons. The cutting weapon is instruction. Therefore one should take advantage of the instruction of saintly persons so that the knot of material attachment may be cut and the Kṛṣṇa consciousness may begin, so that his path of liberation is open.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 35 -- New York, July 31, 1971:

I am being harassed, somebody is taking my money, somebody is pinching me, so many things. I am in the front of tiger, there is ghost, there is so many things. So these problems, actually there is no problem, but by dreaming he is creating, mental. Asaṅgo hy ayaṁ puruṣaḥ, Veda says that this puruṣa, the ātmā, the soul has no connection with all these things. So we have created, by material concoction, so many problems. So the whole process is how to cleanse this dreaming condition of life.

Festival Lectures

Janmastami Lord Sri Krsna's Appearance Day -- Montreal, August 16, 1968:

So if we can get some information about what I am, what is my position, and what is God and how am I related to God, what is this world, then we're very fortunate. So by the mercy of the spiritual master we can free ourselves from these stringent laws of nature, and these unbreakable bonds. And only in this way. We can't free ourselves superficially or by our own mental invention. We can't sit, just go out and sit and think and free ourselves from this material existence. We must be subject to our own body, bodily discomforts and our own mind, and we must be subject to the actions upon us of other living entities, and we must be subject to the laws of nature, to providence, to pestilence, famine, catastrophe. But if we can accept and hear submissively this teaching of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā from the bona fide spiritual master, then we are free immediately. We are in Vaikuṇṭha.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

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

Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ. If one is turned into devotee, then all the good qualities automatically become manifest. That is the verdict of Bhāgavata. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā (SB 5.18.12). Anyone who is not a devotee, his material qualification has no value. Mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ. He is hovering over the mental plane. Therefore in your country, Western country, the so-called big, big philosophers, scientists, they could not do anything tangible, because they are hovering on the mental plane. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Manorathena. Mana means mind and ratha means car. They are driving on the mental car. So mind is material. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja-selling more books?

Initiation Lectures

Lecture at Initiation Fire Sacrifice -- Los Angeles, July 16, 1969:

So this remembering is the whole thing. If you have got always within your heart Kṛṣṇa, by sound or by mental thoughts, by work, some way or other, by reading books, any way, if simply you keep your consciousness in Kṛṣṇa, then your life is successful. That's all. And in the Bhagavad-gītā such person who is keeping always Kṛṣṇa within himself, he's certified as the greatest of all yogis. Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ, "Of all the yogis," mad-gatenāntarātmanā, "simply who is keeping Me within his heart..."

Initiation Lecture -- Hamburg, August 27, 1969:

What do we mean by crazy? For the time being, his knowledge is taken away. Similarly, when a living entity is in that position, as somebody has taken away his knowledge, that is demonic condition. But he can be reestablished again in knowledge. Just like a crazy man is sent, mental disorder, to hospital for treatment; again he comes as a sane man. Similarly, the demons are just like crazy men. Even they are treated with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they can be reverted to their own position. So this is temporary. This demoniac nature is temporary due to the contact with māyā. Therefore the whole business is how to get out of the clutches of māyā. Then there is no more demonic nature. It is artificial. (break) ...superficial. It comes and goes. As it comes artificially, so it can go also. And the driving method is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Initiation Lecture -- New York, July 28, 1971:

Even though you are able to go in high speed, and for so many years, still Kṛṣṇa remains avacintya-tattva. Nobody can find out where is Kṛṣṇa's abode, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Therefore, the Māyāvādīs, in desperate frustration, they say that Kṛṣṇa is impersonal, because they want to approach Kṛṣṇa by mundane activities, by mental exercise, mental gymnastic. Kṛṣṇa is not available in that way. Kṛṣṇa is available only to His devotees. Kṛṣṇa is the property of His devotee.

Initiation Lecture -- Caracas, February 22, 1975:

So generally, we are on the bodily platform. They are called karmīs. Bodily platform means that everyone is working for the bodily comfort. Bodily comforts means how to eat nicely, how to sleep nicely, how to have sex nicely and how to defend nicely. So these activities are there also in the animal life. Then, above these activities, there is mental activities. So the bodily activities are visible in the animal kingdom also, but mental activities, they are lacking. So the human being can tackle the mental activities, which is called psychology, the science of thinking, feeling and willing. So when still we go further, intellectual platform, how the mind should be utilized? So if we can intellectually utilize the mind, then we can approach the spiritual platform.

