After Akrūra's departure, Lord Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and the cowherd boys entered Mathurā to see the city. They observed that the gate of Mathurā was made of first-class marble, very well constructed, and that the doors were made of pure gold. There were gorgeous orchards and gardens all around, and the whole city was encircled by canals so that no enemy could enter very easily. They saw that all the crossroads were decorated with gold and that there were copper and brass storehouses for stocking grain. And there were many rich men's houses, all appearing symmetrical, as if constructed by one engineer. The houses were decorated with costly jewels, and each and every house had nice compounds of trees bearing fruits and flowers. The corridors and verandas of the houses were decorated with silk cloth and embroidery work in jewels and pearls.
Symmetry
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 2
Our father encouraged us in all respects to observe all functions such as the Ratha-yātrā and Dola-yātrā ceremonies, and he used to spend money liberally for distributing prasāda to us children and our friends. Our spiritual master, who also took his birth in a Vaiṣṇava family, got all inspirations from his great Vaiṣṇava father, Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda. That is the way of all lucky Vaiṣṇava families. The celebrated Mīrā Bāī was a staunch devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa as the great lifter of Govardhana Hill.
The life history of many such devotees is almost the same because there is always symmetry between the early lives of all great devotees of the Lord. According to Jīva Gosvāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit must have heard about the childhood pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa at Vṛndāvana, for he used to imitate the pastimes with his young playmates. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit used to imitate the worship of the family Deity by elderly members. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī also confirms the viewpoint of Jīva Gosvāmī. So accepting either of them, Mahārāja Parīkṣit was naturally inclined to Lord Kṛṣṇa from his very childhood. He might have imitated either of the above-mentioned activities, and all of them establish his great devotion from his very childhood, a symptom of a mahā-bhāgavata. Such mahā-bhāgavatas are called nitya-siddhas, or souls liberated from birth.
Transcendental knowledge regarding the soul and the Supersoul includes knowledge of the phenomenal world and the basis of its creation. In the phenomenal world three things are factually observed by any intelligent man: the living beings, the manifest world, and the ultimate control over them. The intelligent man can see that neither the living entity nor the phenomenal world are creations of chance. The symmetry of creation and its regulative actions and reactions suggests the plan of an intelligent brain behind them, and by genuine inquiry one may find out the ultimate cause with the help of one who knows them factually.
SB Canto 4
The lower part of the Lord's waist is dark and covered with yellow garments and a belt bedecked with golden embroidery work. His symmetrical lotus feet and the calves, thighs and joints of His legs are extraordinarily beautiful. Indeed, the Lord's entire body appears to be well built.
SB Canto 5
Lord Ṛṣabhadeva's hands, feet and chest were very long. His shoulders, face and limbs were all very delicate and symmetrically proportioned. His mouth was beautifully decorated with His natural smile, and He appeared all the more lovely with His reddish eyes spread wide like the petals of a newly grown lotus flower covered with dew in the early morning. The irises of His eyes were so pleasing that they removed all the troubles of everyone who saw Him. His forehead, ears, neck, nose and all His other features were very beautiful. His gentle smile always made His face beautiful, so much so that He even attracted the hearts of married women. It was as though they had been pierced by arrows of Cupid. About His head was an abundance of curly, matted brown hair. His hair was disheveled because His body was dirty and not taken care of. He appeared as if He were haunted by a ghost.
SB Canto 8
Her two breasts, which were symmetrical and nicely situated, were covered with sandalwood pulp and kuṅkuma powder, and her waist was very thin. As she walked here and there, her ankle bells jingling softly, she appeared like a creeper of gold.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya established four monasteries in India, in the four directions (north, south, east and west), and he entrusted them to four sannyāsīs who were his disciples. Now there are hundreds of branch monasteries under these four principal monasteries, and although there is an official symmetry among them, there are many differences in their dealings. The four different sects of these monasteries are known as Ānandavāra, Bhogavāra, Kīṭavāra and Bhūmivāra, and in course of time they have developed different ideas and different slogans.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
In the Vedic literature we understand that these things are so nicely being done as if there are so many plans, so many engineers and so many scientists, they are working. No. The nature is so made by the superior brain of the Supreme Lord, that it is going on automatically. Don't you see a flower, how it is beautifully decorated with paintings? A leaf, just symmetrically... You don't find any change. So this is going on. This is going on automatically. This is God's power. This is God's power. If you have got to paint one picture, one flower, oh, you have to take so much attention, and still, it may not be symmetrical. There may be some mistake. But in nature's way you see how many flowers, fruits and so many things are coming out automatically. Foolish people, they think it is being done automatically. No. Behind this thing there is the brain of Kṛṣṇa, behind everything. And because we do not see how it is being done due to our lack of knowledge, our less intelligence, we think it is being automatically done.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
These rascals, mūḍha... Mūḍha means rascal. They are deriding. They are thinking Kṛṣṇa as one of us. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is adhokṣaja. If you want to see Kṛṣṇa by your material speculation, you will never be able to see Kṛṣṇa. Yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ.
