Of the spiritual world (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"of the spiritual world"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: In the Vedānta-sūtra it is simply said that "The Absolute Truth is that which is the fountainhead of everything." Now if fountainhead of everything, then what the Absolute Truth's nature shall be like? That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The first thing is that janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). The factor, the Absolute Truth from which everything is emanating, so that emanation includes indirect and direct manifestation. What is that indirect and direct manifestation? The direct manifestation is the spiritual world and the indirect manifestation is this material world. Indirect manifestation means it is simply a shadow of the spiritual world. Just like in the Bible also it is said the man is made after God. So you have got two hands, one head, two leg. So the mental speculation is said that these devotees, they create God according to their own feature. Because I am two-handed, and therefore I create God with two hands, Kṛṣṇa. But actually, the fact is not that. Actually, because Kṛṣṇa has got two hands and we have got an imitation body of Kṛṣṇa, therefore we have got two hands. Because this is imitation. That we know everything, everyone. This body will not stay. Therefore it has got janma. Janma means birth or creation at a certain period, and it stays, say, for fifty years or hundred years.

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: Everything is emanated from that Absolute Truth. That is the fountainhead of everything. We cannot manufacture anything. It is not possible. But this is shadow and that is reality. And in the shadow... Just like photograph. You find that everything in detail of your beautiful face in the photograph, but that is not reality. That's all. So you'll find everything in details, all... Or you can understand actual photograph, actual idea, actual notion of the spiritual world by scrutinizingly studying this material world. The impersonalists, they think that in the material varieties there are so many abominable inebrieties, therefore in the spiritual world all these things should be minus, void. That is their material calculation. They cannot think that in the spiritual world also there is love. Because here, in this world, the so-called love or lust is frustrated and followed by so many calamities that therefore they cannot conceive that in the spiritual world also there is love. Their idea, in one sense, is right, that how these nonsensical things can exist in the spiritual world? Therefore they make it altogether minus. No variety. Impersonal. That is less intelligence. They cannot understand that photograph is the reflection of the actual person. There is everything in detail. A movie. Actually, the same man is laughing, walking, dress, everything, but it is all false. That they cannot understand. Therefore the Vaiṣṇavas say they are less intelligent. The real understanding should be that if in the real person all these features are not present, how they can be reflected in the photograph? The Māyāvādī says, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. Brahman, the Absolute Truth, is real truth, and this world is mithyā.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Brahmānanda: From the meat-eating comes the heart disease.

Prabhupāda: From meat-eating?

Brahmānanda: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Just see. (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, the material world is a reflection of the spiritual world. So we have different variegatedness in the material world, different living entities, plants, animals.

Prabhupāda: Without the inconvenience. Mean, in the material world there are so many inconveniences. So spiritual world, there is no inconvenience. Inebriety. It is a reflection of the spiritual world, but there are so many difficulties here. Therefore it is called material world.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, my question being, so they have all the variegatedness in the spiritual world?

Prabhupāda: Yes there are trees, there are water, birds, beasts, but they are all spiritual. Just like here everything is material. Here water is working according to the material laws. In the spiritual world if I say, "Please come here," he will come here. That is spiritual world.

Morning Walk -- May 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So attraction is there, but better attraction. Life is there, better life. Everything better, superior. Superior energy.

Brahmānanda: You've, said that our society ISKCON is like a sample of the spiritual world.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Brahmānanda: We develop our attraction for Hare Kṛṣṇa; we lose our attraction for sex life.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktiḥ... That is the sign of advancement of bhakti. If you don't be... I was explaining this. If you don't be detached to these material things, then you should know that you are not advancing in spiritual life. If you have got still attachment for these nonsense material things, that means you are not advanced. Just like if you are eating, and if you are not getting health, that means you are eating nonsense. Eating must result in good health. That is eating. Eating does not mean to fill up the belly with all rubbish things. Eating means that you become healthy, nice eating.

Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:

Śyāmasundara: So if God is a person with eyes, legs, He stays in one place?

