Sense objects (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"object of the senses" |"objects of the senses" |"sense object" |"sense objects"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.46-62 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "And for the service of the Lord he is always daring and active and is not influenced by attachment or detachment. Attachment means accepting things for one's own sense gratification, and detachment is the absence of such sensual attachment. But one fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness has neither attachment or detachment because his life is dedicated in the service of the Lord. Consequently he is not at all angry even when his attempts are unsuccessful. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person is always steady in his determination." 57: "He who is without affection either for good or evil is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge (BG 2.57)." Purport: "There is always some upheaval in the material world which may be good or evil. One who is not agitated by such material upheavals, who is without affection for the good or evil, is to be understood as fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As long as one is in the material world, there is always the possibility of good and evil because this world is full of duality. But one who is fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not affected by good and evil because he is simply concerned with Kṛṣṇa, who is all-good absolute. Such consciousness in Kṛṣṇa situates one in the perfect transcendental position called, technically, samādhi." 58: "One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects as the tortoise draws his limbs within the shell is to be understood as truly situated in knowledge (BG 2.58)." 59: "The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment though the taste for sense objects remains, but ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness (BG 2.59)." 60: "The senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of the man of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them (BG 2.60)." 61: "One who restrains his senses and fixes his consciousness upon Me is known as a man of steady intelligence (BG 2.61)."

Prabhupāda: This is the conclusion of all symptoms. There are others also?

Lecture on BG 2.46-62 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 62: "While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises (BG 2.62)." Oh, a new (indistinct). There's a purport.

Prabhupāda: Stop there. So if there is any question you can discuss.

Vīrabhadra: If some of these questions might be very stupid, and if any of them are, then just say they're stupid. Then I can ask Viṣṇujana. The first one is, if you said, "Give me lots of money for Kṛṣṇa," are you a miser? Is that a stupid question? Is that a stupid question?

Lecture on BG 2.62-72 -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises (BG 2.62)." Purport. "One who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious is subjected to material desires while contemplating the objects of the senses. The senses require real engagements, and if they are not engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, they will certainly seek engagement in the service of materialism."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Here is the secret of yoga system. Yoga indriya-saṁyama. The real purpose of yoga is to control the senses. Our material activities means to engage the sense in some particular objective or enjoyment. That is our material engagement. And yoga system means that you have to control the senses and detach the senses from material enjoyment, or material pleasure and pains, and divert it, focusing towards seeing the Supersoul Viṣṇu within your soul (self?). That is the real purpose of yoga.

Lecture on BG 2.62-72 -- Los Angeles, December 19, 1968:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "In the material world everyone, including Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā—to say nothing of other demigods in the heavenly planets—is subjected to the influence of sense objects."

Prabhupāda: Sense objects, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Sense objects. And the only method to get out of this puzzle of material existence is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious."

Prabhupāda: It is learned from Vedic literature that... Of course, they are showing us, Lord Śiva, Lord Brahmā. They were also sometimes attracted by sense objects. Just like Lord Brahmā, his daughter Sarasvatī... Sarasvatī is considered to be the most perfect form of beauty, womanly beauty, Sarasvatī.

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

Sudāmā: "One who restrains the senses and organs of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender (BG 3.6)."

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is very important thing. Yoga indriya-saṁyamya. Yoga, the definition of yoga means sense control, controlling the sense. So here Kṛṣṇa says that you cannot control your senses artificially. It is not possible. Those who are trying... Just like some of the yogis, they close their eyes, "Oh, I'll not see beautiful woman." That is another practice, but that does not mean that he can control his senses. No. You cannot curb down the natural force of sense. This is the secret.

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

This is the nice process. And artificially if you want to stop your senses, you will fail. That Kṛṣṇa says, "One who restrains the sense and organs of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects."

Just like Viśvāmitra Muni. There were many instances. He was a great king and he wanted to be yogi. And he went to forest, gave up his kingdom, went to forest. And he was meditating very seriously, and Indra, king of heaven, he sent some society girls of heavenly planet, Menakā. And she came.

