Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Patient (Lectures)

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.45-46 -- London, August 1, 1973:

So the examples are given by Prahlāda Mahārāja: bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau nṛsiṁha. "My Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva, the parents of children, they are not actually protector of the children." Because generally we think that "This child, this boy has got his father, mother, he is well-protected." No. Father and mother... Every father and mother wants to protect the child, but still, the child has to meet some danger and dies. There are so many experience. Similarly, bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau nṛsiṁha. The father and mother is a counteraction for the dangers of the child. But Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "No, they are not counteraction." It is not that if a child is in danger, because the father and mother is very strong, very rich, he will be able to give protection to the child. No. That is not possible. Then nārtasya cāgadam. The medicine... A person is suffering from some disease, some fatal disease. If you think "I shall engage first-class physician and I shall supply first-class medicine," if you think, "Then the patient will be saved," no, that is not possible. That is not possible. We have got many experiences like that. Then no rich man would have died. Because he has got money, he can employ first-class physician, first-class medicine, and simply by engaging such things, counteracting, pratikāram, he cannot be saved.

Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Manila, October 12, 1972:

The so-called scientists, philosophers, they are theorizing, "It may be," "Perhaps." So what is this knowledge, "Perhaps," "It may be"? That is not knowledge. Say definitely. But nobody can say. They are blind. The doctor is giving medicine, but he is not definitely sure whether his patient will die or live. If you ask him whether the person is going to live, "Oh, that depends on God." Ultimately depends on God—although he is posing himself that authorized, he is giving scientific medicine. If you are giving scientific medicine, why you are not sure? This is called cheating. While he is not sure, still he says, "I am scientific man." This is one defect. And of all these defects, there is sublime defect that our senses are imperfect. All our senses. The same thing, just like with our eyes we see daily the sun, but we see just like a disk.

Lecture on BG 2.33-35 -- London, September 3, 1973:

Our great leader, Mahatma Gandhi, he wanted to prove from Bhagavad-gītā, nonviolence. He started the nonviolence movement, and he wanted to support... Everyone takes advantage of Bhagavad-gītā and tries to support his view on the strength of Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore you will find so many interpretations. Everyone wants to utilize. There are more than six hundred publication, commentaries, on Bhagavad-gītā. One Dr. Rele in Bombay, he has interpreted Bhagavad-gītā as talks between a physician and a patient.

Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:

Just like you know. There is a English proverb, "What is play to you is death to me." So that is the position here. Even if you are glorified, still, you cannot enjoy. You cannot enjoy. Anything, any position. Because this wrong conception of bodily existence is a diseased form of my constitution, so I cannot enjoy. Now, a patient who is suffering from some disease, he is unable to enjoy, but if he forcibly enjoys, then his life becomes risky. He becomes more implicated.

Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:

That typhoid is disease of intestine. Now, in that disease, any solid food is strictly forbidden. First time is twenty or fourteen days, then twenty-one days, then forty-one days, up to sixty days. He is to live only on glucose water. That's all. Other things is dangerous for him. Now, if that typhoid patient desires to eat some solid food and if somebody, out of compassion, gives him some solid food, then it is death for him because in that condition he cannot enjoy. His enjoyment is forbidden. Therefore, in our diseased condition of this bodily conception of life, if we increase our so-called enjoyment, enjoyment of the body, oh, then we shall be more and more entangled in this conditional life of material existence.

Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:

Just like a diseased man is given some liquid food. He is forbidden... He is forbidden to take any food because any food will aggravate his disease, but still, because he has to exist, he is given some glucose water, some barley water, some fruit juice, little. Just... It is also psychological. The patient may think also that "I am eating something. I am eating, not I am starving. I am eating." That is also psychological effect. At the same time, this light food, fruit juice or glucose water, that is easily digested, so there is no harm.

Lecture on BG 2.55-56 -- New York, April 19, 1966:

Lord Buddha's views is that you can be happy only when you are free from this consciousness. Lord Buddha says that consciousness is a production of this combination of matter. So therefore if, if you dismantle this material body, then there will be no consciousness and thus there will be no feeling of distress or happiness. That is called nirvāṇa, stopping, stopping the feelings of... It is just like a patient suffering from some disease, and the doctor gives him some pill so that he dies and there is no more feeling. Oh. Then he sees it is all right. If by stopping feeling like that, that a... "Doctor, my son is having hundred and seven degree temperature." "All right. I stop it. Give him some injection, poisonous." The child dies. Now there is no fever. Now the father says, "My child does not move." "Oh, whether this fever is stopped or not?" "Yes, there is no fever also." "That's all right. My business finished." That sort of foolish doctor will not do.

Lecture on BG 2.58-59 -- New York, April 27, 1966:

How we shall know that one is situated in the pure consciousness? Simple imagination that "I am situated in pure consciousness"? No. Everything must be proved by symptoms. Everything must be proved by symptoms. Just like a patient is cured means there is subsidence of the fever, for example; similarly, the, we are just trying to separate ourself from the material conception of life to our exact position. I am spirit soul, and consciousness is the symptom. And I have to be situated in pure consciousness, dovetailing myself with the supreme consciousness. That is the whole program.

Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

Puruṣa. Puruṣa means the enjoyer. Everyone of us sitting in this hall, we have got different mentality to enjoy differently, different dress, different mentality, different opinion, because everyone of us we are individual. So this individuality is both in spiritual world and the material world. But in the material world our individuality is different on account of associating or infecting different qualities of the material nature. Just like there are different types of patients in the hospital. Why? Because each and every one of them is infected by different types of germs of disease.

Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Montreal, June 14, 1968:

There is no such stereotype rules that you have to do it for so many years, so many... It depends on your personal energy of progress. It is very simple to understand. Suppose a man is diseased. No doctor can guarantee that "This will be cured in so many days." You see? It depends on the situation of the patient's condition and accepting the treatment. Similarly, it can be cured in one day, or it may not be cured in one thousand days. That will depend on the patient.

Lecture on BG 4.9-11 -- New York, July 25, 1966:

This is material nature, of course, but one thing is that if you want to help a person, your aim should be to help a person for the ultimate goal. Just like I will give you an example that a physician treating a patient, he is also engaged in giving some assistance to the suffering man. Now, he treats the root of the disease. Now, the patient says, "Doctor, I have got very much headache today." Doctor knows: "Yes. All right. I shall see." He says, "I have got a great pain in here." Now, the doctor sees that these are the symptoms of his main disease.

Lecture on BG 4.19-25 -- Los Angeles, January 9, 1969:

If you go on dancing in the club and eating in the club gradually you become diseased materially. And the same dancing and same eating here you become spiritually advanced. So nothing has to be stopped. Simply it has to be changed by the direction of an expert physician. That's all. The expert physician gives you yogurt mixed with some medicine. Actually medicine is just to bluff the patient. Actually the yogurt will act.

Lecture on BG 4.22 -- Bombay, April 11, 1974:

Dvandvātītaḥ, no enviousness. Why I shall be envious? If somebody is eating very nicely, and I am not eating nicely, why I shall be envious? We should be satisfied. Kṛṣṇa has given him. Just like in the hospital, one patient is eating very nutritious food and another patient, the physician has ordered, "He should not take anything." So why he should be envious? He should know that "Physician has prescribed like this, that I shall not take anything, and he has prescribed to the other patient, next bed, nutritious food. So it is the physician's desire for treatment."

Lecture on BG 4.37-40 -- New York, August 21, 1966:

. Just like if you are taking treatment of a physician, you have faith, "All right." But the physician says, "Don't do this," and if you do this, then what kind of faith you have got? Physician, when he treats some patient, he prescribes something, "don't do this" and "do this," some "do-nots," some "do." Now, if I say, "My dear physician, I have got all faith in you. Very good. But I cannot follow your instruction. You say, 'Do not.' I do it," oh, how you can? How you are faithful? How you are faithful? So śraddhāvān labhate jñānaṁ tat-paraḥ saṁyatendriyaḥ. You have to follow the instruction with faith. Then you get. You have to follow the instruction with faith.

Lecture on BG 4.39-42 -- Los Angeles, January 14, 1969:

If some physician comes and tells to the patient, "Oh, you are so suffering. All right. let me cut your throat so you will not suffer. Everything will be stopped," is that good treatment? (laughs) You have to stop his fever and keep him into his healthy life. That is treatment.