Prabhupāda: Again, the same... You are comparing with yourself. Because your person can stay in one place only. That means you are simply comparing the Personality of Godhead with your personality. That you have to forget. He, He stays everywhere. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). Therefore we have to consult the authoritative Vedic literature. This answer is there, that goloka eva nivasaty, "He is living in Goloka Vṛndāvana; still, He is everywhere." You cannot think of. You are in this apartment. You are not in your office. But Kṛṣṇa, although He's in Goloka Vṛndāvana, He's everywhere, in everyone's heart. He's seeing everything. That you cannot imagine, how it is possible. That means you want to compare with your, this foolish, imperfect personality with God's personality. That is our defect. He's distinct from our personality, but He's a person. Yes. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He's also a person like us, He's also living entity like us. But what is the difference? He's the maintainer; we are maintained. How many persons you can maintain? A family of two children and one wife, you are embarrassed. And He's maintaining everyone. Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti... Innumerable living entities, He's supplying food everyone. He's supplying food the ants within the hole of your room there are thousands of ants. You are not supplying food. How they are getting food? Similarly, you go to the African jungle. There are thousands and millions of elephants. They eat one at a, oh, huge quantity. He's giving food. Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. In the air, within the water, there are so many living entities. In the air there are so many living entities. On the land there are so many living entities. Everywhere. How He's feeding? That is the distinction between God's personality and our personality. We are embarrassed to maintain a family of four, five members, and He is maintaining the whole family of living entities. Not only one planet, there are innumerable planets. And not only innumerable planets, the one universe, then innumerable universes. And these, all these taken together, this is one-fourth creation of God. So three-fourth creation is of the spiritual world. Just imagine how big it is. All of them being maintained by that one. This is the difference. (Someone comes in). Come on. Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. This is the distinction.

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Therefore, this portion of Kṛṣṇa's life is depicted on the Tenth Canto. Nine Cantos are devoted to understand Kṛṣṇa. So without understanding Kṛṣṇa if one tries to read the life and pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, it may be misleading.

David Lawrence: Yes, yes. I think somewhere it says...

Prabhupāda: Therefore Bhāgavata begins, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), what is the original source of creation. Not abruptly Kṛṣṇa. Then after developing all such knowledge one can understand what is Kṛṣṇa. But in the spiritual world there are activities like that. The material world is only perverted reflection of these activities of the spiritual world. Perverted reflections. It is reflection, but perverted. Therefore, it is difficult. Everything is there. Basic principle that Kṛṣṇa loved the gopīs... Gopīs were young girls, Kṛṣṇa was young boy, But the same love between young boy and girl here is lust. Therefore, it is perverted. The reflection is there, but it is not love, it is lust.

David Lawrence: Yes, that's the difference.

Prabhupāda: That's the difference.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Then how fortunate He is is beyond our thinking capacity.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Yes. Because... Therefore acintya. How great He is, how great fortunate He is, that you cannot think of, you cannot estimate. That is called acintya. Acintya means I cannot conceive, I cannot estimate. Not only I, any big personality within this universe. Just like Brahmā says, "The others may say that he knows you, but so far I am concerned, I do not know you." That is inconceivable. Brahmā, the greatest personality within this universe, he also admits that "Others may say that he knows what You are, but from my personal experience, I say I do not know anything." We can simply partially see. Parāsya śaktiḥ. Just like we are seeing this material nature, partial exhibition of His potencies. This is one of the potencies, but He has got many potencies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). This material nature is only... This is also inferior potency. Apareyam. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4). This material nature is made of earth, water, air, fire, ether, mind intelligence, ego. All these eight elements are separated inferior energy, and how much superior energies He has got. The superior energy is supposed to be the spiritual world, manifestation of the spiritual world. So if in the inferior material energy there are so many wonderful things, just imagine how much greater important wonderful things are there in the spiritual energy, which is called superior.

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like if we compare the velocity of light and the velocity of soul, it is...

Prabhupāda: Far, far greater.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, far different. It can be immediately on the...

Prabhupāda: Just like Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9), "Immediately comes to Me." So just see the velocity. Tyaktvā deham. As soon as he gives up this body, immediately goes to Kṛṣṇa. So see... Where is Kṛṣṇa? You cannot estimate even this material world. And then you enter the spiritual world. And then you go to the highest planet of the spiritual world, Goloka Vṛndāvana. So you cannot calculate how far it is, neither by driving your aeroplane of mind and vāyu, you can reach there. But the soul is so powerful that immediately goes there. Just like mind. You are here, many thousand miles away, 25,000 miles away in somewhere, immediately goes, mind goes.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation in car -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Devotee (1): ...when you talk to them of going to the spiritual world they say they would believe if there was someone present that has come back to tell them of the spiritual world. But otherwise...