But one may say that "I can see Kṛṣṇa by my pious activities." No, that also not possible. "I can see Kṛṣṇa by my philosophical speculation." No, that is also not possible. "I can see Kṛṣṇa by practicing yoga." That is also not possible. Then how it is possible? Kṛṣṇa says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). This particular process you have to accept, bhaktyā. That is called bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje. Everything is there symmetrically in every Vedic literature. We have to take advantage of it and benefit ourself. So the summary is that Kṛṣṇa is beyond your material experimental knowledge. You cannot understand Kṛṣṇa by these material senses. It is not possible. Then bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga. Bhakti means to engage oneself in the service. The more you engage in the service of the Lord, (the) more you realize what is Kṛṣṇa.
Parīkṣit Mahārāja was so fortunate, so fortunate. From the very beginning of his life, he saw Kṛṣṇa. Just like this child. These are fortunate children. Yoginām... That... Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). This child who was dancing before me, he's not ordinary child. Otherwise how he could dance symmetrically? He had his practice in his previous life, and he has got the chance to get Vaiṣṇava father and mother, and from the very beginning of his life, he is chanting, dancing. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was like that. So to get the chance of having good father, śucīnāṁ... Śucīnām means brāhmaṇa-vaiṣṇava, especially brāhmaṇa. And śrīmatām. Śrīmatām means very rich. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has given his comment: śucīnām means highly cultured brāhmaṇa, and śrīmatām means highly rich vaiśya. So to take birth in this family, cultured family, rich family, is not ordinary thing. It is not ordinary thing. It is the result of pious activities, pious activities. The pious activities means you get your birth in a very good, aristocratic family, rich family or brāhmaṇa family. That is the result of pious activities.
This is called anuprāsa. It is literary beauty. Everything "ta." Tapas tapīyāṁs tapatāṁ samāhitaḥ. Anuprāsa. So many t's in one line. Tapas tapīyān. So in Bhāgavata, it is not that whimsically written. There is literary beauty, metaphor, simile, and what is called, symmetry, reason(?). Everything is complete. Not that whimsically a line, three lines, one line, and two lines, and it becomes a poetry. In Sanskrit poetry writing is not so easy. You have to follow so many rules and regulations. How many words in the beginning, first line, how many words in the second line. Sāhitya-darpaṇa. There is a book, Sāhitya-darpaṇa. Therefore it is called Sanskrit. Sanskrit, everything is reformed.
Everyone is thinking that he's independent, he can do whatever he likes. That is not possible. Then you'll be punished. Nature's law is so strict, stringent. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). You cannot escape the stringent laws of nature. Little discrepancy... Suppose you can eat eight ounce. If you eat nine ounce, then you will have to starve for three days. There is no excuse. "Why you have eaten more than eight ounce?" The nature says... Just like we require salt in our foodstuff, everyone. But if the salt is little more, it is useless. And if the salt is little less, that is also useless. It must be exactly to the quantity. So nature's law is like that. People, if they simply study nature's law, he becomes a learned scholar. There is no need of going to school, college. But if he sees how nature is working... You can see this flower. Every flower is so beautiful, nicely constructed symmetrically. You'll find two flowers, the small fiber coming out exactly in the same way. There is no question of accident. There is no question of accident. They are also being manipulated by the laws of nature. And what is the laws of nature? The laws of nature is acting under the supervision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
We do not see how Kṛṣṇa's energies are working, but it is working. Don't think that "It is automatically... There was a chunk and there was..." No. Not like that. Everything. But His energy is so perfect. Just like if you want to paint one nice flower, you have to arrange so many things—color, and the brush, and the painting cloth—and you have to apply your energies and... But still, it will not come so perfect. But Kṛṣṇa's energies are so perfect that we see automatically, but there is supervision of Kṛṣṇa. There is no question of accident. Everything is supervised. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. We have to do it with our hand, to paint a picture of a nice rose flower, but in the nature the flower is coming out. We see automatically. No. The Kṛṣṇa's energy is working, there but it is going on so swiftly, so, I mean to say, accurately, that he hasn't got to exact His energy, but it is working automatically. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. Whatever knowledge is required... If you have studied, you will find in the petals of the flower the color, exactly symmetrical, everything. Whatever color is required, it is coming out. We say "automatically." No automatically. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā. The knowledge and the action of Kṛṣṇa is so perfect, it is coming out.