Lecture on BG 3.31-43 -- Los Angeles, January 1, 1969:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Thirty-four: "Attraction and repulsion for sense objects are felt by embodied beings, but one should not fall under the control of senses and sense objects because they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization (BG 3.34)."

Thirty-five: "It is far better to discharge one's own prescribed duties, even though they may be faulty, than another's duties. Destruction in the course of performing one's own duty is better than engaging in another's duties, for to follow another's path is dangerous (BG 3.35)."

Thirty-six: "Arjuna said: O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force (BG 3.36)?"

Prabhupāda: Here Kṛṣṇa says that "Destruction in the course of performing one's own duty is better than engaging in another's duties, for to follow another's path is dangerous." Now, Arjuna was a military man, a kṣatriya.

Lecture on BG 4.26 -- Bombay, April 15, 1974:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting)

śrotrādīnīndriyāṇy anye

saṁyamāgniṣu juhvati

śabdādīn viṣayān anya

indriyāgniṣu juhvati

Translation: "Some of them sacrifice the hearing process and the senses in the fire of the controlled mind, and others sacrifice the objects of the senses, such as sound, in the fire of sacrifice."

Prabhupāda: Read the purport.

Lecture on BG 5.3-7 -- New York, August 26, 1966:

Eleven and five, it becomes sixteen. Then subtle elements, just like manaḥ, buddhiḥ, ahaṅkāra: mind, intelligence and false ego. False ego. So sixteen and three. Nineteen. And five, I mean to say, sense objects. Sense objects means rūpa, form; rasa, taste; form, taste, rūpa, rasa, gandha, smell; then rūpa, rasa, gandha, śabda, sound, sound. You have got ear. You require sound to hear. In this way, the sāṅkhya-yoga, they have analyzed the whole material world into twenty-four elements. That is sāṅkhya-yoga.

Lecture on BG 5.26-29 -- Los Angeles, February 12, 1969:

Devotee: Verses 27 and 28. "Shutting out all external sense objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the two eyebrows, suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils—thus controlling the mind, senses and intelligence, the transcendentalist becomes free from desire, fear and anger. One who is always in this state is certainly liberated (Bg. 5.27-28)."

Prabhupāda: Now here is a hint of the yoga practice, shutting out the external sense objects. This is another process. But the bhakti-yoga process is automatically yoga process. Here it is said, "shutting out all external sense objects." Sense object, what is that sense object? Just like I want to see some beautiful woman or beautiful man. I want to smell some nice flower or scent. The flower is the sense object, woman is the sense object. There are so many sense objects. We have got five senses and there are five objects also. Otherwise what is the use of sense? Now this yoga practice is to withdraw the senses from the sense object.

Lecture on BG 5.26-29 -- Los Angeles, February 12, 1969:

When you apply your senses for satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, then it is called bhakti. And when your senses are engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa it cannot be engaged otherwise. Otherwise the sense will be engaged in the sense objects. Therefore there is failure. Those who are not engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, simply artificially trying, they fail. Viśvāmitra Muni, Durvāsā Muni, there are many great instances. These are artificial. But that is a process recommended. We may be successful to a certain extent but in this age it is very difficult to practice such things. Nobody can practice how to control the senses from the sense object.

Lecture on BG 6.2-5 -- Los Angeles, February 14, 1969:

Devotee: Verse number five. "A man must elevate himself by his own mind. Not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul and his enemy as well (BG 6.5)." Purport: "The Sanskrit word ātmā, self, denotes body, mind and soul, depending on different circumstances. In the yoga system, the mind and the conditioned soul are especially important since the mind is the central point of yoga practice. Ātmā here refers to the mind. The purpose of the yoga system is to control the mind and to draw it away from attachment to sense objects. It is stressed herein that the mind must be so trained that it can deliver the conditioned soul from the mire of nescience."

