Yes. Arjuna is asking that "You say that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very good. Why You are engaging me in this fight?" That is his question. So Kṛṣṇa will answer this question. General people understand that retiring from ordinary duties, one becomes spiritually advanced. That is being taught here. It is not like that. Kṛṣṇa taught to the whole world that Arjuna was a soldier, he was a fighter, and in his fighting also he can be Kṛṣṇa conscious. It is not that he has to cease from fighting and then become Kṛṣṇa conscious. No. There is no such question. There is no rejection of anything, but dovetailing everything. That is the process. Do everything, but in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If you are a fighter, fight, but for Kṛṣṇa. If you are a businessman, all right. Do business for Kṛṣṇa. If you are something else, do that, but for Kṛṣṇa. This is wanted. This is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. To dovetail everything with Kṛṣṇa.
Soldiers in Krsna consciousness
Expressions researched:
"Krsna consciousness"
|"soldier"
|"soldiers"
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 8
In the fighting between the elephant and the crocodile, the difference was that although the elephant was extremely powerful, he was in a foreign place, in the water. During one thousand years of fighting, he could not get any food, and under the circumstances his bodily strength diminished, and because his bodily strength diminished, his mind also became weak and his senses less powerful. The crocodile, however, being an animal of the water, had no difficulties. He was getting food and was therefore getting mental strength and sensual encouragement. Thus while the elephant became reduced in strength, the crocodile became more and more powerful. Now, from this we may take the lesson that in our fight with māyā we should not be in a position in which our strength, enthusiasm and senses will be unable to fight vigorously. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has actually declared war against the illusory energy, in which all the living entities are rotting in a false understanding of civilization. The soldiers in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement must always possess physical strength, enthusiasm and sensual power. To keep themselves fit, they must therefore place themselves in a normal condition of life. What constitutes a normal condition will not be the same for everyone, and therefore there are divisions of varṇāśrama-brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacarya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
So Lord Caitanya's movement is also fighting, but it is a fight in a different way. So the soldiers, Nityānanda Prabhu, soldier, was sent to deliver Jagāi-Mādhāi. This is also fighting. Therefore all the devotees, all the preachers of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they are mahā-bāhu, strongly armed by the weapons of Kṛṣṇa. They cannot be defeated. They will push on the fight with māyā, this illusion. What is that illusion? The living entity under illusion is thinking that he will be happy by material comforts. That is not possible. So this movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is a declaration of war with māyā. Declaration of war, but in a different way—by this chanting process: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. The transcendental vibration will clarify the whole atmosphere, and as soon as these Kṛṣṇa conscious soldiers comes out victorious, the whole world will be peaceful.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was advised by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, his spiritual master, "This is your business at the point of death." So not only at the point of death. You cannot take to this business all of a sudden, even it is advised. You have to practice. Just like you cannot become a good soldier on the battlefield. You have to be trained yourself before going to the battle, military training. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is training before you ultimately meet death, fight with. So this is the advice given by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and we shall read later on.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
So if you face... Just like fighting soldiers, they are facing danger for the country. They are recognized. Similarly, those who are preachers, on behalf of Kṛṣṇa preaching people to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are great soldiers.
So I am very happy that you Europeans and Americans especially, you are helping me. So continue this process, and that is the very easy way to be recognized by Kṛṣṇa. Because He says, na ca tasman manusyesu kaścin me priya-krttamaḥ (BG 18.69). Who? Who is preaching this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So I thank you very much that you have come here in Vṛndāvana, and you are traveling, you are preaching. So let us dedicate this life for preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world. Never mind we die by preaching. Still, it will be glorious.
So you have very kindly joined this movement. You have not joined this movement for your poverty. You are not poverty-stricken. Sometimes people join this movement for poverty-stricken. But you are not belonging to that. You have voluntarily joined. So don't be disappointed. There is now opposition, but don't be disappointed. Kṛṣṇa will give you protection. Try to go on with this para-upakāra movement. Maybe because it is a fight against atheism, so some of our soldiers may fall down. But that should not discourage us. We must go on fighting with this atheistic civilization and try to push (this) Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: He says that the greatest good... Prabhupāda: That situation... (indistinct) That situation means Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In practical life also we see that the soldier's killing, it is supported by the government. The same soldier killing for his personal satisfaction, he is condemned to death.
Śyāmasundara: He says that there is no such thing as absolute good and bad but that each specific situation must be treated individually. There is no absolute good and bad; that each individual situation must be...
Prabhupāda: Yes. So that situation means Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Anything done in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is good. Anything done not for Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction, it may be ethically, so-called ethically right—it has no use.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the greatest good...
Prabhupāda: That situation... (indistinct) That situation means Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In practical life also we see that the soldier's killing, it is supported by the government. The same soldier killing for his personal satisfaction, he is condemned to death.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the greatest good is the elimination of the greatest evil or the fulfillment of man's greatest needs.
Prabhupāda: That's it. We follow that, that the highest objective, the ultimate objective is Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu. So becoming a Vaiṣṇava, the highest perfection of human life is achieved.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee (2): So one doesn't have to give up his...