Lecture on BG 5.17-25 -- Los Angeles, February 8, 1969:

Bellevue. Simply building is increasing. Every year the building is increasing. What is that? The number of lunatic persons are increasing. You see? But they are under welfare activities. But do not see that "How much welfare I am doing? Why the patients are increasing?" You see? "Oh, we have increased the hospital." That means you increase the disease. They are very much proud of having a big hospital. (laughter) Just see the ignorance. They are not sorry that "Why so much big hospital? Why so much big prisonhouse?" The number of prisoners are increased. So rascals are, they are engaged in welfare activities. Just see. And they are in charge of welfare activities. I do not wish to criticize but there are so many things, simply rascaldom—without Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on BG 5.22-29 -- New York, August 31, 1966:

There is a very nice story. Perhaps I have many times told you, that there was a householder, a very rich man. His wife was sick and the maidservant was also sick. So the gentleman called for a doctor, and the doctor treated both the patients, and the doctor said that "Your wife has got 98 temperature, nothing serious. But your maidservant, she has got 104 temperature, so she should be taken care of." Now, the housewife, she became angry. She told the doctor, "Oh, I am the head of the family. I have got only 98 temperature? And my maidservant has got 104? So you are not a doctor!" So that is going on. From 104 we want to increase. 107 degrees and death will come. So the modern civilization is increasing the temperature. So we have come to the point of 107 degree-atom bomb. So we are prepared for killing ourselves. So this degree, this increasing of temperature of material enjoyment will never make us happy. We have to decrease the temperature. We have to come to the point of 97, not to the 107.

Lecture on BG 6.6-12 -- Los Angeles, February 15, 1969:

This is the sign of advancement. Because here in this material world, the calculation of friend and enemy, everything, is in relationship with this body, or sense gratification. But realization of God or the Absolute Truth, there is no such material consideration. Another point is that here, all conditioned souls, they are under illusion. Suppose a doctor, a doctor goes to a patient. He is under convulsion, he's talking nonsense. That does not mean he will refuse to treat him. He's treats him as friend. Although the patient calls him by ill names, bad names, still he gives him medicine. Just like Lord Jesus Christ said that "You hate the sin, not the sinner." Not the sinner. This is very nice. Because sinner is illusioned. He's mad. If you hate him, then how you can deliver him? Therefore those who are devotees, those who are really servant of God, they have no hate for anyone.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Fiji, May 24, 1975:

Just like a person born as the son of a medical man, from the childhood he is learning all the medical terms and how his father is treating patient. So before entering medical college he is half medical man. That is the facility. But if we don't take the facility, we go astray... They are called brahma-bandhu. And if we have acquired the qualification of a śūdra, then, even though one is born in the brāhmaṇa family, he should be accepted as śūdra. Similarly, if a person is born in a śūdra family, but he has acquired these qualities, śamo damaḥ satyaṁ śaucam, he should be designated as brāhmaṇa. That is the injunction of the śāstras in many places. So if by force I want to assume myself as a brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya without qualification, that is the cause of India's cultural ruination. Such a high Vedic culture of India is now ruined because we have misused the terms. That is the cause.

Lecture on BG 7.11-16 -- New York, October 7, 1966:

Just like a diseased person, he is put under regulation. He is also given to eat something. Although eating is not very good for a diseased person, still, he is allowed to eat something, some barley water, some fruit juice, some light food, so that... Starvation is also not good, so he is allowed, but he cannot be allowed foodstuff according to the patient's desire. The foodstuff is allowed to him according to the direction of the physician. So if we want to be conversant, well-equipped with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then we have to regulate our life. That regulation, that regulation is given in various scriptures, and here also Lord Kṛṣṇa says. He is describing Himself, how you can remember Him in every circumstances of your life.

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 23, 1976:

So psychiatrists generally their patients are crazy fellows. Generally they treat crazy fellows. Is it not? No sane man goes to a psychiatrist. (laughter) Is it not a fact? So all these crazy men sometimes makes the psychiatrist a crazy also. So more or less, everyone is crazy. That is the... It is not my layman's opinion. It is the opinion of a big medical surgeon. There was a case in the court, murder case. The murderer pleaded that "I became crazy, mad, at that time." That is generally... So the medical man was called to examine. He was great civil surgeon in Calcutta. So he gave his opinion in the court that "So far I have treated many patients, so my opinion is that everyone is more or less a madman. More or less. It is a question of degree." So our opinion is like that, that anyone who is not under the direct connection with God, he's a crazy man. He's a madman.

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 23, 1976:

So we are also psychiatrists. We are pushing this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So because anyone who is in this material world—more or less crazy, madman. Because he doesn't care for God, therefore he's crazy. He is completely under the control of God, but still, he has the audacity to say, "No, I don't believe in god." Crazy man. So anyone who does not believe in God, he's a crazy fellow. You can treat him. Everyone is patient.

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 23, 1976:

This crazy fellow is fully under the control of material nature, and he's still thinking that he is independent. That is craziness. Everyone is thinking like that, so everyone is a patient of psychiatrist. How we can declare independence? There is no independence. We are completely dependent on the laws of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is knowledge. Nobody wants to die, but nature says, "You must die." Where is your independence? Nobody wants to take birth, enter into the mother's womb. But you must enter. Nobody wants to become old man. Nature says, "You must become old man." Nobody wants disease. The nature says, "You must have disease." So where is your independence? But the crazy fellow says, "I am independent. I think like this." What is the value of your thinking? You may think in your favor but the nature will not allow you.

Lecture on BG 10.1 -- New York, December 30, 1966:

In, in the market you'll have so many commentaries of the Bhagavad-gītā. In India we have counted, there are about six hundred and forty-five different commentaries of Bhagavad-gītā. One Dr. Rele(?) of Bombay, he has interpreted Bhagavad-gītā as the talks between the patient and the medical practitioner. Yes. He has imposed on Kṛṣṇa as the physician and Arjuna as the patient. And in his commentary he has tried to, I mean to say, interpose all the meanings of anatomy, physiology, everything in his own imagination.

Lecture on BG 13.13 -- Bombay, October 6, 1973:

Everyone has got particular type of occupational duty. That is called dharma. Dharma is not a faith. The particular duty... Just like you are a medical practitioner. So your dharma is to treat patients. That is your dharma. So everyone has got particular occupational duty. (break) Actually, what is going on as Hindu dharma... Actually, Hindu dharma this word is not there in the śāstras. In the śāstra it is called varṇāśrama-dharma. Four varṇas: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra; and four āśramas: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, and sannyāsa. These are called varṇāśrama-dharma. So in every varṇa, brāhmaṇa, his qualification is described in the śāstra. Śamo damas titikṣā ārjavaṁ kṣāntir jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). Similarly, kṣatriya, vaiśya. So by discharging one's occupational duty according to varṇa and āśrama, if one does not understand Kṛṣṇa, the Bhāgavata says, śrama eva hi kevalam. Then he's simply spoiling his time and wasting his labor. That's all.

Lecture on BG 13.17 -- Bombay, October 11, 1973:

There are so many birds and beasts. There is no ration, government ration for them. They are eating. No bird we have seen ever that it has died out of starvation. We have never experienced. But we are engaged in philanthropic work, to give food to the poor, as if God is unable to give food to the poor, because we have taken the position of God. So this is not our business. God has food for everyone. If one is suffering, that is his own fault. Just like in the hospital, you'll go. You'll find so many patients are starving. Does it mean the patients are starving for want of food? No. He must starve; otherwise he will not be cured. That is destiny, called. So these are not our business to see. Our own business is how to revive our original consciousness. That is our only business.

Lecture on BG 16.5 -- Calcutta, February 23, 1972:

A living entity has got natural inclination for vyavāya, sex life; and madya sevāḥ, intoxication; āmiṣa sevāḥ, and meat-eating. A natural instinct there is. But asuras, they do not try to stop it. They want to increase it. That is asura life. I have got some disease. If I want to cure it, then doctor gives me some prescription that "You don't take." Just like diabetic patient. He is forbidden that "Don't take sugar, don't take starch." Nivṛtti. Similarly, the śāstra gives us direction that you should be accepting these things and you should be not accepting these things, śāstra. Just like in our society, we have picked up the most essential nivṛtti and pravṛtti. The pravṛtti... We are instructing our students, "No illicit sex life, no meat-eating, no āmiṣa-sevā." Āmiṣa-sevā nityā sujantoḥ. But the śāstra says that if you can give up nivṛttis tu mahāphalām, then your life is successful.