Prabhupāda: In the aṣṭāṅga-yoga system, this eightfold yoga system, dhyāna, dhāraṇā—they are meant for controlling the mind. (Don't make sound.) Mind, unless you control the mind, in the beginning it is said a man must elevate himself by his own mind. Mind is the driver. The body is the chariot or car. So just like if you call your, ask your driver, "Please get me into Kṛṣṇa consciousness temple." The driver will bring you here.

Lecture on BG 6.2-5 -- Los Angeles, February 14, 1969:

Therefore the mind should be trained so that it will not be attracted by the glitter of material nature. In this way the conditioned soul may be saved. One should not degrade oneself by attraction to sense objects. The more one is attracted by sense objects, the more one becomes entangled in material existence. The best way to disentangle oneself is always to engage the mind in Kṛṣṇa's service. The Sanskrit word hi in this verse is used for emphasizing this point, i.e., that one must do this. It is also said: 'For man, mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage and mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation.' Therefore the mind which is always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the cause of supreme liberation."

Lecture on BG 13.8-12 -- Bombay, October 2, 1973:

So we have discussed about the body, kṣetra. The question of Arjuna was kṣetra, kṣetrajna, jñānam, and jñeyam. Now kṣetra, we have discussed yesterday. Kṣetra, this body, is combination of "the five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses, the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptom, and convictions—all these are considered in summary to be the field of activities." Yesterday we have discussed.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.3.1 -- Vrndavana, November 14, 1972:

Therefore Kṛṣṇa becomes the origin. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ, anādiḥ (Bs. 5.1). He has no beginning, but He is beginning. Anādir ādiḥ. He's, He has no beginning, but He is the beginning of creation. Anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1).

So mahat-tattva, the total material energy, and six, five elements, sixteen, sixteen, ṣoḍaśa-kalam. What are those? The five elements, namely, earth, water, fire, air, and sense objects and senses and the spirit soul. In this way, sixteen. And from sixteen, it expands to twenty-four. That is the explanation of our Vedic creation. Ṣoḍaśa-kalam. You read the purport.

Lecture on SB 1.8.48 -- Mayapura, October 28, 1974:

There is earth, water, air, fire, and the mind and the intelligence and the false ego. This is the eight combination of the matter. Then, the matter being agitated, there are ten senses and then sense objects. In this way this body is composition of twenty-four elements. But all these elements, Kṛṣṇa says, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā: (BG 7.4) "That is My energy." This body is made by Kṛṣṇa's property. Earth, water, air, fire—this is all Kṛṣṇa's property. You cannot create earth, or you cannot create water. You cannot create sky, nothing of the material elements. It is created by Kṛṣṇa, and this body is..., this external body is made of these eight elements.

Lecture on SB 1.15.45 -- Los Angeles, December 23, 1973:

Because you are gathering knowledge by the senses. There are five senses, acquire knowledge, and the five senses act according to that knowledge. And these sense objects. There are sense objects. Just like you have got eyes, you have to see something objective, rūpa, form. The knowledge acquired by the eyes is to understand the form. Similarly, the knowledge acquired by the ears is to acquire knowledge from the sound. Because physical means the sound, light, form. These things are physical things. So we have got senses to acquire knowledge. So five knowledge-acquiring senses, five working senses, and five sense objects, and I am there. This is called sixteen elements.

Lecture on SB 3.25.32 -- Bombay, December 2, 1974:

We are acting with our hands, legs, ears, eyes, nose, everything, karmendriya. Ten kinds of activities are being performed by the senses, and there are five kinds of sense objects, tanmātra, fifteen, and the eight elements material, earth, water, fire. So fifteen and eight, twenty-three, and the soul. This is twenty-four. That is the subject matter of Sāṅkhya philosophy, how these twenty-four different items are combined together and work. This is the study of Sāṅkhya philosophy. Yesterday we talked about sāṅkhyam. Tattvāmnāyaṁ yat pravadanti sāṅkhyam.