Prabhupāda: No. Arjuna was a soldier, he was a fighter. The battlefield was there, the war was there, everything was there. He did not... He took to Kṛṣṇa consciousness does not mean he gave up the field and went away. He remained there, but simply the consciousness was changed. He was not willing to fight on his own account. He changed his opinion, "Yes, now I shall fight. By Your grace, my all doubts are now gone." This is required, this is perfection. And there's the picture how Kṛṣṇa is guiding Arjuna. When the ranks are formed.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Arcye viṣṇau... (break) ...when it will teach military art, with tilaka, soldiers will, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa..." (laughter) We want that. Marching with military band, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." You maintain this idea. Is it not good?
Hṛdayānanda: Yes, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: When there will be military march of Kṛṣṇa conscious soldiers. Anyone who does not believe in Kṛṣṇa, "Blam!" (laughter) Yes. The same process as the Mohammedans did, with sword and Koran, we'll have to do that. "Do you believe in Kṛṣṇa or not?" "No, sir." "Blam!" Finished. (laughter, Prabhupāda laughs) What do you think, Madhudviṣa Mahārāja? Is that all right?
Madhudviṣa: Yes.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Everyone is expecting some good result for his sense gratification. That is āśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ. He has taken the shelter of good result. But one who does not take shelter of the result of activities... It is my duty. Karyam. Karyam means "It is my duty. Doesn't matter what is the result. I must do it sincerely to my best capacity. Then I don't care for the result. Result is in Kṛṣṇa's hand." Karyam: "It is my duty. My Guru Mahārāja said it, so it is my duty. It doesn't matter whether it is successful or not successful. That depends on Kṛṣṇa." In this way, anyone, if he works, then he is a sannyāsī. Not the dress, but the attitude of working. Yes, that is sannyāsa. Karyam: "It is my duty." Sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca. He is yogi, first-class yogi. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna officially, he did not take sannyāsa. He was a gṛhastha, soldier. But when he took it very seriously, karyam—"Kṛṣṇa wants this fight. Never mind I have to kill my relatives. I must do it"—that is sannyāsa. First of all he argued with Kṛṣṇa that "This kind of fighting is not good, family killing...," and so on, so on, so on. He argued. But after hearing Bhagavad-gītā, when he understood that "It is my duty. Kṛṣṇa wants me to do it." Karyam. So in spite of his becoming a householder, a soldier, he's a sannyāsī. He took it-karyam. Karyam means "It is my duty." That is real sannyāsa. "Kṛṣṇa wants that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement must be spread. So this is my karyam. This is my duty. And the direction is my spiritual master. So I must do it." This is sannyāsa. This is sannyāsa, sannyāsa mentality. But there is formality. That should... That may be accepted.
Prabhupāda: The more you fight with these rascals, the more you advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You are a fighting soldier. Kṛṣṇa very much appreciates. (long pause) So you take Bhagavad-gītā by your own interpretation, and I take Bhagavad-gītā as it is. So who is right? Who will decide this? You interpret in your own way. I don't interpret. I take it as it is. Now we are two parties. So who is correct?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. No, why they should not try to be rich? If the rich man exploits them, that "You work in our land and take some salary," why they will work for that? They will go to the factory, will get more salary. This way Indira Gandhi cannot solve the poverty problem. They must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like these soldiers, they for twenty years, simply eating and sleeping, and they are not engaged in cultivating-useless waste of time—and government has to maintain in big cantonment, big, big house, big, nice food, nice.... This is going on. Why the soldiers are maintained? It is waste of energy. They should have been engaged in tilling. Formerly the kings would give them free land. "You make your fortune—but on condition: when there is fight, you have to join." That was very easy. He possessed so much land, and he worked hard, and he got riches. Unless.... "Proprietorship turns sand into gold." Unless there is proprietorship, it cannot be. So therefore kṣatriyas, they were given land: "You take land as much as you like and produce but on condition that when there is war you have to join."
Rāmeśvara: One day America will be poor like that also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Luxury leads to poverty. When the American becomes too much luxurious, they'll not be able to defend their country. Then it will be finished.
Rāmeśvara: That is the fear even now, that America has lost their fighting spirit against the Communists.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes. Yes. Vietnam. It is proof. When the Vietnam is attacked, American soldiers, they began to fly, flee away, became afraid. Naturally. They were not soldiers. They have no fighting spirit. By force they have been made soldiers. Let them take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. America will be saved. (japa)
Prabhupāda: This is wanted. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa says, "You fight." He hesitated. "How can I fight? To kill my grandfather, my teacher? To kill my brother? My nephew? And so on, so on, so on. What You are advising, Kṛṣṇa, I cannot do." Therefore Bhagavad-gītā was talked, and after learning he says, "Yes, kariṣye vacanaṁ tava." (indistinct) This is perfection. He remained the same soldier. In the beginning, he was declining to fight, but at the end, he has agreed, "Yes." In the beginning it was "No." And when he was perfectly Kṛṣṇa conscious, it is "Yes." The materialist person, they are accustomed to say, "No." "No, God." When you become "Yes, God," then you are perfect. Jñānīs are "No, God." The karmīs are "No, God," yogis are "No, God," everyone, "No, God." Only the bhaktas, "Yes, God!" Yes. So that is perfect. This morning one Indian gentleman was talking about this impersonal, what was his question?
| Page Title: | Soldiers in Krsna consciousness |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Partha-sarathi, Rishab |
| Created: | 04 of Apr, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=6, Con=7, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 14 |