General Lectures

Lecture to Technology Students (M.I.T.) -- Boston, May 5, 1968:

Therefore higher science. First of all technology of the senses, and then, next higher technology is of the mind, which is known as psychology. Thinking, feeling, willing. They are trying to understand how they are working. And above this mind, mental science, there is the science of intelligence. And above the science of intelligence, the background is the soul. Unfortunately, we have got technology for the bodily senses, we have got technology for psychology, but we have neither any technology for intelligence nor for any technology in the science of the soul. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the technology of the science of soul.

Lecture Engagement -- Montreal, June 15, 1968:

Then your whole conception of education, your whole conception of living condition and problems—in the false world. Therefore this movement is required at the present moment in the world. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). This will cleanse the status of your mental condition. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam. And as soon as you understand yourself, then the whole problem—social, political, economical—everything will be solved. Bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇam. And gradually you shall realize your transcendental life. Your transcendental life is joyful. Ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt. Transcendental life means always full of joy, joyful. That is our nature.

Lecture -- Montreal, June 26, 1968:

That method will be perfect, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). When Kṛṣṇa from within yourself will give you right direction, then you'll come to the ultimate destination. Otherwise, whatever, however a great philosopher, scientist, or anything you may be, you'll simply hover on the material, mental plane. That's all.

So either you call perfect knowledge or you call happiness, anything, what you call, if you want to know the ultimate goal of your life perfectly, you have to follow a different method. A different method. That method is called avaroha-panthā. There are... All methods of acquiring knowledge can be divided into two groups. One group is called āroha-panthā, or research, inductive process. And another method is called deductive process, or avaroha-panthā.

Lecture Excerpt -- Montreal, July 20, 1968:

This is not ordinary sentiment. Sentiment, when religion or any faith is devoid of philosophy and logic, then it is material sentiment. And philosophy and logic without understanding of God is simply waste of time, mental... (break) So both should be combined, religion plus philosophy. One should understand the principles of religion with philosophy and logic. We are claiming college students, university students, because we are presenting religion on the basis of philosophy and logic. We are not blindly following. We have not dogmatism. We have got reason, philosophy, and everything, science. If you want to understand this Kṛṣṇa consciousness on the basis of philosophy, logic and science, we are prepared to present to you.

Lecture on Teachings of Lord Caitanya -- Seattle, September 25, 1968:

The threefold miseries means first, pertaining to the body and mind, and second, miseries inflicted by other living entities, and miseries by nature or higher authorities. Just like severe cold or severe heat or famine or earthquake. They are also miseries. This is beyond our control. So miseries which are beyond our control. So far bodily disease, mental disturbance, we can get some remedy in our own way. We can go to a psychiatrist or we can go to a doctor and get some medicine and get relief. And so far miseries from other living entities, we can take protection, we can defend ourself. But so far miseries offered by the demigods, daiva, there is no remedy. If there is all of a sudden here earthquake, oh, there is no remedy. You have to suffer. If there is, all of a sudden, there is inundation, you cannot. If there is, all of a sudden, there is thunderbolt, you cannot make any remedy.

Lecture -- Seattle, September 27, 1968:

And another part of this ādhyātmic misery is due to the mind. Suppose I have suffered a great loss. So the mind is not in good condition. So this is also suffering. So for diseased condition of the body or some mental dissatisfaction there are miseries. Then again, ādhibhautic, sufferings offered by other living entities. Just like we are human being, we are sending millions of poor animals to the slaughterhouse daily. They cannot express, but this is called ādhibhautic, sufferings offered by other living entities. Similarly, we have to suffer also sufferings offered by other living entities. God's law you cannot, I mean to say, supersede. So material laws, state laws, you can hide yourself, but God's law you cannot hide yourself. There are so many witnesses.