Sanskrit language is very scholarly language, reformed. You cannot deviate even a line, even a letter in the sense, in the poetry, in the writing. There are all regulation, strict regulation, grammatical and metric and so many things. So nobody can surpass, not that... Just like nowadays we write poetry—one line is three hundred miles, one hundred, (chuckles) and only one mile. That sort of poetry will not be allowed in Sanskrit. You cannot adjust three hundred miles and one mile. No. It must be very symmetrical. That is Sanskrit language.
General Lectures
We have already understood that the whole manifestation is nothing but, I mean to say, demonstration of the different types of energies of the Supreme Lord. That is confirmed in the Vedas: parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). The Absolute Truth has varieties of energies, and they are so perfect and so perfectly working that it appears...Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. You take a flower, nice flower, how it is nicely painted, how it is symmetrically colored. But it is sprouting from the bud automatically. So we are seeing that if flower is coming out automatically... There is no such thing automatically. It is Kṛṣṇa's energy which is working there. It is Kṛṣṇa's energy. And if the energies are so perfect that we see that it is working automatically, that is because our energy is so limited. If I want to paint one nice flower, I have to arrange for so many things.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: That is already discussed: why it is so, probability, who takes it, who makes it not possible, how it happens. Sun is rising, and sun may not rise, stop. How it is? Accidentally or by somebody's will?
Śyāmasundara: He would say that it's accidental.
Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. Nothing is accidental. Everything is symmetrical. Therefore, we have to admit that supreme direction, and that is Kṛṣṇa, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: "Under My direction everything is going on." The sun is rising on His direction, and when He orders, the sun will not rise. But it is not accidental.
Prabhupāda: I will have to give meaning of my life? So what is that idea?
Hayagrīva: You must give meaning to your own life. Since, since there is no God to give life meaning, man must invent his own meaning.
Prabhupāda: Everyone will invent his meaning.
Hayagrīva: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Then where, where there will be symmetry?
Hayagrīva: Si..., similitude.
Prabhupāda: No, symmetry.
Devotee: Symmetry.
Prabhupāda: Yes. How the people will live peacefully in the society? I will give my own idea, you will give your own idea, he will give his own idea, then where there is collaboration? No, there is no possibility. Then it is chaotic condition. Then why do you want government? You live without government. You don't require government.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Why do they disagree, that animal has no soul? What is the point? Why do they say?
Italian Man (1): Because they don't like to identify themselves with animals. Because if they admit that animals have a soul, then they have to identity, means they are afraid of identifying with animals. They feel they are superior to animals. We are superior to animals, indeed, but...
Prabhupāda: That is by intelligence. We are superior to animals by superior intelligence, not by... Just like a human child. His father is superior than the child because the father has got superior intelligence, not that the child has no soul. The child talks so many nonsense things, but we take it, "After all, it is child." Nobody cares whether it is symmetrical or not, because his intelligence is not developed. So even the animals have no developed intelligence, that does not mean it has no soul. Yes. The evolution of different types of body means evolution of intelligence. Just like a flower, in the bud stage, the flower is there. But the fragrance or the beauty has not yet developed.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Harikeśa: Well, sometimes there is a freak of nature, and the pigments that are in the skin…
Prabhupāda: Simply it is for Darwin, "sometime." To support his rascaldom, nature has to serve him “sometimes. “Just see. We have to believe. Nature's law is the same, symmetrical. Nature is not obliged to serve Mr. Darwin, the rascal. Sometimes. He says, "sometimes." He did, and he knew it only and nobody knew. We have to believe that. Sometimes it was done, and it was revealed to Darwin. How he came to know? Nobody could understand. Only Darwin could understand? There was no other?