Lecture on BG 18.45 -- Durban, October 11, 1975:

Then I have got guṇa, but I do not practice it. Suppose I have passed medical examination, but I do not practice. Then nobody will call me a doctor sir. I must practice. I must cure patient. Then I will be known as medical practitioner. So guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ, not only quality but also practice. So what are the guṇas? The guṇas are described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Everything is there. Simply we have to study thoroughly and understand it thoroughly. Then the whole human society will be in peace and they will make progress not only in this life but in the next life also. Therefore it is said, saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ. Sve sve karmaṇi nirataḥ saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- London, August 27, 1971:

This is called inferior and superior. Pravṛtti-mārga is inferior. Therefore if you don't accept pravṛtti-mārga under regulative principle... Just like a diseased person, typhoid, suffering from typhoid. Typhoid means intestinal disease. He cannot digest anything. So just to satisfy him the doctor says, "All right, give him little glucose water." What is the glucose water? The water only. But the patient will think, that "I am eating." He does not know, if he eats, he will die. If he eats, he will die. But the doctor, just to bluff him, "All right. You take this glucose water." You see? But he must know that "I am eating something." And he cannot digest more than glucose.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972:

In the Āyur-veda, śāstra veda, there are, the symptoms, with the... These veins are moving like this, heart is moving like this, beating like this, then the position is this. As soon as they understand the position is this, they verify the symptoms. They enquire from the patient, "Do you feel like this? Do you feel like this?" If he says, "Yes," then it is confirmed. The inner things, how the pulse is beating, and the symptoms are confirmed, then the medicine is ready. Immediately take the medicine.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Delhi, November 12, 1973:

Just like nowadays, everyone is proud of reading Bhagavad-gītā, but he interprets in his own way. Everyone is at liberty to interpret Bhagavad-gītā as he likes. That is the modern proposal. So there are 664 editions of Bhagavad-gītā. Everyone is commenting in his own way. I have heard that there is one doctor, some rele(?). He has interpreted Bhagavad-gītā as the talks between a patient and a physician. You see? So this is going on. Everyone whimsically, he is interpreting. Sometimes in our country also, we see that Mahatma Gandhi wanted to interpret Bhagavad-gītā as nonviolence. It is very difficult to prove, because Bhagavad-gītā is spoken in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra.

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- Vrndavana, October 19, 1972:

I have got practical experience, because I was dealing in medicine. So the attending physician of my pharmacy, he came back from a call and told me that "I saw one patient lying in a very precarious condition, suffering from pneumonia. So according to our science, he could not live. I do not know how he is living." There are so many cases. I had dealings with medical men. One big medical man in Gayā, he told me that "Mr. De," that "we give very first class medicine to a patient, to my best knowledge. He dies. And I try one small medicine, and he is saved. That is my practical experience." He was Muhammadan doctor. He told me.

Lecture on SB 1.5.11 -- New Vrindaban, June 10, 1969:

Just like Viśvanātha Cakravartī has given that the mango in the ripe stage and unripe stage. Unripe stage, it is bitter, but the same mango, when it is fully ripe, it is sweet, the sweetness. We shall have to wait for this stage, and we shall have to be careful that we may not commit offenses. Then we, surely, we shall come. Just like a diseased patient, if he follows the regulations given by the physician and takes the medicine, then surely he'll be cured.

Lecture on SB 1.5.12-13 -- New Vrindaban, June 11, 1969:

A devotee can..., cannot be equally interested with material pleasure and transcendental pleasure. No. Virakti. Bhagavad-gītā also says that paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 9.59). Just like in a hospital a diseased person is forced not to accept a certain type of foodstuff. He has the desire. He has the desire to take such food. Just like a typhoid patient, suffering from typhoid. Doctor says that "You cannot take any solid food. A little liquid food you can take." But he has the desire to take the solid food. "Oh, doctor has asked me not to take such food. All right, what can I do?" But he has got the desire. But a devotee, he hasn't got to be forced just like the physician asks him, "Don't do this." He automatically does so.

Lecture on SB 1.5.13 -- New Vrindaban, June 13, 1969:

Everyone is trying to lead people. But he himself is blind. He does not know what is the end of life. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). So therefore Vyāsadeva can do it because he has clear vision. Nārada certifies. Nārada knows his disciple, what is the position. A spiritual master knows what is the condition. Just like a physician knows. By simply feeling the beating of pulse, a... An expert physician can know what is the condition of this patient, and he treats him and gives him medicine accordingly. Similarly, a spiritual master who is actually spiritual master, he can know, he knows the pulse-beating of the disciple, and he therefore gives him particular kind of medicine so that he may be cured.

Lecture on SB 1.5.13 -- New Vrindaban, June 16, 1969:

There are in India and all over the world, I calculated, there are more than six hundred commentary on Bhagavad-gītā, more than. And each one is presentation of the author's own view. One Doctor Rele(?) in Bombay, he has also explained Bhagavad-gītā in his own way. He says that it is a talk between a diseased person, a patient, and the physician. Because he is physician, he has made Kṛṣṇa as physician. Of course, Kṛṣṇa is physician in other way. But he has tried to explain the medical science through the Bhagavad-gītā-anatomy, physiology, medicine, like that. Just like Gandhi, he wanted to prove Bhagavad-gītā as nonviolence. In this way, everyone is trying. But actually who is understanding Kṛṣṇa? That is being explained by Nārada, that "In this way, people will misunderstand. You simply apply, simply write and explain the science of Kṛṣṇa."

Lecture on SB 1.5.25 -- Vrndavana, August 6, 1974:

So here it is said that dvijaiḥ..., ucchiṣṭa-lepān anumodito dvijaiḥ. Dvijaiḥ, the brāhmaṇa... And the supreme brāhmaṇa is the devotee, kṛṣṇaika-śaraṇa. So Nārada Muni, in his previous birth, he was engaged in washing the dishes, eating the foodstuffs left by the dvijaiḥ, by the brāhmaṇas. In this way he infected their disease. As in ordinary material sense if you eat the remnants of foodstuff of a diseased fellow, then you infect that disease. Therefore sometimes when there is a patient suffering from tuberculosis, it is strictly separated from the family to another room or another house so that... It is very infectious. Cholera is very infectious. Smallpox is very much infectious.

Lecture on SB 1.5.33 -- Vrndavana, August 14, 1974:

Now these devotional activities means instead of satisfying my personal senses, if we want to satisfy Kṛṣṇa's senses, this method is called bhakti. So the activities of the senses should not be stopped, it should be repaired or reformed. That is cikitsitam, "properly treated." Cikitsitam, this is the word. Cikitsitam means properly treated, under the direction of physician. The physician is guru, and guru's business is to instruct the disciple, "My dear son, you do not work for your so-called sense gratification, you try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa's senses, then your life is perfect. This is the physician's duty, and this is the patient's duty. Cikitsitam. Cikitsitam is purification. You have got disease, purify yourself.

Lecture on SB 1.8.27 -- Los Angeles, April 19, 1973:

Just like you have discovered nice medicine, very qualified physician. That's all right. But when a man is sick, ask the physician: "Can you guarantee the life of this patient?" He'll never say: "No, I can do so. I cannot do that. I try my best. That's all." That means the sanction is in the hand of God. "I am simply instrument. If God does not like that you should live, then all my medicines, all my scientific knowledge, medical knowledge, will fail." The ultimate sanction is Kṛṣṇa's. They, the foolish persons, they do not know. They are, they are, therefore they are called mūḍha, rascals. That whatever you are doing, that is very good, but, ultimately, if it is not sanctioned by God, by Kṛṣṇa, this will be all failure. They do not know that. Therefore they are mūḍhas.

