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Resembling (Lectures, Conv. and Letters)

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 3.6-10 -- Los Angeles, December 23, 1968:

Just like there are so many professional chanters. Not here. In India. Their business is... Because people like chanting, so they have made this chanting business. Or professional Bhāgavata reader. People like reading of Bhāgavata. There are many expert Bhāgavata readers. They can show many caricature just to attract people, and such people, generally, they describe the rāsa-līlā of Kṛṣṇa. Because rāsa-līlā is resembling just like dealings between young boys and girls, so they take that part, particularly, rāsa-līlā. Easy way.

And just like here in America, I've seen so many persons. They are writing books on Kṛṣṇa about Kṛṣṇa's pastimes with the gopīs, as if Kṛṣṇa has no other pastime. Because these things are very easily saleable. So they are writing books on that. I've seen one book written by Mr. Bhaṭṭācārya about these, Kṛṣṇa's dealings with the gopīs. No. This is not good. You should not take Kṛṣṇa's activities, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, professionally, for livelihood. That is dangerous. Your life should be sacrifice for Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted. Otherwise you shall be pretender.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 2.3.17 -- Los Angeles, June 12, 1972:

Simply by nature's manipulation. Just like we are coming... Karandhara showed me. The plastic, some trees. So they have made the plastic tree exactly resembling the tree. But it is not tree. Similarly, this body is as good as the plastic body. It has no value. So tyaktvā deham. So when Kṛṣṇa says that after giving up this body... But this body is plastic body. Just like you have got cotton shirt or plastic shirt or so many. You can give it up. That does not mean you die. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). As one gives up old garment for a new one, similarly, death means to give up this plastic body and take another plastic body.

Lecture on SB 2.3.23 -- Los Angeles, June 20, 1972:

They cannot conceive that the Supreme Absolute Truth can become a person. They cannot conceive. Such a huge cosmic manifestation is created by a person like us, resembling like us, two hands, two legs—their poor brain cannot accommodate. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā. Mūḍhāḥ. "Fools and rascals," avajānanti, "deride at Me, thinking Me as ordinary man." Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ, "He does not know what is the transcendental potency behind Me."

Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. So the Māyāvādīs and poor fund of knowledge, they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa unless he becomes a devotee. And how he can become a devotee? That is stated here: bhāgavatāṅghri-reṇum. One has to surrender himself to His representative, bhāgavata. Bhāgavata means... God is called Bhagavān.

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

Harikeśa: "The devotee should first concentrate his mind on the Lord's lotus feet, which are adorned with the marks of a thunderbolt, a goad, a banner and a lotus. The splendor of their beautiful ruby nails resembles the orb of the moon and dispels the thick gloom of one's heart." (SB 3.28.21)

Prabhupāda: Sañcintayed bhagavataś caraṇāravindam. This is the beginning of meditation, sañcintayet. It is not nirviśeṣa, nirakara meditation. What is that meditation? Here it is, direction, sañcintayet. Sañcintayet means meditation. What about, meditation? Sañcintayed bhagavataś caraṇāravindam. First of all meditate on the lotus feet, caraṇāravindam, lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. And if you minutely see, then you will find the symptoms are there. Our feet and Kṛṣṇa's feet, there is difference. Why difference? Because on the sole these marks are there. What is that? Vajra aṅkuśa, dhvaja, saroruha.

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

So because the Viṣṇudūtas were very beautiful, four-handed, exactly resembling Lord Viṣṇu... As I have explained, in the Vaikuṇṭhaloka all the inhabitants, their feature of the body are exactly like Lord Viṣṇu, four-handed, with conchshell, lotus flower, club, and disc. So they never saw Viṣṇudūta before, these Yamadūtas, because they go in an atmosphere where sinful activities are executed. But this time they were astonished, that "How these beautiful personalities are here?" Kiṁ devā upadevā vā yūyaṁ kiṁ siddha-sattamāḥ. So, "Will you kindly let us know wherefrom you are coming? Are you coming from the Siddhaloka planet or heavenly planet?" Because in the material world nobody knows that there is a spiritual sky beyond this material sky... As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, paras tasmād tu bhava anyaḥ: "There is another nature." This is one nature, material nature, where millions and trillions of universes are clustered together in the corner of the spiritual sky.