Lecture on SB 3.26.15 -- Bombay, December 24, 1974:

So twenty-four elements we have discussed yesterday: the five gross elements, and the five sense objects, and five knowledge gathering senses, and five working senses—twenty—and four internal senses—twenty-four—and then again, all under the control of time, the fifth, or twenty-fifth. And above these there is the soul and Supersoul. That is spiritual. These are all material, analytical study of the material composition of this cosmic manifestation. This is called Sāṅkhya philosophy.

Lecture on SB 3.26.35-36 -- Bombay, January 12, 1975:

Nitāi: "In the course of time, when the subtle forms are transformed into gross forms, they become the objects of touch. The objects of touch and the tactile sense also develop after this evolution in time. Sound is the first sense object to exhibit material existence, and from the perception of sound, touch perception evolves, and from touch perception the perception of sight. That is the way of the gradual evolution of our perceptive objects."

Prabhupāda: You can read the next purport. Mṛdutvaṁ kaṭhinatvaṁ ca.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 11, 1975:

First of all, we are interested with these senses. This body means the senses, different types of senses. Sense objects, the mind. They have twenty-four elements analyzed by the Sāṅkhya philosophy. So when we think of our body, means we are interested with sense gratification. Then, a little forward, we are interested with the mind. First of all body, this gross body made of five, earth, air, fire, water, and ether. Then we become interested with the mental speculation, psychology—thinking, feeling, willing. So indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42). Mind. The mental speculators, the jñānīs, they are better than the karmīs.

Lecture on SB 6.1.50 -- Detroit, August 3, 1975:

Nitāi: (leads chanting, etc.) "The mind is the sixteenth item, and above the mind, the soul is the seventeenth item. He is the living being; therefore he is one only. In cooperation with the other fifteen items along with the mind, the living entity is enjoying the material world alone. The instruments are the five sense organs, the five working organs, and the five objects of the senses. Thus the mind is sixteen and the living entity himself is seventeen. In this way the living entity is enjoying different situations of three types, namely happiness, distress, or a mixture of both."

Prabhupāda:

pañcabhiḥ kurute svārthān

pañca vedātha pañcabhiḥ

ekas tu ṣoḍaśena trīn

svayaṁ saptadaśo 'śnute

(SB 6.1.50)

So we are fallen into great ocean of nescience, covered. First of all the five senses, knowledge-acquiring senses, jñānendriya and karmendriya, working senses, ten, and sense object... We have got eyes; therefore eyes are engaged for seeing something beautiful, rūpa. Rasa. Rasa means taste. That is the business of the tongue.

Lecture on SB 6.1.50 -- Detroit, June 16, 1976:

Devotee: (leads chanting, etc.) Translation: "Above the five senses of perception, the five working senses and the five objects of the senses is the mind, which is the sixteenth element. Above the mind is the seventeenth element, the soul, the living being himself, who, in cooperation with the other sixteen, enjoys the material world alone. The living being enjoys three kinds of situation, namely happy, distressful and mixed."

Prabhupāda:

pañcabhiḥ kurute svārthān

pañca vedātha pañcabhiḥ

ekas tu ṣoḍaśena trīn

svayaṁ saptadaśo 'śnute

(SB 6.1.50)

This is the analytical study of our material position. Very clear analysis. We, pañcabhiḥ, with five working senses, voice, vāk, pāṇi, pāyu, udāra, upastha... Voice, arms, legs, anus, and genital. There are twenty-four, the total material constituent parts are twenty-five, sometimes twenty-six they say. These seventeen and the five elements gross and three subtle elements, in this way, altogether twenty-five including the soul.

Lecture on SB 6.1.50 -- Detroit, June 16, 1976:

He is first-class yogi. There are different types of yogis. Kṛṣṇa says yoginām api sarveṣām. Sarveṣām means all different kinds of yogis. There are many. "But one yogi, bhakta-yogi or dhyāna-yogi, who is always thinking of Me within the mind, he is first class." He is first class. That we have to practice. We have got our senses and the sense... We are covered by the network of the senses. The knowledge gathering senses, the working senses, the sense objects... Everything is explained here.