Lecture on SB 1.8.30 -- Los Angeles, April 22, 1973:

The, everything is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like in hospital. In hospital there are many patients, they are not eating anything on the Ekādaśī day. Does it mean that is observing Ekādaśī? He is simply hankering after, "When I shall eat, when I shall eat, when I shall eat?." But these students, they voluntarily don't eat anything. We, we don't say that you don't eat anything. Some fruits, some flowers. That's all. So paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 9.59). Just like a child. He has got in his hand something he's eating. and if you give him better thing, he will throw away the inferior thing and will take that better thing. So here is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this better engagement, better life, better philosophy, better consciousness, everything better. Therefore they can give up the sinful activities of life and that will promote to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 1.8.44 -- Mayapura, October 24, 1974:

Just like in jaundice disease that, if you... Because the doctors, the medical practitioners, they give sugar candy. The physician gives sugar candy. The sugar candy, to the person suffering from jaundice, tastes bitter: "Oh, it is bitter." But actually sugar candy is not bitter. Similarly, to the sinful man the kṛṣṇa-kathā, discussion about Kṛṣṇa, does not appear to be very palatable. They do not like to hear. They think it is waste of time. But that, as the sugar candy is the only medicine for jaundice disease, similarly, the hari-kathā, or kṛṣṇa-kathā, is the only medicine for our material disease. If we take it... Just like the jaundiced patient. If he takes sugar candy, then gradually he becomes free from the diseased condition, and at that time, the same sugar candy which he tasted in the beginning as bitter, it appears to be very, very sweet. Then he cannot live without. This is the process.

Lecture on SB 1.10.6 -- Mayapura, June 21, 1973:

If you are in anxiety, then that will create a disease. Our this psychological condition, physiological condition, is working in so subtle way-little shocking, little disturbance will create another disturbance. The Ayurvedic medicine, they treat patients on this principle, how things are disturbed. They have got their calculation: kapha, pitta, vāyu. Tri-dhātu. This body is a composition of these three dhātus. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Kuṇape. This is a bag created by the interaction of the three elements, namely, kapha, pitta, vāyu, bile, mucus and air. This is kavirāja treatment. They can understand the position of these three elements by feeling the pulse. This is Ayurvedic science.

Lecture on SB 1.10.6 -- Mayapura, June 21, 1973:

So you feel the pulse and inquire the patient, "Are you feeling like this?" If he says, "Yes," then it is confirmed. The disease is confirmed. Then the medicine is there. Very simple thing. Now in allopathic treatment, first of all you have to sacrifice one chaṭāka of blood, immediately. As soon as you go to the medical man, in your country, he will take so much blood. First of all you have to give your blood. Then fees. Then you have to purchase nonsense medicine. So here also there are nonsense kavirājas also. So unless one is expert in feeling the pulse, he is not kavirāja. That is the criterion.

Lecture on SB 1.15.1 -- New York, November 29, 1973:

God, or Kṛṣṇa, He gives everything, necessities of life, as you like, but if you accept your enjoyable things as you like, then you'll become entangled. But if you accept things to be enjoyed by you, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1), as Kṛṣṇa offers you, then you'll become happy. If you make, just like a diseased patient, if he wants to enjoy life in his own whimsical way, he'll continue his disease. But if he accepts the modes of life according to the directions of the physician, then he becomes free from So there are two methods, pravṛtti and nivṛtti. Pravṛtti means "I have got inclination to eat this or to enjoy this. Why not? I shall do it. I have got my freedom." "But you have no freedom sir, you are simply..." That is māyā. You have no freedom. We get experience, suppose there is very nice palatable food. If I think, let me eat as much as possible, then next day I'll have to starve. Immediately dysentery or indigestion.

Lecture on SB 1.15.25-26 -- Los Angeles, December 4, 1973:

We must train people in such a way that we must see there what is his quality. According to quality. Just like a physician gives medicine according to the symptom of the disease, then it is cured. Not that any medicine. In the drug house, there are so many medicines. You cannot say "Any medicine will do." No. It is the physician who will pick up the real medicine and he'll administer to the patient. Then he'll be cured.

Lecture on SB 1.15.34 -- Los Angeles, December 12, 1973:

Intimate relation with somebody, so there is bhuṅkte bhojayate. When you become intimate with certain friend, he gives to eat you, something you eat, and you also give him something to eat, he eats. But if there are different quality, then by eating, you contaminate, you are contaminated by his infection, and he is contaminated by infection. That is practical, medical science. If you eat the remnants of foodstuff of a tuberculosis patient, then you are attacked with tuberculosis. Or cholera patient.

Lecture on SB 1.15.34 -- Los Angeles, December 12, 1973:

Eko bahūnām. God is also two hand. But the mūḍhas: "Because God has got two hands, therefore He is also like me." That is mūḍha. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). "Because God comes as human being with two hands, two legs, one head, therefore He is one of the, one of..." No. It is miscalculation. Just like in the hospital, there are so many patients lying down on the bed, and when the doctor comes, if the patient thinks, "Now he is also patient," how is that? He is not patient. He has come to treat patient. Similarly, God may come like us. Because otherwise he will not accept. If He something... God never incarnates with four-handed viṣṇu-mūrti. This will be something extraordinary. So He comes like exactly like us, but He is not one of us. That is God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 1.16.25 -- Hawaii, January 21, 1974:

When a man is suffering a fellow man, another fellow man must feel for it. That is called dayā. There are two things: dayā and sevā. Sevā means to give service to the superior, and dayā means to give service to the inferior. Both of them are service. Dayā, I mean to say... A man is suffering. He is in helpless condition. Just like in hospital, those who are patients, who are diseased, they go to the hospital There is also sevā. The nurse is serving. The doctor is serving. But that is not sevā. That is called dayā. He is not obliged, but out of his compassion, he's giving service to the patient. That is called dayā. And sevā means superior. Just like spiritual master. Sevayā. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). Because the Vedic injunction is that "You must go to a spiritual master." Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Abhigacchet means "must." There is no alternative. If you're actually interested in transcendental knowledge, tad-vijñānam... Tad-vijñānam means transcendental knowledge. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. And the human life is meant for tad-vijñānam, to understand.

Lecture on SB 2.3.20 -- Los Angeles, June 16, 1972:

Just like, "We are dancing here, ball dance. So this is material māyā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's dance with the gopīs, that is also māyā." This is Māyāvāda symptom. The example can be given like this: Just like a patient, since his birth, he is sick, and he is lying in the hospital, cannot walk freely or cannot eat nice things. All bitter medicine, injections, always suffering. So if he is informed that "After your cure, you shall be able to eat nice rasagullā, sandeśa," he cannot believe it. He says, "Again eating? Oh, it is horrible." Because he has got bad experience of eating in sick condition, he thinks that eating in healthy condition is also the same. This is Māyāvāda. He has no experience what is healthy eating.

Lecture on SB 3.26.4 -- Bombay, December 16, 1974:

Just like a physician, a doctor, medical man. He goes to the hospital to treat the infected patients. So he is not affected by the infection. He has got such precautionary measures, or he is so equipped with, that he is not infected with the disease. Those who are weak... That is stated in the Bhāgavatam: etad īśanam īśasya. That is īśa. Īśa means the controller. Rather, if something infectious come in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it becomes purified. Tejīyasāṁ na doṣāya (SB 10.33.29), it is said. Another example can be given: just like the sun. The sunshine absorbs water even from urine or any infectious place. Any filthy place, the sun absorbs the water. But the sun is not infected, because it is very powerful. Similarly, if you try to absorb water from the urine, then you will be infected. That is called etad īśasya īśanam.

Lecture on SB 3.26.6 -- Bombay, December 18, 1974:

Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27), in the Bhagavad-gītā it is also said. Whatever we are doing, we are doing under the spell of material nature. Just like a madman. A madman is insulting his father. Why? Naturally a man is not supposed to insult his father, but being maddened, sometimes we have seen that insults his father. I... One friend... I went to the Poona lunatic asylum with the father of the patient. The complaint was that the son who is mad was kept in Poona at the lunatic asylum. He would attack his father immediately he sees. His only anger was with his father. So similarly, nature is the father, son is respectful to the father. But sometimes, in madness, he is not only disrespectful, but he want to insult actually.