Harikeśa: Well, if you take that further, all of these changes that mount up to some big physical change.
Prabhupāda: No change is taken. The nature is working symmetrically always. The sun is rising in the morning. That is going on for million, million, million, millions of years.
Harikeśa: Gradually the change has taken place in a very scientific way, step by step.
Prabhupāda: Morning… In the morning the sun rises on the eastern side. That is going on. What change has taken place? This flower, seasonal flower is… Now seasonal changes—winter, summer, spring—everything is going on symmetrically. There is no change. Because it is going on symmetrically, therefore we can say that February, next February will be very nice season here. Why? Because we have got experience last February, so we are certain the same thing will happen in the next February. Therefore we can say. There is no such change. Nature's way. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi. It is very symmetrical. Everything is going on nicely, nature's way.
Prabhupāda: ...brain.
Brahmānanda: That's an accident. That's an accident.
Prabhupāda: Accident. All accidents make symmetrically so beautiful.
Harikeśa: So in the beginning only it was an accident. Then it became regular, after that first accident.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So in the beginning let us kick. Then things will be all right. (break) Bhagavad-gītā says in the beginning? Hm? What is the beginning?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: God is the Supreme Person, Supreme Being. Actually there is place where God lives. They do not know. This is first time, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are giving these ideas; otherwise, who knows it? Nobody knows it. The Christian or Muhammadan is... Nobody knows. And religion means to accept God as the Supreme Person. They do not know God. Then what is meaning of religion? Religion means to accept a Supreme Person as the supreme controller. That is religion. How the Supreme Person is working in manufacturing this flower, let the scientists explain. There is no brain? Just nicely painted, symmetrically, each flower of the same class; another class, another class, another class. (guests enters) Hare Kṛṣṇa.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whether you're sitting in here or sitting in Colombo, it's the same.
Prabhupāda: It is same thing. And I am taken from one place to another by chair. So where is the difficulty? There is no difficulty. It is difficulty by imagination.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: Otherwise no difficulty. Jaya Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. Nitāi-Gaura Rādhā-Śyāma, Jaya Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. It is symmetrical.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very symmetrical. Very... Actually it goes in my mind a lot now.
Correspondence
1969 Correspondence
Regarding Srimad-Bhagavatam, yes you may begin reading it at kirtana lectures. On someday you should read Bhagavad gita As It Is also, however. There will be an examination on Srimad-Bhagavatam, the entire First Canto, on Lord Caitanya's Appearance Day in February, 1970. Regarding responsive chanting, that is the preferred method, but if you think it will be better to chant nonresponsively at certain times, there is no harm. If you think that people will chant more if you do it non-responsively, then do it that way. It is the chanting that is required. But if it is done responsively, it will sound symmetrical and will appeal to the people. Regarding your final question, once something is offered to the Deity, it may not be offered again.
1970 Correspondence
I think the scheme of publishing Srimad-Bhagavatam chapter-wise decently is good, so that it will keep all of you engaged and the press going on. When all the chapters of the canto are printed, they can be assorted in one book form for hard bound publication. The size of the book must be symmetrical of my present Bhagavat editions—that is to say 6 1/2 inches by 9 1/2 inches. I think the present composition of the NOD is not to my standard; so whatever is done is done, but the Srimad-Bhagavatam must be to the standard size. If the books are printed in standard size (6 1/2 x 9 1/2), then the chapter pamphlets may be easily bound into a hard cover when all the chapters of the canto have been printed.
1971 Correspondence
Acyutananda is preparing those prayer booklets from here. You needn't divert your attention in that way. So far the painting of Bhismadeva.., you can show flowers actually falling from the sky. That is nice. And Lord Rama's arms should be kept in the original position, as is depicted in the print sent by Gurudasa. The arms must remain symmetrical.
| Page Title: | Symmetry |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Serene |
| Created: | 21 of Mar, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=5, CC=1, OB=1, Lec=10, Con=7, Let=3 |
| No. of Quotes: | 27 |