Northeastern University Lecture -- Boston, April 30, 1969:

Then one who has transcended this bodily concept of life, he comes to the platform of mind. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ. Manaḥ means mind. Somebody, some people, some of..., practically the whole population of the world, they are under the bodily concept of life, and, above them, there are some people who are on the mental concept of life. They are thinking mind. And somebody is on the intellectual platform of life.

Northeastern University Lecture -- Boston, April 30, 1969:

When you reach to the platform of Brahman realization... Brahman realization means transcending. We are talking on the transcendental meditation. So transcending the bodily concept of life, transcending the mental concept of life, transcending the intellectual concept of life, when you come to the real spiritual platform, that is called brahma-bhūtaḥ stage.

Northeastern University Lecture -- Boston, April 30, 1969:

That I have explained, that we have different stages of understanding. The first stage is this bodily concept of life. That is material and gross. Then mental stage, that is finer, subtle. And intellectual stage, that is still subtler. And you have to transcend all these stages, up to intellectual stage. That is spiritual stage. God is complete spirit, full spirit.

Lecture at Engagement -- Columbus, may 19, 1969:

Similarly, this position, this present consciousness of material existence is full of threefold miseries. It takes very long time to explain each and every word, but I tell you in summary, this life is subjected to three kinds of miseries, always—either bodily, mental, or some miseries inflicted by other living entities, or by nature. So many things. At least one or two. We must be under the subjugation of some kind of misery. But if you become situated in your spiritual platform of life, brahma-bhūtaḥ, you immediately become joyful, prasannātmā. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). And how one becomes prasannātmā? What are the symptoms? The symptoms are also stated, na śocati na kāṅkṣati: he has no more any demand for satisfying the senses, neither he has any lamentation for any loss. This is prasannātmā, joyfulness.

Lecture -- London, September 14, 1969:

So, so long we shall travel on the chariot of the mind, mano-ratha, then there is no question of our being freed from anxiety. Therefore we have to give up this chariot of mind. The chariot of mind will not give us satisfaction. We have to transcend the mental state, the intellectual state. The philosophers, they are intellectually trying to be happy. That also we have to transcend. We have (to) come to the spiritual platform, brahma-bhūtaḥ. And not only come to the spiritual platform, we must have spiritual engagement. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We have got engagement. We are not only satisfied that "I am spirit," ahaṁ brahmāsmi. No. There must be duties of the Brahman.

Lecture -- London, September 26, 1969:

Then next higher realization is Paramātmā, Supersoul. Brahman realization more or less realized by philosophical speculation, and Paramātmā realization is achieved more or less by meditation. But Bhagavān realization is transcendental devotion. That is beyond the philosophical speculation and mental meditation, beyond.

So these are gradual processes, but... Just like if you actually serious about studying the sun subject matter, then you have to study the sunlight, then sun globe, then enter into sun planet and try to understand; similarly, if you want to understand the Absolute Truth, you have to make progress in that way:

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

Now that life after death may be in one of the so many, 8,400,000's of bodies. There is no guarantee what kind of a body you are going to get. In our last meeting we explained that from Bhagavad-gītā, that yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). Ante, at the time of death, as his mental position is there, he gets the, another body, similar. There are many historical references. As I told you the other day, that King Bhārata, he was very much elevated and very great soul. At twenty-four years of age he was emperor of the world, but at the very young time he gave up his wife, children and kingdom and went to the forest for spiritual enlightenment. And he was making progress. Unfortunately, one day he saw that a deer cub was in helpless condition. It's mother came to drink water from the river, and there was a roaring of lion, and she begot the calf and fled away—after all, she's animal. So Bhārata Mahārāja took compassion on the little, just-born calf:

Lecture at Harvard University -- Boston, December 24, 1969:

Our movement is a spiritual movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is beyond brain. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ, manasas tu parā buddhir (BG 3.42). So there are different platforms and status of consciousness. Bodily consciousness means sensual consciousness. Above that, there is mental consciousness, speculative, philosophical, poetic. Above that, intellectual consciousness. And Kṛṣṇa consciousness—above intellectual consciousness.