Lecture on SB 3.26.29 -- Bombay, January 6, 1975:

A machine is manufactured immediately. Just like your medical men. They also manufacture some skeleton according to the requirement of the patient. So this body is manufactured by the supervision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the ingredients given by material nature, and I am put into the machine. This is my position. As I desire to enjoy... Actually, I haven't got to enjoy or reject anything. I am put into a certain type of machine, and I have to go or work. Actually, I do not also work. The work is also going on by different agents. I am simply put into it just to satisfy my desires as I wanted. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He has given us the chance of enjoying.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Los Angeles, January 20, 1969:

So you may answer that "Why shall I take so much pains for realizing the Absolute? I can take some pains here for material acquisition, I shall be happy here. I do not..." That answer is also given. Tapo divyam... Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyet (SB 5.5.1). "My dear boys, you just take to this austerity, life of austerity, for realizing the Absolute, by which your existence will be purified." We began... Because we require this human form of life is meant for being purified. So just like a diabetic patient is advised by the physician not to take so many things—not to take sugar, not to take this, not to take this—that prohibition is meant for his curing. Similarly, here also, if we accept some voluntary pains in giving up our sense gratificatory process, then our existence will be purified. Tapo divyam.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Delhi, November 28, 1975:

Tapasya means austerity, penances, voluntarily acceptance of something, some means of activity which may not be very palatable. But still, we have to do that. Just like a patient, if he is forbidden by the physician not to take a certain type of foodstuff, it may be pain... Just like typhoid fever. The doctor advises, "Don't take any solid food." But if we... I am accustomed to take paratha. So in typhoid to take paratha means death. Similarly, we have to follow the sastric injunction. If we really want to come out this material bondage... Material bondage means this body. Our real problem is this body. That we do not know. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti (SB 5.5.4). This will come, that "We have now become mad after sense gratification." Pramattaḥ. Pramattaḥ means prakṛṣṭa-rūpena mattaḥ. Mattaḥ means mad.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:
Just like for a diabetic patient, the doctor says, "You can eat so much quantity of food, not more than that," although he desires to eat more. So the desire is there, but because he wants to come to the healthy standard of life, he follows the restriction of the physician. The demand is there. A patient lying in the hospital, he wants whatever is very palatable for me, for him, he wants to eat that. But the medical practitioner has advised, "Oh, you cannot take it. You cannot take." So he's following, "All right, just to become..." But when he's healthy there is no such restriction. The doctor does not restrict the diet of a healthy person. The restriction is for the person who is suffering from certain type of disease.
Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:

The same example, just like the patient is accepting voluntarily some austerity. He has got the desire to take some kind of food. But because he wants to go the healthy condition of life, he's following the instruction of the physician, that he cannot take. Just try to understand. If you think that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is restricting so many things... Not so many things. That is very simple. Just like we don't allow illicit sex life. We don't allow intoxication. We don't allow meat-eating. We don't allow gambling. Of course, these four things don't mean very severe things for the present population. But if anyone is serious about attaining eternal happiness, just like this patient in the hospital is following the physician's instruction—he has to follow it voluntarily. This is called austerity.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Boston, April 28, 1969:
Austerity means accepting voluntarily some difficulties for higher development. The same principle. Just like a patient is accepting the physician direction under certain difficulty, but he is, because his aim is aiming at healthy condition of life, he voluntarily accepts. So tapaḥ. Tapaḥ means just like sometimes we don't want scorching heat, but under certain conditions, we tolerate scorching heat for better purpose. Or very severe cold. Sometimes we do not like, but for some higher purpose we sometimes suffer. So these voluntary sufferings under the direction of superior authority is called tapasya.
Lecture on SB 5.5.3 -- Boston, May 4, 1968:

General idea is very good, but the one who is going to bestow divine service, he must know what is divine service and how to become divine. Lord Caitanya says, āpani ācari prabhu jīvera śikhāya. One has to first of all exhibit himself that he is divine, then he can, I mean to say, serve others divinely. "Physician heal thyself." If a physician is diseased, a patient does not like to go to him. "Well, he is himself diseased." So divine love is very good, but one should understand what is divine love. One should not misunderstand what is divine love. Just like in the material world, lust is accepted as love. A boy is loving a girl, a girl is loving... But it is lust. That is not love.

Lecture on SB 5.5.5 -- London, September 3, 1971:

People are working very hard, day and night. Karmātmakam. Karmātmakam means that "I shall work and make profit and enjoy." That is called karmātmakam, fruitive activities. Everyone is working for some profit. So in this way, according to different karma, or according to different association. Everyone is engaged in different karma, or activities. Just like disease. Disease means different type of contamination. This is disease. Doctors, they have got different..., they have to treat different types of diseases by different types of medicine. Why? Because the patient has contaminated a different type of infection.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1 -- Melbourne, May 21, 1975:

Just like if you go to a physician and you are suffering from a disease, being... Say, just like nowadays there is prominent alcoholic treatment. People are too much addicted to alcohol, and there are so many departmental treatment, even for the priest also. I have seen one ad in a paper that in America there is a hospital where especially the priestly class drunkard, they are treated. (laughter) And five thousand patients are there. (laughter) So if the physician says, "No, no, you give up your drinking habit," then he will be angry. Then how he will be treated? That is the only medicine, that "You give up." It is not very difficult thing. Nobody learns drinking from the birth. Now, even one has learned drinking, now, all our students, you see practically. They are young men. They are not old men. Their senses are still strong.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Honolulu, June 8, 1975:

Just like a person suffering from jaundice, if you give him sugar candy, it will be tasted by him as bitter. This is very practical example. He will say, the patient suffering from jaundice, he will say it is bitter. But sugar candy is not bitter. And at the same time, for jaundice-diseased man the sugar candy is the only medicine. If you give him sugar candy, water, sugarcane, then it will..., he will be cured very soon. And papaya. These things are recommended for jaundice patient. Similarly, the discussion on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam may not be liked by me in the beginning, but if we hear... Just like child does not want to go to school, but if you force him to go, gradually he will go automatically. This is the process.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6-15 -- San Francisco, September 12, 1968:

So voluntarily accepting some trouble is called tapasya, or austerity. Just like a patient, if he wants to be cured, he has to follow the restriction imposed by the physician. And he follows it. Just like doctor says it, "Oh, you cannot get up. You must lie down twenty-four hours." He doesn't like it, but he has to do it. This is called tapasya, austerity. Penance. Austerity. Just like we say that on the ekādaśī day you should fast. So fasting is not very, I mean to say, pleasant, but one has to do. This is called tapasya. Brahmacaryeṇa. Brahmacaryeṇa means celibacy.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- San Francisco, March 1, 1967:

One has to do his duty. So Kṛṣṇa advised Arjuna that tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. "My dear Arjuna, even there is some pain due to the miserable condition of this material world, so we have to tolerate that." Just like a patient, he is suffering in so many symptoms of the disease. Doctor is giving him medicine. He is also being treated nicely, but his suffering is there. And then? What the patient will think? He has to tolerate, tolerate, because he knows that "I am going to be cured very soon. The treatment is there. So let me suffer little.'

Lecture on SB 6.1.8 -- New York, July 22, 1971:

So Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that the volume of atonement should be according to the gravity of the offense. Just like when a man is diseased, he goes to a physician. He prescribes different type of medicine to the different type of patient according to the gravity of the disease. But there are many rascals, they say that any medicine we take, that's all right. No. That's not all right. You have to take the medicine through the physician, not independently. In your country there is law that you cannot purchase from the drug shop any medicine without being prescribed by the medical man. Is it not? So the prescription should be taken from the experienced physician to cure the disease. So in this age, Kali-yuga... It is called Kali-yuga. Kali-yuga means the age of quarrel and misunderstanding. This is the age.

Lecture on SB 6.1.9 -- Honolulu, May 10, 1976:
Karoti bhūyo vivaśaḥ: "Again he commits the same thing." He knows. Karoti vivaśaḥ prāyaścittam atho katham: "Then what is the value of that? If he cannot stop his sinful activity, then what is the meaning of this prāyaścittam?" So a professional thief, he has gone to the prison several times. He has been punished. Still, he commits the same thing, again goes to the jail. A patient, he has suffered from the disease on account of certain bad habits and he has gone to the doctor. He has paid much money and suffered injection, operation, and still he is doing that. Therefore Parīkṣit Mahārāja said, "What is the value of this prāyaścitta?" Prāyaścitta, kind of punishment. So this is very important question. The world, whole world nowadays... I say sometimes that in the airport it is proved that... (break) ...punishment the practice of committing criminal activities is going on. This is very intelligent question, and Parīkṣit Mahārāja will reply... Śukadeva Gosvāmī will reply.
Lecture on SB 6.1.11 -- New York, July 25, 1971:

Tapasya means you have to accept some austerity. The same example can be given that the doctor says... Suppose a diabetic patient. So doctor prohibits him that "You cannot eat. You have to starve for some days." So I do not like to starve, nobody likes to starve. But because doctor says you have to starve, if you want to cure a disease, then I have to voluntarily accept, accept starving. This is called tapasya: voluntarily accept some miserable condition of life. That is good. And human life is meant for that purpose.