Prabhupāda: How he will believe that someone has come? The first, next question will be, how you will believe. I will present a man.

Śrutakīrti: They don't believe.

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of bringing that man?

Śrutakīrti: We tell them that you have come, (Prabhupāda laughs) but they'll not accept it.

Prabhupāda: No, I have come and that I shall think over. First of all let me know how you will believe. Suppose if I say, "I have come from spiritual world," will he believe?

Śrutakīrti: That's what I'm saying. No, they don't.

Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: In the Vṛndāvana there is sporting. There is association with young girls, father, mother. Everything is exactly like this. And in any circumstance they are happy. It is not that in Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa is a sannyāsī. He cannot see the face of woman. It is not like that. (chuckles) But because it is spiritual, it is all-attractive. There are also the trees, animals, the river, the fruits, the flowers, the father, the mother, the beloved girls, beloved boys, sporting among the cowherd boys, going to the forest, the cows and calves, everything. So that attraction is required. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they are thinking, "Again attraction like this? So make it zero, no attraction. Become zero." So their philosophy is zero philosophy. That is also no information of the spiritual world, Buddha philosophy and Māyāvāda philosophy, śūnyavādī, nirviśeṣa, without varieties or zero. Without varieties means zero. So two philosophers. But therefore they invent: "Anything is all right." They invent. After all, they want zeroism. (break) ...pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ. (break) ...one increases the attraction for Kṛṣṇa, they will never be happy. (break) ...simply changing attraction on the material platform under different names. That will be failure. (break) Dr. Wolfe is missing that evolution?

Paramahaṁsa: Dr. Wolfe? Is he missing the evolution? Prabhupāda: He was speaking biological? Paramahaṁsa: Yeah, I think he was not understanding it so well. Prabhupāda: Means his understanding, that biological, not ours.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is giving you the remedy, that "You surrender to Me, you are immediately relieved from all sufferings." But we shall not do that. So what is the alternative than suffering? This is common sense.

Arnold Weiss: This is a lesson in learning through contrast, then.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Arnold Weiss: This is a lesson in learning through contrast, the contrast of suffering versus not suffering.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Suffering, this is only suffering. This material world is only suffering, but under illusion we are accepting suffering as enjoyment.

Arnold Weiss: Is this because the illusion that we see is a representation of the spiritual world in a sense?

Prabhupāda: Illusion is another punishment. We wanted to forget God, and God's illusory energy is giving him facility to forget God. This is called illusory energy.

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: But the mosquito is mosquito, and the king is king, although they are sitting on the same place.

Bali-mardana: Both sitting on the throne.

Rāmeśvara: Everyone is here on this planet. Some people are affected by the material conditions...,

Prabhupāda: He's mosquito.

Rāmeśvara: He's the bug.

Prabhupāda: This is the best example. On the throne, both of them are sitting, but king's consciousness and mosquito's consciousness are different. It is not because they are on the same throne, therefore of the same conscious. Mosquito's business is to bite, and king's business is to rule over.

Rāmeśvara: Another important thing to note about this painting is that the material world is said to be a reflection of the spiritual world. Just like here in this universe there are many planets, similarly there are many planets in the spiritual world. But it is a perverted reflection.

Prabhupāda: And besides that, even we are claiming to be very materially advanced, we do not know everything of the material world. Just like so big universe, material, what do you know about that? We have no knowledge practically. Even of the material world we have no sufficient knowledge, what to speak of the spiritual world.

Interviewer: Could you tell me something about your altar?

Prabhupāda: Which altar? This Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Lord Nityānanda, we are worshiping Him.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Give him, give him, give him. No, that is the different. Oh, all right. We are just attempting a big planetarium in Māyāpur. We have asked government to acquire land, 350 acres. That is negotiation going on. We shall give a Vedic planetarium.

George Harrison: Is that the one you were talking about? With all the...

Prabhupāda: In the Fifth Canto.

Gurudāsa: The planetarium will be 350 feet high and show the cosmology of the spiritual world.

Prabhupāda: The construction will be like your Washington capital, like that.

George Harrison: A big dome.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Estimated eight crores of rupees. Is there any dahi preparation? Oh, that's all right. Now, there is fruit. You...

George Harrison: Very good. Fantastic. Maybe just a little bit of, but now I'm not.... Thanks. That's fine. No, okay, thanks, fine, that's enough, that's fine.

Prabhupāda: That watermelon, you can give. It is water.