Lecture -- Bombay, November 2, 1970:

A brāhmaṇa cannot be illiterate or rascal. And after becoming brāhmaṇa, one has to become Vaiṣṇava. Brāhmaṇa, generally... Brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ, one who knows Brahman, brahma-bhūtaḥ. At the present moment, we are under the bodily concept of life, every one of us. "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am sannyāsī," "I am brahmacārī," "I am gṛhastha." There are so many designations. So these designations are pertaining to the body and mind. But when you transcend the bodily and the mental concept of life, then you can become Vaiṣṇava.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 10, 1971:

And innumerable universes are going into Him. In this way He is sleeping. That Mahā-Viṣṇu is the plenary portion of Kṛṣṇa. So we have to believe in the śāstras, and there is no other way for understanding Kṛṣṇa. What is beyond our imagination, beyond our mental cultivation, beyond the reach of our senses, we have to accept authority. Exactly in the same way, just like we have to accept somebody as our father simply on the version of mother, similarly, we have no information of Kṛṣṇa, but we have got Kṛṣṇa's books, we have got Vedic literatures, and if we study... Śāstra-cakṣuṣāt: you have to see through the śāstras. Then you will understand Kṛṣṇa and your life will be successful.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, July 20, 1971:

So ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much for your coming here and participating with this movement. It is very important movement to bring man to his original consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to bring a living entity to his original consciousness. Just like there are many mental hospitals. What is that? Bellevue? In your city? The purpose of the hospital is to bring a crazy fellow to his original consciousness. Similarly, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to bring all crazy men to his original consciousness. Anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is to be understood—more or less crazy.

Lecture -- Tokyo, May 1, 1972:

Ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6). If by practicing this, at the time of death, if we can remember Kṛṣṇa, then our life is successful. Then our life is successful, ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ, if you can remember simply Nārāyaṇa at the time of death. Because next life means the mental position of your life at the time of death. Whatever mental position you put yourself, that is your next life. That is your next life. Yad yad... What is that? Yad yad bhāvam. I forget that verse. At the time of death, whatever you think, that is your next life. I prepare my next life in this life. That is in the hands of the material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). As we associate, guṇeṣu... It is also described in this Bhāgavatam, ramamāṇaḥ asyā guṇeṣu.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, January 14, 1973:

A brāhmaṇa cannot be illiterate or rascal. And after becoming brāhmaṇa, one has to become Vaiṣṇava. Brāhmaṇa, generally, brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ. One who knows brahma, brahma-bhūtaḥ... At the present moment we are under the bodily concept of life, every one of us. "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am sannyāsī," "I am brahmacārī," "I am gṛhastha..." There are so many designations. So these designations are pertaining to the body and mind. But when you transcend the bodily and the mental concept of life, then you can become Vaiṣṇava.

Lecture at Upsala University Faculty -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:

We are trying to enjoy, but we have got different desires of enjoyment. So every particular thing is taken into account by the laws of nature. And the next life, because if I try for something, I am absorbed in that thought, and at the time of my death, when I leave this gross body, my mental condition is there, and that mental condition carries me to a suitable position where I get a suitable body to fulfill the mental desires. This is the process of transmigration. So our process is... This is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā:

Lecture Excerpt -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Everyone is trying to please himself, but here is the formula: yenātmā samprasīdati. Ātmā means soul, the Supersoul, the mind and the body also. According to the different position, the ātmā is accepted in different angles of vision. But on the whole we are searching after bodily comforts, mental peace, and satisfaction of the soul and satisfaction of the Supersoul. So this is the only process. Yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. If you engage yourself in devotional service, bhakti, sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo... (SB 1.2.6). And that is the topmost system of religion. There are different religious systems, different parts of the world, of the universe. But the real purpose of religion is yato bhaktir adhokṣaje, how to become engaged in the service of the Lord, that is religion. And this service of the Lord cannot be checked.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: So we directly say (indistinct) Kṛṣṇa, that is (indistinct) spiritual.

Śyāmasundara: He says that each monad has an inner or mental activity, a spiritual life.

Prabhupāda: That is explained in everything, that as soon as we say there is Kṛṣṇa, so there is everything.