Lecture on SB 6.1.12 -- Honolulu, May 13, 1976:

Kṛṣṇa says. This is real problem. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). So if we want to be cured from this disease, then we have to follow rules and regulation, just like a patient, if he wants to be cured from the disease, he has to follow the rules and regulation prescribed by the physician. Therefore law, religion, Vedic scripture, they are all meant for human being, not for the cats and dogs. Even ordinary law, they are meant for human being. Just like on the street it is "Keep to the right." So this is for the human being. If the cats and dogs goes from right to the left or wrong, they are not prosecuted. The law is meant for the human being. If the human being does not follow rules and regulative principle, law, then he's animal. So civilized means to raise oneself from the animal status of life to the human status life. That means rules and regulations.

Lecture on SB 6.1.15 -- Los Angeles, June 27, 1975:

For the time being... Just like go to the doctor. You are suffering from a severe disease, and he gives some medicine, takes his fees. That is my atonement, prāyaścitta. But it is no guarantee that I will not fall disease again. So this atonement like that. Many patients, they are suffering from some chronic disease, some venereal disease. They go to the doctor and they give injection, very costly medicine and so much suffering, but as soon as he cure, again he does the same thing so that he is attacked with venereal disease. So this is not very effective way of becoming... Then it was suggested that people, because they are in darkness, āsuras, they do not know how to become immune from all diseases, therefore prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam. He suggested, Śukadeva. Vimarśanam: he must be sober, that "I am suffering from some disease, and I am heavily paying the penalty to the doctor, and still, I am doing the same thing?" So therefore Śukadeva Gosvāmī suggested, prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam. Vimarśanam means to become sober and think that "Why I cannot check my desire to do sinful activities?" Then he suggested, to come to that understanding he requires good brain.

Lecture on SB 6.1.39-40 -- Surat, December 21, 1970:
Prabhupāda: I am very glad the young doctor is attending this meeting. He can cure many patients who are suffering from this material disease. What do you think, Doctor?

Doctor: Very kind of you. Prabhupāda: Yes. You are now curing physical disease, but when you take up curing material, I mean to say, spiritual disease... Yes. Try to bring all people to the normal spiritual life. All their suffering is due to abnormal spiritual life, all suffering. Because, I was discussing with my disciples just now, nature's law is so subtle and so acute, that a little violation will be punished immediately. You know. You are medical man. Little violation will immediately subjected to the punishment. This is God's law.

Lecture on SB 6.2.11 -- Allahabad, January 16, 1971:

Just like a rascal patient. He goes to the physician. The physician gives some medicine and gives some direction that "You take this medicine. Do not do this. You do not eat so many things. You eat like this." But he takes the medicine. For the time being he follows and again he commits the same mistake and again he goes to the physician and "Doctor, please give me medicine." This is going on.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- San Francisco, March 6, 1967:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I know. Not from that book, but from Bhāgavata I have read Lord Buddha's life. So we know Lord Buddha. It is not that we do not know him, but we know from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In Bhāgavatam there is description of Lord Buddha. The reason is that when a doctor says a patient that "You must starve," what is the reason? Sometimes doctors says to his patient that "You cannot eat. You must starve." Why?

Woman (1): To help heal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore when, by nature's way, one is starving, you should know that he is getting better. You should not be bothered about that thing. Suppose doctor advises some patient that he should starve. And if you become very compassionate and give him some bread, you will be doing harm to him. Your business is how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. You should not be disturbed by nature's process. But if you want to help anyone, just try to help him in relationship with Kṛṣṇa. That will be real benefit.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Montreal, June 10, 1968:

We are publishing one book, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. It has been taken by one great publisher, Macmillan Company, and we'll have it by the month of October. Don't interpret. We explain things as they are. That should be the attitude. Why? Why interpretation? By interpretation, there are 664 editions of Bhagavad-gītā. Simply by... One medical man he has interpreted Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is a physician and Arjuna is a patient. And he has tried to explain through Bhagavad-gītā all anatomic physiology, not this. Gandhi, he wanted to prove nonviolence from Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā is being spoken in the battlefield, full of violence, and he is trying to prove that the Bhagavad-gītā is nonviolent. These are all artificial attempts. These explanations will never give you the real light from Bhagavad-gītā. You try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 4, 1968:

Just like in a diseased condition of your eyes you cannot see. In diseased condition of your hands you cannot touch. In diseased condition of your legs you cannot walk. All your senses, in diseased condition, cannot work. Similarly, in material diseased condition you cannot understand what is God. You have to cure yourself from this diseased condition. Then you will see, you will touch, you will perceive, you will know, you will feel—everything. Those who are unable to cure the disease, they want to kill. Just like a patient is suffering in very bad type of disease. The physician cannot kill, then..., cannot cure him, then he thinks, "Let me die. Let me commit suicide." So this voidism or impersonalism is a symptom of frustration, not being able to cure the disease. But actually, the living entity is eternal. Just like a rascal or foolish man thinks that "I am suffering so much. Let me commit suicide, and it will be a great relief." It is foolishness. He will be put into further torture after this life.

Lecture on SB 7.9.19 -- Hamburg, September 7, 1969, (with German Translator):

Prahlāda Mahārāja says... He's praying to Lord Nṛsiṁha. He says, bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau nṛsiṁha: "My dear Lord, it is not that the parents can give all protection to the children." Nārtasya cāgadam: "Neither the physician and the medicine can give protection to a patient." Nārtasya cāgadam udanvati majjato nauḥ: "Neither a nice ship or boat can give protection to the drowning man." Taptasya yat pratividhir: "There are many devices for giving protection to different kinds of dangerous position. But they will be useless if, my dear Lord, You neglect him." For example, there are many children who have got their parents, but they are suffering. There are many patients who are being treated by first-class medical assistants and physician, but he is dying.

Lecture on SB 7.9.19 -- Mayapur, February 26, 1976:

The whole world is planning to give relief to the suffering humanity, but the foolish people, they do not know that you may do your best, but if it is not sanctioned by the Supreme Lord, all these measures will not be of any use. "Why? We have got science, medicine, and relief arrangement. They are all useless?" Yes. They are useful so long, as long as Kṛṣṇa says "Yes." If Kṛṣṇa says "No," then in spite of all this relief, nothing will be done. This is the answer. You can open many hospitals, but if Kṛṣṇa says that "This patient must die," you cannot give any protection. That is not possible. In spite of your hospital, good medicine, good physician, the patient must die.

Lecture on SB 7.9.22 -- Mayapur, February 29, 1976:

So nānā yoni bhraman kare, kadarja bhakṣaṇ kare. Very peculiar condition we are in this material world. But do not think that when Kṛṣṇa comes, He also is subjected to this suffering. No. That is īśitā. Just like there are many patients in the hospital, infectious disease, but that does not mean the doctors who are treating them, they are also infectious. No. They are not infectious. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa comes... Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7). So He is not subjected to this māyic influence. He's not subjected. Therefore it is said, tvam nitya-vijitātma-guṇaḥ. This material world is created by Him, composition of three material qualities—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa—but He does not belong to any one of them. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they think that when God comes, incarnation, He also accepts the sattva-guṇa and therefore the form is there.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 27, 1972:

Just like a man, a diseased fellow, diseased fellow, lying on the bed, he's also eating. He's also sleeping. He's also passing stool, urine. But that is not real activity. When he becomes cured of the disease, come to his healthy life, and then again he walks, he eats, he sleeps, that is another, mean, a position of eating, sleeping. But one who cannot understand the liberated activities, they are shuddered. As soon as they think of activities, they think, "Oh, the activities, they, the..." The same patient who is suffering, for, suppose from birth, he cannot understand that there is activities after being cured of this disease. He cannot understand.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1972:

I know, there was one case, a man was condemned to death and his pleader presented that "This man was in, in insanity condition. Therefore he committed this act. He may be excused." So the, a civil surgeon was invited to examine him, whether he's, actually he was in sanity condition. The civil surgeon gave evidence that so far he had treated so many patients, he saw everyone is more or less crazy." Under the circumstances, if this man is crazy, that depends on your judgement, what to do. But in my opinion, every man is a crazy man." So this is a fact. This is a fact. Anyone who is under the control of the material energy, he's a crazy man. He's thinking "I am this, I am that, I am this," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am a Muslim," "I am so on, so on, so many things." But he's nothing of all this. These are all creation of māyā.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 26, 1972:

Just like in, when one is suffering from liver disease, or jaundice, he cannot taste the sugar candy. The sugar candy is sweet, but a jaundiced patient, if he's given sugar candy, he'll taste it is bitter. Similarly, our senses being covered with material consciousness, we cannot at the present moment taste what is Kṛṣṇa's form, what is Kṛṣṇa's name, what is Kṛṣṇa's quality, what is Kṛṣṇa's pastime, what is Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia, so many things. It is not possible. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). Our senses are materially contaminated. Therefore we cannot directly perceive by using our present senses what is Kṛṣṇa. So it has to be purified.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

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

This is our hospital. We are therefore not interested with this kind of hospital. Our this hospital is treating the materially affected patient to get out of his four kinds of miseries: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). One type of disease is to take birth; another, death; another, old age; another, disease. So we want to stop. This is not our normal condition of life. Because we living entities, soul, we are spiritual. Our identity is that we are eternal. It is not that because my body is annihilated, therefore I am finished. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is the instruction. The living entity, the soul, is not destroyed after the body being destroyed. The body is destroyed. It is being destroyed every moment.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 3.87-88 -- New York, December 27, 1966:

There is a very nice verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I cannot recite it, but the purport I can say that... Prahlāda Mahārāja was praying that "The parents care to the children is not sufficient to protect him. And medical help to a patient is not sufficient to cure a disease or cure a man. And the shipping arrangement on the sea is not sufficient to protect a man from going down." In this way he has given so many list that "The counteraction which we are trying to put in our impediments of progress, that is not sufficient if there is no will of God. If there is no will of God, then it is not sufficient protection." Perhaps you know, every one of you.

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

There is a very nice story in this connection. There was a physician and his servant. So one day the physician was called by some person to treat his horse. So when the physician came, he asked, "What is the matter?" He says that "The horse has suddenly swollen his throat. So please treat." Then the physician took a hammer and strongly struck the swollen portion, and it was at once cured. The servant saw, "So this is the process of curing swollen parts of the body." So on that very day, he resigned his service and he thought that "Now I have learned how to cure swollen parts of the body," and whenever he was called to treat such disease, he used to hammer over that swollen part and the patient died. So when he came to his former master, "Sir, you cured that horse, the swollen part, by beating hammer, but when I treat, it dies, the patient dies. What is the matter?" So he explained, "You nonsense, the swollen is not cured by beating. That was a special case. The horse took a squash while he was in the garden, and he could not swallow it up. Therefore it was swollen. So I struck therefore, and it was broken, and the same thing, his swollenness, cured. But you foolish, you are simply striking on swollen parts?"

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.100-108 -- Bombay, November 9, 1975:

Just like if a person is serious to consult a physician, not that "Immediately give me some tablet. I become happy." No. The root disease must be treated. That is the relationship between the patient and... So Sanātana Gosvāmī is intelligent person, most intelligent person. He was minister. Without being very intelligent, one cannot be minister. So he said that "Why I am suffering? What is my position? What I am?" Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu says directly,

jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa,

kṛṣṇera taṭasthā-śakti bhedābheda prakāśa
(CC Madhya 20.108)
sūryāṁśa-kiraṇa yaiche agni-jvālā-caya
svābhāvika kṛṣṇera tina-prakāra śakti haya

Now Caitanya Mahāprabhu is beginning the identification of the living entity from the end of Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 21.13-49 -- New York, January 4, 1967:

Svādu svādu pade pade. As you go on hearing and as you become purified... There is a very practical example: the sugar candy. Sugar candy is, by nature it is very sweet. But if you give it to a patient who is jaundiced, if you give, he will taste it, that he'll say that it is bitter. It is bitter. You will have practical exam... If you ask him what is the taste, he'll say bitter. Everyone knows that sugar candy is very sweet, but if you give to a patient suffering from jaundice, he'll say it is bitter. Similarly, the kṛṣṇa-kathā, the Lord's name, fame, quality, entourage, all these things are very sweet. To whom? Those who are liberated from this jaundice of materialism. For them it is very sweet. So as you feel sweetness of this Kṛṣṇa-kathā, you should know that you are becoming liberated from this material entanglement.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.14-20 -- New York, January 10, 1967:

Bhramite bhramite yadi sādhu-vaidya pāya. In this way we are being kicked up by māyā. But if by chance we get the shelter of a good physician... Good physician means a bona fide spiritual master. Then, by his advice, just like a patient is cured by following the instruction of a bona fide physician, similarly, this disease of being kicked up from one body to another, this could be stopped by the instruction of a bona fide sādhu, saintly person, or spiritual master or śāstra, scripture. So the scriptures and the saintly persons and the spiritual master, they are on the same level. Because a sādhu who is a saintly person, he would not place anything which is not sanctioned by the scripture.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.29 -- San Francisco, January 21, 1967:

If God wants to kill him, nobody can protect him. And if God wants to kill him, nobody can protect him. Both ways. One Dr. Ghosh, he told me... Because I was in medical business. He went to see one patient. He explained that "I went to see one patient. He's suffering from pneumonia, and he's so poor man, and he's lying in so unfavorable condition. So our medical science says he would have at once died. But don't see he's dying. He's not dying." I have tested this. One doctor at Gayā, he's a Muhammadan doctor. So I saw that many patients are, I mean to..., surrounding him. So when I saw him I congratulated, "Doctor, you have got very good patients. Your practice is very nice." So his name was Suvahi (?). He's Muhammadan. So, "Sir, it is not my credit. If you want my practical experience, I'll say you that with confidence I prescribe somebody some medicine, it fails. And without any confidence, just to take a chance, I prescribe some medicine, 'Oh, let me see if it...' Oh, it works nicely. So actually, I have no credit."

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.29 -- San Francisco, January 21, 1967:

So that sir, he was honest man to admit, "It is God's grace that so many patients are being cured in my hand, but I say I have no credit." This is really. So we should not take any credit. Everything is under the laws of the Supreme Lord, through the agency of this material external energy. Just like a government is working under different departments, similarly, God is working under His different energies. That's all. He's sitting with you, He's seeing everything, He knows everything. Vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). He knows your past, present, and He knows your mind. As you wanted to do something, He will remind you, "My dear boy, you wanted to do this. Do it. And you wanted to place your hand on the fire. You've forgotten. Just place your hand on the fire and see. Test it." So this is going on. This is nature's law.

Festival Lectures

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

There is one paper I have seen, "Diabetes Literature." There are many patients of diabetes, so they have formed a society, "Diabetic Society." I have seen it. (laughter) And there are many diabetic patients, they are being hoaxed, that "You pay two dollars per year, and you get all information how to protect yourself from diabetes disease." So in America two dollars is nothing, but it is collecting millions and millions of dollars, Diabetic Society. Diabetic magazine. So that sort of hearing and chanting is not needed. We are not interested in all these magazines, because we are followers of Prahlāda Mahārāja. He's our ācārya. He's guru. Prahlāda Mahārāja's guru is Nārada, and Nārada is also our guru. Nārada is guru of Vyāsadeva. So we are a branch, but the original guru is Nārada, Brahma-sampradāya. So Prahlāda Mahārāja is also a disciple of Nārada Muni.

Varaha-dvadasi, Lord Varaha's Appearance Day Lecture -- Bhuvanesvara, January 31, 1977:

Here sex life means entailed with so many sufferings. But there is no sex life in the spiritual world but the pleasure is there. That is the difference between material and spiritual. Therefore there is restriction. Just like sex life is there, but a tuberculosis patient, if he enjoys sex life, he'll die very soon. Without sex life he could live for some years. Everyone will die. So for tuberculosis patient sex life is strictly prohibited. So when there is prohibition... Just like in the material world there is prohibition, "No sex life," because we are patient here, tuberculosis patient. If we enjoy sex life then we'll die. Die means... We are already dead because we have to accept this dead body. This body is dead. But so long I am within this body, simply it is moving. Just like motor car. Motor car is a lump of matter, but when the driver is acting, it is moving. Similarly this body... By māyā we are thinking that this body is living. It is not living. It is dead. From the very beginning it is dead.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation Lecture -- Boston, December 26, 1969:

Just like if you keep yourself vaccinated and if the period... What is called? Active. Then there is no fear of being infected. That is practical. If you get yourself vaccinated of certain type of infection and you keep yourself active... Just like doctors, they go, treat patients suffering from infectious disease, but they keep themselves always unaffected. They know the remedial measures, antiseptic, prophylactic processes. So this prophylactic antiseptic process is Kṛṣṇa-kīrtanam. Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-kīrtanam. That is Lord Caitanya's blessing. Paraṁ vijayate.