Lecture on SB 7.9.13 -- Montreal, August 21, 1968:

There is description, definition of who is a sādhu. Sādhu means saintly person. In French language, I think it called saint? Saint? But actually the saint is in Sanskrit language also. Santa. Santa. Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. In Sanskrit language the saintly persons are called santa. Maybe it is Latin derivative, because in Latin there are many words resembling Sanskrit. And Professor Rowe, a great English scholar in India, an Englishman, professor in Presidency College, he wrote one grammar, English grammar. In our childhood we had to read. He has stated that "Sanskrit is the mother of all languages." Anyway...

So when God appears, incarnates, descends, His business is to protect the devotees, paritrāṇāya sādhūnām. That is His first business. Vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām: and to kill the unfaithful, miscreants. For them, God does not require to come Himself. Side by side, He does so. If God likes, He can kill thousands of miscreants by one stroke.

General Lectures

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

Student (1): Apparently, there are two parts to this. The first, the kīrtana singing and dancing, to some extent resembles the rock music that appears in the Western world within the last five years. Very notably the Beatles song last year, "Hey Jude," in the second part, is very similar in tune to this. The second, which is quite remote, but there is a connection—your message is similar in some ways to the message of evangelical or fundamentalist teachers in Christianity, who are taking the name of Jesus Christ...

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Student (1): ...and excluding everything other than complete devotion to Christ. Would you comment on this?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's very nice. We completely agree. We say that chant the holy name of God. The vibration, the sound which you chant, that must be the holy name of God. Then it is all right. It doesn't matter what is the language.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Śyāmasundara: He postulates three laws whereby perceptions are associated or connected with one another. He says first of all, there is the principle of resemblance. For example, I see a picture and it impels me to think of the original of that picture. The second principle is the principle of contiguity. If I mention a room in a building, this impels me to think of other rooms in other buildings. And the third principle is the principle of cause and effect, just like if I think about a wound I automatically think of pain. So in these three ways he thinks that our whole being is made up of this stream of ideas, association of ideas, one idea follows another, perpetually.

Prabhupāda: That is called relative world. That is the meaning of relative world. You cannot understand what is father without a son; you cannot understand son without a father. You cannot understand husband without a wife. This world is like that. It is called relative world.

Philosophy Discussion on Plato:

Hayagrīva: Insofar as man resembles God, he is ethical. Evil forces within man combat his efforts to attain this ultimate goal. Plato is not a determinist. He emphasized freedom of the will and insisted that evil acts are due to man's failure to live up to his responsibility. They do not come from God, who is all-good.

Prabhupāda: Everything comes from God, but we have to make our choice. This ideal example: that the university comes from the government and the prison house also comes from the government, but the prison house is meant for the criminal and the university is meant for the highly learned scholar. The government spends money in both the departments to maintain it; therefore, so far government's recognition is concerned, it has to be maintained. But it is we, we make our selection whether go to the prison house or go to the university. That is, that little independence is there in every human being. We have to make our choice.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Because one gentleman resembles your features, you think that he is your brother. That is another thing. But here the process that if you want to know who is your father, the process is it should be known through the mother. There is no other process. It is not that suggestion: because somebody resembles my face, he is my father. Not like that. It is the perfect process.

Mr. Wadell: Oh, yes, I agree with what you say. I am just adding another explanation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And you cannot understand your father by any other process. This is the only process. That means things which are unknown, beyond our conception, you have to know it through the authority. Just like you know your father through the authority of your mother.

Room Conversation with German and Hamsaduta dasa -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Guest: (German) I would ask if in the Christian conscience if it gives anything which resembles to this, which is of some worth. Because in your books sometimes you speak of Jesus Christ. He also said: "What have we to do? We have to love God with all our heart and to serve Him." If it gives any movement in your knowledge in Western Europe or in the world in the Christian side one can read what is what.

Haṁsadūta: He wants to know if Christian, Christian teachings also bring the same consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Yes. One has to become...

Guest: (German)

Prabhupāda: ...purified.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Therefore, a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, who eats only food offered to Kṛṣṇa, can counteract all reactions of past material infections, which are impediments to the progress of self-realization. On the other hand, one who does not do so continues to increase the volume of sinful action, and this prepares the next body to resemble hogs and dogs, to suffer the resultant reactions of all sins.

The material world is full of contamination, and one who is immunized by accepting prasādam of the Lord, food offered to Viṣṇu, is saved from the attack, whereas one who does not do so becomes subjected to contamination. Food grains or vegetables are factually eatables. The human being eats different kinds of food grains, vegetables, fruits, etc., and the animals eat the refuse of the food grains and vegetables, grass, plants, etc. Human beings who are accustomed to eating meat and flesh must also depend on the production of vegetation in order to eat the animals.

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: The same like. Therefore these Mexicans, South American, they resemble therefore almost Indian body.