Śyāmasundara: So even between the atoms of matter there is a spiritual life, spiritual force?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That force means spiritual force.

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Śyāmasundara: No. He denies any substance. He says just like a cherry or a fruit, it has certain sensory qualities such as sweetness, color, like that. He says that we are just like that, humans. We have certain "sensory qualities." We are made up of a series of mental activities or a complex of ideas, but this is all we are.

Prabhupāda: No. We have got senses also. The color is only, what is called, sensory qualities. It is a quality, but to appreciate that quality, we have the senses. An inert object, it has got the quality, but living entity, it has the senses to appreciate the quality.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Śyāmasundara: To go back to this idea of cause and effect, Kant says that just as time and space are a priori concepts or mental creations—in other words, before we have any sense experience, we still have an idea of time and space—just as this is so, so also cause and effect is a priori category of human understanding.

Prabhupāda: So a priori existence is there, time and space.

Śyāmasundara: Time and space, and cause and effect.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Kīrtanānanda: First of all Hegel uses the word idea, he doesn't mean just like thinking, some mental image. He's using the term differently. I always thought.

Śyāmasundara: He's using it as a rational form which precedes the material form or physical form. Just like I can think in my mind that e equals mc squared...

Prabhupāda: Anyway, that you are speculating. We don't accept that.

Śyāmasundara: No, but I can put that into practical form.

Prabhupāda: No, practical form we can know. Just like we understand what is God, that Kṛṣṇa, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1), Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is vigraha, He is a form. He is a form but what kind of form-sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: They are degrading.

Hayagrīva: ...degenerating. What is the cause of man's physical, mental and spiritual deterioration in the succeeding yugas?

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.

Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:

Śyāmasundara: He says that we must continually make satisfactory adjustment; that things change...

Prabhupāda: That you cannot do, because you are hovering on the mental plane. And the mind is always imperfect, rejecting and accepting. So nothing will be standard. Your mind is accepting something, I am rejecting it. So on the mental plane you cannot come to the standard. It is not possible.

Śyāmasundara: He says that...

Prabhupāda: In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said,

indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur
indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ
manasas tu parā buddhir
yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ
(BG 3.42)

We have to go, transcend the mental platform, go to the intellectual platform, then surpass intellectual platform, come to the spiritual platform. That is the process. (Hindi with guest) No. That is not sufficient.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Prabhupāda: Just like rascal, one who does not know, he commits suicide. He thinks that "If I commit suicide, then everything is finished." That is his ignorance. He is going to get another abominable body. Ghost. He becomes a ghost, so that he suffers more. A ghost means he has got subtle body, mental body, mind, intelligence and everything is there. Mind is there, intelligence, ego is there, but no gross body, so he cannot enjoy. That is ghostly life.

Śyāmasundara: Suppose I am bound up by the desire to live, so that I am always...

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: He says that philosophy is that mental activity which seeks to analyze or clarify the meanings of scientific propositions.

Prabhupāda: This is philosophy: to study what is this body and how it is moving. This is analytical study. And you come to the understanding that the body is a dead lump of matter, there is something which is called the soul. Because the soul is there. This is scientific truth. One who has not this knowledge, he is not scientific; he is foolish.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Śyāmasundara: Today we are discussing the philosopher and psychologist Sigmund Freud. His thesis was that certain unconscious states must be repressed by a special mental mechanism which serves as a defense for the ego against painful or fragmental memories, emotions and desires.

Prabhupāda: That is our brahmācārya system. The psychology is that everyone has a sex appetite, everyone has a tendency for intoxication, and everyone had a tendency for meat-eating. Vyavāya āmiṣa madya sevā. These tendencies are already there. There is injunction in the śāstras that one can have sexual intercourse by marriage, legal sex.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Hayagrīva: Sublimation is, well let me read, "The excessive excitations from individual sexual sources are discharged and utilized in other spheres, so that no small enhancement of mental capacity results from a predisposition which is dangerous as such." In other words, he didn't believe that..., in total sexual freedom as it's conceived today, but that a man would be better, instead of trying to totally deny the sex drive, to try to redirect it, oh, perhaps in artistic activity or in, in study, or in some other activity. Not to deny it.