Initiation Lecture -- Los Angeles, July 13, 1971:

There is a story—that's very interesting—that one doctor, medical man, came to a gentleman's house, and there were two patients, the lady, the wife of that gentleman, and the maidservant. So the doctor examined and informed to the proprietor that "Your wife's fever is only 100. That's not very... But your maidservant's fever is 104. So she has to be taken little care of." So when the wife heard... (break) So we want like that. This material civilization is like that, to increase the temperature to 108 and then atom bomb fall. You see? That is going on. We should not. Yāvad artha-prayojanam. We should not try for increasing simply the material comforts. No. That is not our business. That is 108 degree, then death. But yāvad artha-vinirṇayam. As far as we want, we must take, that much, not more than that. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1), the same verse. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā. Whatever prasādam you are offered by the grace of the Lord, you accept. Don't take anything more. That is our motto.

Wedding Ceremonies

Paramananda & Satyabhama's Wedding -- Montreal, July 22, 1968:

If you take too much milk, then there will be disorders in the bowels. You'll have to pass so many stools. But when you approach to a physician... Of course, I am speaking of the Āyur-Vedic Indian physician. If one has got diarrhea or loose bowels, then the physician prescribes curd or yogurt with some medicine. Now, this yogurt or curd is also mixed with medicine. So the man who has got the disease by drinking milk is also cured by the same milk preparation under the direction of the physician. Nobody can argue. The patient cannot argue to the physician that "I have become diseased by drinking milk, and you are prescribing another preparation of the milk?" Yes, because it is treated. Similarly, this lust propensity between man and woman, if it is properly treated, then it can turn into love of Godhead.

General Lectures

Class in Los Angeles -- Los Angeles, November 15, 1968:

Just like a patient too much disturbed, he wants some medicine from the physician: "Please stop my disturbance. Kill me. Kill me." Sometimes they say like that: "Give me some poison, kill me. I cannot tolerate." A physician says, "Yes, there is no need of killing. I shall give you good, healthy life." He's so much impatient, "No. I cannot tolerate. Please kill me." So this Buddha philosophy, Māyāvāda philosophy is like that. Kill him "Kill me, please. Make me zero, void." So much frustration. So much disturbance that they want to make it zero. But our philosophy is life, real life.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 4, 1968:

When it is purified in connection with activities of Kṛṣṇa, or God, then he can render service to the Lord, Hṛṣīkeṇa. That is called bhakti. This is bhakti. Bhakti is nothing artificial. It is the activity of healthy stage. Just like a man, when he is diseased, his activities are differing from the man who is cured and healthy. To become healthy does not mean to kill the patient. To kill..., not to kill him, but to cure him from the disease, that is real treatment. The whole treatment of the human society should be like that: to cure him from the disease of forgetfulness his relationship with God. Then when he is cured, when he is in healthy state, then there will be no more trouble in the world. Peace and prosperity can be established when people are no more in the designated stage, when he is free.

Lecture -- London, September 16, 1969:

The animals have restricted periods of sense gratification, but the human life has no restricted... So Ṛṣabhadeva is instructing, "This should not be done." If you want to purify your existence, then you have to live under restriction. Just like a patient, a diseased fellow. If he wants to be cured, he must live restricted life under the direction of the physician; otherwise, he is sure to die, or he is sure to suffer, prolonging the disease. He must. So Ṛṣabhadeva advised His sons, "My dear boys, if you want to purify your existence, then you have to live a restricted life." Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam (SB 5.5.1).

Lecture -- Los Angeles, July 20, 1971:

Anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is to be understood—more or less crazy. There was a case in India, a murder case, and the murderer pleaded that he became mad. He was mad; therefore he, he did not know what did he do. So in order to test him, whether actually he, at that time, was lunatic or turned mad, the expert civil servant, psychiatrist, was brought to examine him. So the doctor gave his opinion that "So far I have studied cases, all patients I've come in contact, they are more or less all crazy. So in that sense, if your lordship wants to excuse him, that is another thing." So that is the fact. In a nice Bengali poetry, one great Vaiṣṇava poet has written,

piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna haya
māyā-grasta jīvera se dāsa upajaya

Piśācī, ghost, when a man becomes ghostly haunted, he speaks so many nonsense. Similarly, anyone who is under the influence of this material nature, he is ghostly haunted, and whatever he speaks, he speaks nonsense. Never mind he is a great philosopher, great scientist, but because he is ghostly haunted by māyā, so whatever he's theorizing, whatever he's speaking, that is, more or less, nonsense.

Hare Krishna Festival Address -- San Diego, July 1, 1972, At Balboa Park Bowl:

So I have studied the American life, very nice. They have good heart. So only thing is wanted—Kṛṣṇa consciousness. For want of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, despite your all opulences, you are becoming confused and frustrated. I hear that out of three, one man is a patient of a psychiatrist. Why? Why you are unhappy? Why you should be unhappy? You have got everything—enough food, enough land, enough money, enough intelligence. Why you should be unhappy? The cause you should try to find out. The cause is that without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, without God consciousness, nobody can be happy. That is the cause. So my request is that this movement is started from America, from New York. In 1966 I registered this movement, International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, and since then, we are spreading.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:
Prabhupāda: Just like a small child, the nature's way is the parent has got affection to take care. At that time, if the parents do not take care, the child cannot live. But the parents' taking care is not all. If the child is condemned by the Supreme Lord, in spite of the parents taking care, it will not be happy, or it will not exist. Parents' care is natural. Generally it so happens by the parents' care the child is happy, but in spite of parents' care the child is unhappy, then you have to go to the Lord. Is it not? Just like when a man is diseased, the counteraction is physician, medicine. Generally it is expected by attendance of good physician or using good medicine, diet, the patient becomes cured. But it is also seen that in spite of all careful attention, scientific medicine, he dies. Then what is that?

Śyāmasundara: Darwin would say he wasn't well enough equipped to survive. Prabhupāda: That is the deficiency, that you will not be well equipped if Kṛṣṇa doesn't wish you to survive. That means you will not be able to counteract with all the counteractions. You cannot.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Prabhupāda: Suppose the child is locked up, and his brain becomes deranged. Then how can (indistinct)?

Devotee: So let's say he's grown, he still has that fear, and Freud or one of his doctors will start to think back, "What do you remember from your childhood?" And then the doctor will see, "Oh, that is (indistinct)."

Prabhupāda: That's all right. He can find out what is the cause, but what is the cure?

Śyāmasundara: By remembering and explaining to him, "You were only a child. It wasn't really a bad situation," like this, and then the patient loses the tension which has caused the disorder, and he becomes healthy again.

Prabhupāda: That is psychoanalysis?

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Psychoanalysis, psychotherapy.

Purports to Songs

Purport to Prayers by King Kulasekhara -- Los Angeles, December 25, 1968:

The body's supposed to be conducted by three elements, kapha pitta vāyu, cold, and bile, and air. So when these three elements work simultaneously, there is no disease in the body, but, as soon as there is overlapping disruption of these three elements, the body becomes diseased. And when it is not possible to bring them again in their regulative principle, a man dies. That is the verdict of Āyurveda śāstra. So death takes place when these three elements become overlapped with one another. And the symptom is that there is a sound on the throat which is called: garhh, garhh. That means the patient cannot speak. The throat is choked up and he becomes suffocated and dies. So this is the last stage, symptom of his body.

Purport to Jiv Jago -- Columbus, May 20, 1969:

Then He says, "You have forgotten. But I have brought one medicine so that..." Just like when a man remains unconscious under some intoxication or snake bite, there are some herbs. If it is put before the nostril and if the patient smells, immediately he gets consciousness. Similarly, Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that "I have brought also one medicine." Enechi auśādhi māyā nasibaro lagi': "This medicine can dissipate your this forgetfulness under the spell of māyā." Enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāro. What is that? Hari-nāma mahā-mantra lao tumi: "This is this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. You please take it." The idea is that if one simply chants Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, his unconscious stage, or sleeping stage under the spell of illusory māyā, will gradually vanish. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12).

Page Title:Patient (Lectures)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Serene
Created:19 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=101, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:101