Amogha: They also eat food... They eat a food similar to the cāpāṭi.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Amogha: Tortillas.

Prabhupāda: Cāpāṭi, in Middle East also they eat.

Devotee (1): Yes, in Lebanon.

Paramahaṁsa: In Tehran we saw those big cāpāṭis.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: Six feet long.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so big. One cāpāṭi is sufficient for the whole family. They are sold in market, purchased.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: ...resembling Boston. That students' quarter?

Brahmānanda: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: Go to the beach now. (break) Sweet water?

Bhavānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: No.

Bhavānanda: This is fresh water. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...Angeles, I have seen while going to the beach, one man has made a boat of concrete cement. Did you see? Nobody marked?

Morning Walk -- October 6, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: It resembles Melbourne. Melbourne. Australian Melbourne, this quarter resembles. (break) ...from Indian Ocean?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Indian Ocean.

Prabhupāda: Africa, one side Atlantic, one side Indian. (break) ...is growing on the sand, and they say there is no life in the sand. (break—windy beach) ...Bhoga. Bhoga means sense gratification, and aiśvarya, opulence. Bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayāpahṛta-cetasām: (BG 2.44) "Those who are lost of consciousness, such persons become attached to sense gratification and material opulence," bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayāpahṛta-cetasām, "and not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Vyavasāyātmikā-buddhiḥ: "How to become spiritually liberated, they do not care for it." These things do not interest them.

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: No, primitive…

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They think that he resembles a monkey very much.

Prabhupāda: So there are in Africa these men. They resemble that, what is called? That animal?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Gorilla.

Prabhupāda: Gorilla. So these men are still existing. But why from gorilla they do not come?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They don’t come from the gorilla.

Prabhupāda: Africans, I have seen, they look like gorilla. So why now from gorilla the Africans or any black man is not coming? Then the question is the black man… We have got experience. The black man come. And wherefrom the white man came? Is there any white gorilla?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Tustu(?) language, tustu. This language resembles like that. This Irani language. (break) And they are claiming it is ours. Nobody has created anything. God has created for His pleasure. Everything is God's property, and they have made an unfavorable situation, "My property." Now here is a city, it is all right, there is no trouble. If I say it is my property and you say it is your property, then there is trouble. Then there is immigration department, "Why you are coming here?" Then the dogs barking, yow yow yow. This is going on as civilization. First of all, they claim God's property falsely their own, and they create a situation. And for this purpose the whole world is working, how to create a bad situation of proprietorship right on God's property, that's all.

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He says?

Hari-śauri: He says, "They say that he's Śiva and Pārvatī combined together. He certainly embodies both masculinity and femininity. Kṛṣṇa, as we read of Him in the scriptures, must have resembled Swamiji. His walk is that of a dancer floating in a graceful movement."

Prabhupāda: All right. I will take rest.

Hari-śauri: You want to keep this?

Prabhupāda: No, no. (break—moves to garden)

Hari-śauri: They're all Māyāvādīs. He was just...

Pradyumna: I was just underlining that thing and...

Prabhupāda: So you write. I've already told you. I cannot speak now. You write. I have given you already hints.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, here is argument. Here is... A plant is coming. So yoni... The source of birth is called yoni. So yoni is there, the earth. But who begotten this? There must be father. Because we, our experience, without father and mother there is no generation. You prove that, that here is the mother; there is the child. And where is the father? And the father says, "Yes, I am father." Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām. That's all. There must be father. "You do not see." This is not logic. There must be father. So there must be God; otherwise how they are coming? By whose arrangement? Now, the exact fruit and flower will come from this. You bring another tree. Not it will resemble like. Varieties of life. You cannot say it is accident. Huh? Why not accident—the red flower comes here and the white flower comes there? Accident? They're standing for years. Why there is not a single accident? And accident. You say, "accident."

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. I don't know if this is the right volume. It's the only one that resembles. I can't read Russian, so I don't know if that's...

Prabhupāda: Is that Russian?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have one book in Russian.

Prabhupāda: So in this way smaller books we can publish. (break) ...to Other Planets, similarly.

Guest (1): How long did you stay in Moscow?

Prabhupāda: About ten days.

Guest (1): Was it possible to start some initially some...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, we started with one, two Russian young boys. They are my śiṣyas. What is the name?