Prabhupāda: That means, in one word, to divert his attention.

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: It is just like photograph. If you take so many snap, but not all of them immediately moves.

Revatīnandana: So they would posit that there's a mental functioning going on, a thinking functioning going on that we're not conscious of. I think we don't agree with that. Is that correct? We say that there's one mind, sometimes mental impressions come that are stored...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: ...but in that storage area of the consciousness, there is no thinking going on there. Is that correct? The unconsciousness mind is not thinking like the conscious mind.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: No. That they do not know. The same soul is, is passing through another gross body with his mental, intellectual identification. He is..., that is nature's gift. That is said in the Bhagavad-gītā: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). As we have infected a certain type of modes of nature, he is getting a similar body, but the person is the same.

Hayagrīva: Now the, this would be the view, the second view, that is reincarnation. "This concept of rebirth necessarily implies the continuity of personality. Here the human personality is regarded as continuous and accessible to memory, so that when one is incarnated or born one is able, at least potentially, to remember that one has lived through previous existences, and that these existences were one's own, namely that he had the same ego form as the present life. As a rule, reincarnation means rebirth in a human body."

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: Mental...

Hayagrīva: ...intellectual and academic speculation.

Prabhupāda: ...speculation. That is our opinion. They are simply mentally speculating. It has no value. Unless you are directly in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and assimilate the instructions given by Him, by all your reason, and then in practical life you execute it, then one can become guru, he can do good to others; otherwise not possible.

Hayagrīva: And on the other hand religion, the Christian religion which was understood in the Middle Ages, has become strange and unintelligible to the man of today.

Philosophy Discussion on Bertrand Russell:

Śyāmasundara: He says that the mind plays no part in the process of evolution, because the only evidence for the existence of mental phenomena is a fragment of space and time. But this is not a substance; it is simply a set of relations.

Prabhupāda: He does not know it is also matter, but very subtle matter. It is matter. Just like ether—you cannot touch, you cannot see, but still it is matter. And mind is subtler than the ether. But it is matter. Intelligence is subtler than the mind, but still it is matter. So from Vedic authorities we understand that earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, they are all material.

Dr. Rao: And ahaṅkāra, ego.

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Prabhupāda: No. That is based on "might is right," but we do not accept this theory. We say, "right is might," not "might is right." Yes. If you are right, then you have got might. Otherwise, simply if you have got might, that is not right.

Śyāmasundara: You were speaking earlier about the conflict of the mind, mental conflict, judging...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Judgement is by the intelligence.

Śyāmasundara: So whenever there is perception coming into the mind, there is a conflict?

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: Yes. So this Samuel Alexander says that our consciousness of an object is a mere perspective on something, but it's a real portion of that object and not just a mental image. In other words, if I see a table, I am actually reacting with that table. It is a real perspective. It's not just a mental image, but I'm actually reacting to that table. My senses are reacting with the table. It's an objective reality.

Prabhupāda: Where is the table?

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Some philosophers think that if I see the table, it's merely a mental idea in my mind, that table. He says that no, there is a real objective relationship between my senses and the table, reality of the table. Is that...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is right.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: It's not just a mental image.

Prabhupāda: No, not mental. If the table is thrown upon me, I will fall. Then we cannot say that it is mental image. And it hurts me and blood oozes out; then it is not mental.

Śyāmasundara: He says that even illusions are genuinely real objects which are uncreated by the human mind. In other words, if I think I see a snake and it is actually a piece of rope, but if I think it is a snake, then it really is a snake.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: And then the second function of the mind is enjoyment, where there is a mental awareness of an inner, physiological activity as a result of the contemplation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are so many examples. Just like one man dreams some woman and there is nocturnal discharges. Mind creates like that and there is physical action actually. Mind creates a dream, a tiger, and there is physical action. He is crying loudly, "Here is a tiger. Here is a tiger." Actually, there is no tiger.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that even these mental images in dreams are real, that they have an objective reality.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Objective reality. When I dream of a woman or a tiger, there is objective reality. In dream it may be. There may be no existence of woman or tiger, but there is real existence of tiger, my dreaming. The impression of a tiger in my mind, the impression of a woman in my mind is created as hallucination, and that reacts on my physical life.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: He says that even these mental objects have a real existence in my consciousness. As long as I'm thinking there's a tiger about to pounce on me...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: ...there is a tiger. There is a real object in my consciousness.

