Please the Lord (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"lord is pleased" |"please the lord" |"pleased the Lord" |"pleases the Lord" |"pleasing the Lord"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.55-58 -- New York, April 15, 1966:

We have experienced. So I think some of you or many of you have not experienced what is the war number one in 1914 it was started, and I think none of you were born in 19... (laughs) So I have seen I was a child at that time. The war was declared in 1914. So beyond these two world wars, there were, there were another two great world wars. That is mentioned in the history of the epics, epics of India, Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata: the war between Rāma and Rāvaṇa and the war between the two cousin-brothers, Kurus and Pāṇḍava. But you'll be surprised. In these two wars God is the hero, practically. In the war between Rāma and Rāvaṇa... Rāma is also the Personality of Godhead, incarnation of... And Kṛṣṇa was also present... In two wars the God is present. You see? God is present. You see? And Hanumān. Hanumān, for the sake of pleasing the Lord, he set fire to the empire of Rāvaṇa, to the empire of the Rāvaṇa. And here also you find that Arjuna, he fought for the sake of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. So fighting, fighting is not bad, provided it is fought for the, for pleasing the Supreme Lord. And fighting is also necessary sometimes. So we cannot make the world nonviolent. Everything will remain. In the laws of nature, everything will remain. The sex life will remain. The fighting will remain. And whatever we are seeing in our experience, everything will remain, will continue to remain. You cannot abolish a drop of it. But the whole process is that we have to purify, purify it.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 3.28.21 -- Nairobi, November 1, 1975:

Jñāna: Śrīla Prabhupāda, will you please explain the phrase, I mean, "serving the lotus feet of the spiritual master," "serving the lotus feet."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Give little water and tulasī and flower. That's all. It is very difficult job? Then everyone can do it. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati. No. Simply... Just as Advaita Prabhu, He simply offered Gaṅgā-jala and tulasī to please the Lord to come. Caitanya Mahāprabhu came. This is... There is no difficulty at all. Because we simply use..., misuse our intelligence, misuse our opportunity, there is trouble. Otherwise there is no difficulty. Where is the difficulty? Tulasī-patra you can have, and little water, offer to the, on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and pray, "Give me intelligence so that I can serve You nicely." And he gives intelligence. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām (BG 10.10). If you are continually giving tulasī flower and water and praying, "Kṛṣṇa, give me intelligence how can I serve You nice," then Kṛṣṇa says, "Yes." Teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānām: "One who is engaged in this way, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānām... What is that?

Brahmānanda: Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām.

Lecture on SB 6.1.32 -- Surat, December 16, 1970:

Mā Yaśodā wanted Kṛṣṇa to be his (her) child, and therefore He comes. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). Other things are secondary. He comes for the devotees. That is the transcendental. He is so kind that mother Yaśodā wanted Him as child. He played so nicely, as if completely dependent on mother Yaśodā. So mother Yaśodā had full enjoyment of his (her) child, Kṛṣṇa. This is transcendental. As the devotee wants to please the Lord, similarly, the Lord also wants to please the devotee. That is transcendental. Now you know. (break) And "I am the cause of all the devatās." Brahmā is the first creature, and he is father. Now, how He can take birth like that? He is the father of Brahma, Purāṇa, the oldest. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta, purāṇaṁ nava-yauvanam (Bs. 5.33). The oldest, but He is always young. This is very nice. He has said that He appears for the devotees' pleasure. That's nice. So you should always think. You must be thoughtful. Janma karma me divyam yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). So you have become liberated. You are liberated now.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Montreal, July 2, 1968:

Prahlāda Mahārāja, although he is such a great devotee, he says that kiṁ toṣṭum arhati sa me harir ugra-jāteḥ: "Oh, I am born of a father, demon." So naturally everyone presents himself in relationship with father. If your father is American, then you say, "I am American." If my father is Indian, I will say, "I am Indian." Similarly, he is born of a demon father, so he is presenting himself that "I am a demon. I am born of a demon father." Ugra-jāteḥ. Ugra-jāteḥ means... Ugra means violent. Demons are always violent. So "I am born of a violent father. How can I please the Lord? Brahma, Lord Śiva, and so many other demigods, they have failed to please, to pacify the Lord in His angry mood, and I am born a demon, born of a demon father. So my position is so lower." Kiṁ toṣṭum arhati: "How can I please the Lord?" Ugra-jāteḥ. Brahmādayaḥ sura-gaṇāḥ: "Where demigods like Brahma, munayo, great sages, and siddha..." Siddhas, they are the particular citizens of Siddhaloka. They are called Siddhas. There is a planet which is called Siddhaloka. There is description in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam of the Siddhaloka in the Second Canto. Siddhaloka is a planet where the inhabitants can fly in the air without any machine, without any airplane.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Montreal, July 2, 1968:

So all the denizens of that particular planet, they are siddhas. Siddhas means they have got all the perfection of yoga practice. So they were also present, offering prayers; Brahmā was present, Lord Śiva was present, and great sages were present. All of them tried to pacify. And how they wanted to pacify? Sattvaikatāna-gatayo vacasāṁ pravāhaiḥ: They were very great learned men. Immediately they began to compose in Sanskrit verses so many nice prayers, and they were all full of goodness, modes of goodness. Sattvaikatāna-vacasāṁ pravāhaiḥ. Pravāhaiḥ means they prayed in such a fluent way, just like the river flows down without any gheck. That is the learned man. Just like a learned man will speak fluently for hours together, similarly, they were so learned scholars that they composed prayers in Sanskrit so nicely and began to speak just like flow of water. So he says, sattvaikatāna-gatayo vacasāṁ nārādhituṁ: "Still, they could not satisfy the Lord." Nārādhituṁ. Puru-guṇair adhunāpi pipruḥ: "Still, the Lord is not pacified. Still." Kiṁ toṣṭum arhati: "Then what can I do?" Where... There is an English word, "Where angels fail, the fools rush in." So "I am so lower. I am born of an atheistic father, demon. How can I please the Lord?" So this is the position. So now how he will please the Lord we shall discuss in the next meeting. Thank you.

Lecture on SB 7.9.51 -- Vrndavana, April 6, 1976:

So nirguṇa, we have to remain nirguṇa. Then it is bhakti, and by that bhakti you can please Kṛṣṇa. That is called prema-vilāsa. The devotee is eager to please the Lord as He wants. (indistinct) When you are eager to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa, that is called vilāsa. And when you want to satisfy your senses, that is called kāma. That is difference between kāma and vilāsa. So here within the material world, all activities are going on as (indistinct). You can expand. First of all you are satisfied by satisfying your senses. Just like a small child. You give you him something eatable, and immediately he puts it in the mouth. This is satisfaction. He wants to satisfy his senses. When he grows up, he may distribute that eatable to his other brother and sister. So this does not mean you have changed the quality of sense gratification. (indistinct) In the material world we see sometimes you are working for your family. But if you work for the nation, you become a very great man. But what is the basis? The basis is sense gratification. Very big, big politicians, they work for the nation, sacrifice their life, but that exalted politician, it is not nirguṇa, it is saguṇa. You can expand, expand, expand—unless you come to the point of satisfying the senses of Kṛṣṇa, you are saguṇa. And when you live to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa, that is nirguṇa, that is (indistinct). In that state, you can satisfy Kṛṣṇa and your life is successful.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968:

So the bhakti-yoga means acting by pleasing the Lord. That's all. That is the verdict of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You are not forbidden to do this thing or that thing, but you have to see only whether by your action the Supreme Lord is satisfied. That's all. That much knowledge you must have. Then your life will be successful. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavata says,

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā

varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya

saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

(SB 1.2.13)

Ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā. This verse was spoken by Sūta Gosvāmī, who was speaking before a very learned gathering at Naimiṣāraṇya. It is the system of Vedic system, that... Not Vedic system; everywhere, all over the world. Any civilized society there is nice speaker, learned speaker, and many persons hear him. That is the system from very old time. So Sūta Gosvāmī, he was representative of Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and he was addressing very learned brāhmaṇas. So he's addressing, dvija-śreṣṭhā. Śreṣṭhā means the, I mean to say, picked-up, the topmost of the brāhmaṇas. They were topmost of the brāhmaṇas; still, they require knowledge. Knowledge is so nice that even if you think that you are very learned, you are well versed in everything, still, you require knowledge. That should be our motto. Don't think that "I have finished."