Lecture on SB 6.1.51 -- Detroit, August 4, 1975:

So these are our knowledge-gathering senses, and there are working senses, just like hand, leg, the stomach, the rectum, the genital. These are working senses. In this way, ten senses and five sense objects. We have got eyes, so there must be object of seeing. Pañca-tanmātrā, rūpa, rasa. With eyes we can see the form. With tongue we can taste. Rūpa, rasa, śabda. With the ear we can hear the sound. In this way, five sense objects of three, five, means fifteen, and the mind. The mind is the center of directing the senses. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhuḥ indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ. The senses are there, sense objects are there, but without mind it cannot work. Therefore the mind is the sixteenth item. And everything is being used by whom? By the soul.

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Toronto, June 19, 1976:

Pradyumna: (leads chanting, etc.) "Prahlāda Mahārāja continued: My dear friends born of demoniac families, the happiness perceived with reference to the sense objects by contact with the body can be obtained in any form of life, according to one's past fruitive activities. Such happiness is automatically obtained without endeavor, just as we obtain distress."

Prabhupāda:

sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā

deha-yogena dehinām

sarvatra labhyate daivād

yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ

(SB 7.6.3)

We are, every one of us, we are fully under the control of material nature. We have put ourselves, in different bodies, we are fully under the control of material nature. There is no question of independence. In the śāstra it is described just like a horse or a bull is bound up in the nose and the driver, as he push, pull on the rope, it has to go according to that. There is no independence.

Lecture on SB 7.7.19-20 -- Bombay, March 18, 1971:

Twenty-four elements, twenty-four elements. Eight gross and subtle elements, and then their production, the ten indriya, senses, working senses, and knowledge acquiring senses. Eight, ten, eighteen. Then the sense objects, five. Eighteen plus five, twenty-three. And then the ātmā, the soul. Twenty-four elements, the Sankhya philosophy, they are analyzed. The Sankhya philosophy. The European philosophers they like very much this Sankhya philosophy system because in the Sankhya philosophy these twenty-four elements have been very much lucidly explained. Sankhya philosophy. Dehas tu sarva-saṅghāto jagat. So there are two kinds of bodies, jagat and tasthuḥ-moving and not moving.

Festival Lectures

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

If I get some nice foodstuff, because I satisfy my taste, palate, I feel happiness, "Oh, very nice food I am eating." Similarly, you take any of your sense organs, when it is satisfied according to the sense object, it is called happiness. So the sum and substance of happiness is to satisfy the senses. But Kṛṣṇa says that sukham ātyantikam. The supermost happiness can be achieved not by these senses, but atīndriya. Atīndriya means transcendental senses. Just like at the present moment our senses are gross material senses. But there is another sense, not another sense, this sense. This is covered sense. Suppose you will try... You will be able to understand. Now, I want to touch some soft place to enjoy the sense of this hand, touch sense.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

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

Prabhupāda: The mind, ego, and mahat-tattva, eighteen, yes. And then five sense objects, the rūpa, rasa, form, taste, like that. Then twenty-three.

Jayatīrtha: The aggregate, pradhāna.

Prabhupāda: Pradhāna, and then the soul, twenty-five. Twenty-four and three guṇas. Three guṇas: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Twenty-seven. So twenty-seven layers of garbage. Underneath, the soul is. What he will do? He is a small particle, soul, and he is covered with so many material elements. To come out of it is very very difficult. But if one is engaged in devotional service he can come out immediately. Just like when one is spiritually perfect, he goes immediately to Kṛṣṇa, penetrating these material coverings of the universe. Immediately. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9), immediately. That is spiritual force.