Prabhupāda: And because it is real object, it is reacting on my physical life.

Śyāmasundara: He describes ultimate reality as space-time. Space and time. He says that time is an infinity of instants, single instants, and that the basis of infinity is a point, and that these two are combined and this is called reality.

Prabhupāda: Infinity of?

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: This, parallel to this is the idea is first there were the ingredients of nature, then there was very simple forms of life, then more developed forms of life, then human life. And he says in the next stage will be deity life or demigod life. And in this sixth level of life, he says that men will be able to more than just enjoy the qualities of mental experience, that they will be able to contemplate things as they are. They will be able to contemplate rather than just enjoy. They will be able to contemplate.

Prabhupāda: Now let us stop. We shall discuss tomorrow.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: Yesterday we were discussing this philosophy of emergent evolution. The theory behind it is in the beginning there was merely space and time and categories and then this developed to a level of primary sense perception, then to a level of secondary sense perception, then to a level of organic life, and then to a level of mind, mental life. And now, his theory is that the next level will be called deity, or a sort of demigod level of consciousness, in which men will be able to not only enjoy the objects of contemplation but be able to contemplate them, really, (?) in reality.

Prabhupāda: So that is Vedic process.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that all of evolution is going that way, nature is tending that way. And nature has progressed in different steps from inorganic life to organic life, to mental life, and now to demigod life.

Prabhupāda: From organic... Inorganic life? What is that inorganic life?

Śyāmasundara: Space and time and the categories of...

Prabhupāda: Where is the life there?

Śyāmasundara: Life develops from inorganic matter is his theory. It is merely a higher level of organization, inorganic life.

Prabhupāda: That means life developed from matter?

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that in future everyone will be a demigod, that the race of man, because of mental life, will be replaced by a race of superconscious beings.

Prabhupāda: Superconscious beings, there are already existing, just like in Siddhaloka and Gandharvaloka. There are many planets.

Śyāmasundara: This earth planet will become like that.

Prabhupāda: No. We don't get such information. Why they are so much anxious about the earth planet? There are many millions of planets. So super human being there... Just like we learn from the śāstras, in the Siddhaloka they can fly from one planet to another. Not only that, all the yogic siddhis, they are, naturally they have got. Just like we are trying to fly in the sky, that is not natural, but a small bird, he can fly. It is God's creation. So similarly, there are many human beings in the Siddhaloka. They, without any airplane, without any..., they can fly. They go from one planet to another. Not that this, from this planet they have developed. They are already existing.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that in this higher state of consciousness, rather than just enjoying objects, that one is able to contemplate them as they are, to understand them as they are. One is able to understand objects, things, as they are. Most people are on the level... On the mental level, we are capable of enjoying objects; they give us pleasure, but we are unable to understand them as they are. But in this higher level, he says that people will be able to understand things as they are, as well as enjoy them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our philosophy. Just like common man is seeing a rose flower, but a devotee is studying that rose flower, "How God's energy is acting that through His energy such a nice thing has come out. Therefore it should be offered to Kṛṣṇa. It is Kṛṣṇa's property." Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). "It is Kṛṣṇa's production, it is Kṛṣṇa's property.

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Prabhupāda: Now if you do not know what is God, then how you will verify your duty is nice, all-good? What is the order of God, who is God, then where is your duty? You simply manufacture your duty. So everyone can do that. So what do you mean by duty? Duty means the order given by some superior and you follow, you do it. That is duty. But if you have no superior order, if you have no conception who is the superior, what is his order, then where is your duty? Simply by mental imagination. Is it? Does he say it like that?