Correspondence

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Nandarani, Dayananda -- San Francisco 29 March, 1968:

I thank you for your nice letter of March 25, 1968, and the kind sentiments expressed therein. I am very happy to learn that you have a nice place in Florida, and you are feeling comfortable and your little Candra is enjoying the sun and the atmosphere. Candra's name is quite nice; you can simply add another word to make it become Candramukhi, which means, face resembling the moon. So sometimes the associate Gopis are are also addressed like that because all of the Gopis are transcendentally beautiful. I am very glad that you have invited me to Florida prior to my going to Bahamas. So far we have not received any letter from Bahamas, so my Florida program for the time being, is suspended. If I go however, to the Bahamas, in the meantime certainly I shall go to your place, and I shall inform you beforehand. But shortly I am visiting New York, and from there I shall go to Boston, then I may go to Montreal; this is the present program. But at the same time, I am seeking a place which will be both conducive to my health and comfortable.

Letter to Kirtanananda -- Allston, Mass 23 May, 1968:

Krishna has provided you with a nice plot of land, and it is due to His causeless unlimited mercy upon you. You were in Vrindaban but you did not like the atmosphere and you became disturbed, so immediately after your arrival in Vrindaban you felt uncomfortable—that I could understand, and therefore you came back to U.S.A. although it was settled before starting that you continue to live in Vrindaban. Krishna is so kind that you went to Indian Vrindaban, but you did not like that particular place, somehow or other, and therefore He has so kindly awarded so nice piece of land, exactly resembling Vrindaban. We should always know that Vrindaban is not localized in a particular area, but that wherever Krishna is there, Vrindaban is automatically there. And wherever the Holy Name of Krishna is chanted, Krishna is present there because there is no difference between Krishna and His Holy Name. So I am so pleased to learn that you are chanting and meditating of Krishna, and once only you are eating something to keep your body and soul together.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Brahmananda -- San Francisco 3 April, 1969:

Our meeting and separation in the material world is like the flowing tide of the river. During the flowing tide of the river, so many different floating articles meet together, and with the flowing, they again become separated by the movement of the waves. That is the way of the material life. But our separation, although it resembles exactly in the material way, it is completely different. In the spiritual world, separation is more relishable than meeting. In other words, in spiritual life, there is no separation. Separation is eternal, and meeting is also eternal. The separation is simply another feature of meeting.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Tamala Krsna -- Los Angeles 1 May, 1970:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated 26 April, 1970, and I am so pleased to note the contents which are exactly befitting your name Tamala. Perhaps you know Tamala is a nice tree in Vrndavana, and because the color of the tree exactly resembles that of Krsna, therefore Srimati Radharani always used to take rest underneath the Tamala tree when she was feeling separation from Krsna.

So for European activities, I have sent you there, and for its nice organization I am counting upon you very much. You have so kindly written to say, "Please order me in any way Your Grace desires, everything I have including myself belongs to You, and Your Grace may do with me as You wish." So it is my desire that in Europe you will kindly occasionally visit the three countries—England, France, and Germany—and see that the things are going very nicely.

Letter to Ekayani -- Los Angeles 25 July, 1970:

Because Krsna was playing as an ordinary human being, His activities here appear just like ordinary human activities, but in the Spiritual Sky there is no such requirement. There in the spiritual sky Krsna has His activities also but they cannot be understood by the conditioned living entities how they are going on without any resemblance of the mechanical workings of things in this material world.

In the Spiritual sky and in the material sky also there is no question of separation from Krsna. Krsna is all pervading, so where can one be out of His presence? Whatever has to do with Krsna is on the spiritual platform and on that spiritual platform there is no difference between being together and being apart from Krsna. So even in the feeling of being separated from Krsna, Krsna is there.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Govinda -- Calcutta 28 May, 1971:

He is the right gentleman who can give you the right instruction and you can write him immediately.

I am so glad to note that Sri Gaura-Nitai Deities are already finished. The color is molten gold or bright yellow resembling golden color but don't apply gold paint. The eyes should be nicely painted. You have got the idea; you have seen many pictures and I am seeing from here that you are doing nicely.

From Bombay I may go to Russia (Moscow) and then to London and then N.Y. and then I will be coming to L.A. You will be glad to learn that we have purchased about five acres of land in Mayapur, the birthsite of Lord Caitanya and we have proposed to hold a nice festival there from Janmastami day for two weeks. At that time the foundation stone will be set down. I wish that all our leading disciples come to India at that time. There are 50 branches, so at least one from each branch should attend the function and Sai also may come at that time.

Page Title:Resembling (Lectures, Conv. and Letters)
Compiler:Rishab, RupaManjari
Created:17 of Jun, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=9, Con=11, Let=6
No. of Quotes:26