General Lectures

Lecture Excerpt on Twenty-four Elements -- Los Angeles, November 14, 1968:

Ten. Ten knowledge-acquiring, five, and working senses, five. Ten. So eight, ten-eighteen. Then sense objects. Just like I have got eye, but I have to see something, dṛśya. So there are five sense objects. Eighteen and five-twenty-three. And mahat-tattva, the original stock of all material... In this way, they are called twenty-four elements. So this whole creation, whatever material creation we have got, they are made of these twenty-four el... Just like colors. Varieties of color means three colors: yellow, red and blue. Those who are expert in color mixing, they'll mix these three colors into eighty-one colors. Three into three equals nine; nine into nine equals eighty one.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, the living entity is superior to the inert matter. In Sanskrit language they are called tan mātrā. They are created for the sense; they are sense objects. I have got senses, I must appreciate something. That something is that quality or sensory quality. I have eyes, I must see something. So therefore there is color, there is beauty...

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.

Philosophy Discussion on Immanuel Kant:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The simple is, we say, the whole world is made of material energy. This is simple. Now, the component parts of material energy, there are so many things—mahat-tattva, then pradhāna, then puruṣa, then twenty-four elements, the five gross elements, eight subtle elements, the five senses, the objects of the senses—and in this way there are so many analytical complications.

Śyāmasundara: So his third antimony is the causal, or relation (?) of the world. He says, first of all, thesis: "Causality in conformity with laws of nature is not the only causality from which all the phenomena of the world can be derived. To explain these phenomena it is necessary to suppose that there is also a free causality." And the antithesis is, "There is no freedom, but all that comes to be in the world takes place entirely in accordance with laws of nature." So on the one hand he is saying that sometimes we observe an exception to the laws of causality, that something happens which is completely uncaused or unexplainable, so that there must be no such thing as a strict law of cause and effect.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Devotee: All ideas are coming from Kṛṣṇa. (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Yes. Idea is coming because there is substance.

Śyāmasundara: I'm not talking about God. I'm talking about the objects of the senses.

Prabhupāda: Anything, anything, you cannot make an idea of table. You are...

Śyāmasundara: I can make an idea...

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

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Prabhupāda: No, this is not irrational. That will. You desire, you will like that, and as soon as you will, immediately material nature is helpful: "Yes, take this help," and you take the help and we are forced.

Śyāmasundara: Supposing I will for some sense object... (break) Shall we begin?

Prabhupāda: Mm.

Śyāmasundara: Yesterday we were discussing that Schopenhauer's idea that the world is basically an evil place. So he says that there are three means of salvation from this basically evil world. The first means he calls aesthetic salvation, or contemplation of higher ideas which transport us above passion, just like poetry, music, art. By contemplating these higher ideas, you become absent of desire. Desire drops away, and you become transported to a higher plane of not willing, above our will.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Śyāmasundara: He says that opposite to this objective being is the subjective individual, which he calls "being for itself." And he says that the nature of this subjective individual is that it is incomplete, it has potency, but the structure is indeterminant. There is no mass or no density. These things all have density and mass—they are heavy, gross—but the "being for itself," or the subjective individual, has no mass or density.

Prabhupāda: This is like the sense and sense objects. Just like we have got the senses smelling. This is concrete. But the smell is not concrete.

Śyāmasundara: Subtle.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Prabhupāda: Subtle in this sense, that I cannot... Because we are so materialistic that our senses cannot perceive anything which is not concrete. But the highest philosophy, Vedic philosophy, the sense of smelling and the sense object, smell, simultaneously created. Unless there is smell, the nose has no value. Therefore the sense and the sense object, they are simultaneously created. Tan-mātrā. In Sanskrit word it is called tan-mātrā. Just like eyes and beauty, simultaneously. If there is no beauty, then there is no value of eyes. If there is no music, the ear has no value. If there is no soft thing, the touch has no value. Similarly, everything is created—the sense and the sense object and the controller of the senses—and that is... (guests come in) Aiye, please come in. (break)

Philosophy Discussion on Johann Gottlieb Fichte:

Prabhupāda: That desiring begins from thinking.

Śyāmasundara: Contemplating the objects of the senses one (indistinct). He says that if one combines rational thought with his will then this will help him towards self-realization.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Śyāmasundara: If he combines rational thought with willing...

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the rational thought comes?

Śyāmasundara: That is an a priori fact, that I think therefore I am.