Philosophy Discussion on Plato:

Hayagrīva: This is the additional notations on Plato. For Plato, the spiritual world is not a mental conception. For Plato, truth is the same as the ultimate reality, the ideal or the highest good, and it is from this that all manifestations and cognitions flow. Plato uses the word "idea" in order to denote a subject's primordial existence, or maybe it's archetype. I think that Kṛṣṇa uses the word bījam.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hayagrīva: Bījam, seed, "I am the seed of all existence"?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Plato:

Hayagrīva: Now you said to Śyāmasundara that water existed before our mental conception of H2O. We conceive of H2O, we think of well, what is..., we begin to analyze water, and we say, well, it's two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. But before we even began to think of this, water existed.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: Therefore H2O is not the permanent essence or the primordial existence of water, but what Plato is saying is that everything that exists has its seed or essence or idea.

Prabhupāda: Seed is originally with Kṛṣṇa.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Prabhupāda: Wrapped up. But there are different identities. Intelligence... Everyone has got mind, but the mind acts under intelligence. But the intelligence of different living entities are different. Similarly mind is also different. A dog's intelligence is not equal to the intelligence of the human being. A dog's mind is not equal to the human being's mind. So actually the soul, being put under different types of body using different types of intelligence, and different some mental, psychic action, thinking, feeling, willing. So according to the body, the mind and intelligence are different.

Philosophy Discussion on Rene Descartes:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just as child has soul, but it is not yet..., the body has not yet developed. According to the body, according to the circumstances, the soul acts.

Hayagrīva: But he equates the mind and the higher mental processes with the soul.

Prabhupāda: No.

Hayagrīva: And, uh...

Prabhupāda: Mind is an instrument through which the soul acts. Mind is rejecting and accepting by the dictation of the soul.

Philosophy Discussion on Auguste Comte:

Hayagrīva: His philosophy is one of total materialism. He states, "A nation that has made no efforts to improve itself materially will take but little interest in mental or moral improvement."

Prabhupāda: That standard of material improvement, that is not fixed up. One person in the material existence, he is satisfied in certain condition of life. Other man is not satisfied in that position; he wants a different standard of life. Then the question will be, "What is the standard of material life?" So far our Vedic civilization is concerned, this, the material necessities are there—eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. These are material necessities, so they are equally visible in animal kingdom or human kingdom—everywhere. It is simply mental improvement of standard, but the standard are different.

Purports to Songs

Purport to Bhajahu Re Mana -- New York, March 30, 1966:

Eh? Yes. Lord... We worship Kṛṣṇa, the symbol of Supreme Consciousness. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that kleśa adhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām. If you take up impersonal, simply consciousness, then you have to pass through difficult process, but if you accept the symbol, Kṛṣṇa, the symbol of Supreme Consciousness, that will be easier for you. Yes. It is said. So Kṛṣṇa... I can concentrate my mind. I can focus my mental activities in the service of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa. Because He is Supreme Consciousness, therefore automatically I concentrate on the Supreme Consciousness.

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

This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching. Not Caitanya Mahāprabhu's, it is the Bhāgavata's teaching and Caitanya Mahāprabhu's the same. So we have to give up this nonsense idea, that "I can attain to the perfect knowledge by speculation, manodharma, by speculation, manodharma, mental gymnastic." This will not help us.

So jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva. Just become submissive. And where to submit? You must submit to a perfect person. Otherwise why should you submit? Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12), samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham.

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

This is love. So it doesn't matter what religious system you are following, but the result should be this, that you should be mad after God. That is the test. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro... That is first-class religion, yato bhaktir adhokṣaje, to love. Bhakti means love, service, rendering service. Adhokṣaje. Adhokṣaje means beyond the speculation of mind, mental exercise, bodily exercise. Adhokṣaja. Adhakṛta akṣaja jñānam.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught this. And He took sannyāsa. For the benefit of the whole world, He took sannyāsa. He gave up His very opulent position in Navadvīpa, as I have told you, very learned scholar, very beautiful body, very beautiful wife, very affectionate mother, good popularity. There was no scarcity. And He was God Himself. Why there will be any scarcity? There is no question. But in spite of, He took sannyāsa for the benefit of the whole world. That Caitanya Mahāprabhu has come here in Atlanta.

Page Title:Mental (Lectures, Other)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:16 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=71, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:71