Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


That is real civilization

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.22 -- Hyderabad, November 26, 1972:

Try to understand Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa. You'll be liberated. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, you get liberation. Punar janma naiti. The whole activities, human society's activities, should be targeted how to get rid of this repetition of birth and death. That is real civilization. Not that "Let me live like a cat and dog and die like a cat and dog, and never mind what is happening next." This is a civilization of ignorance. This is not a civilization of knowledge. They are... Here is knowledge, that "I am trying to protect my body, this dress. I am every day soaping my garment, but I am not taking any food. How shall I... How long shall I live with this nice dress?" So one should understand this verse very seriously. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi (BG 2.22). It has been especially mentioned: nara. Nara means human being. The cats and dogs, they are changing their body, the same process, but they cannot understand. But here especially mentioned: nara. Human beings should understand this scientific knowledge that "Your, this body is just like a dress. It is changing." And we are changing... Just like according to price, we have a dress. If you go to a garment store, you can have nice dress if you pay more.

Lecture on BG 2.25 -- London, August 28, 1973:

So nānuśocitum arhasi. Kṛṣṇa here has said, "You are eternal. Your business is how to achieve that eternal position, and, so far the body is concerned, antavanta ime dehāḥ, this is destructible. So you should not be very much serious about this body." This is the distinction between the Vedic civilization, Aryan civilization. Vedic civilization means Aryan. And anāryan civilization. Anāryan civilization means bodily concept of life, and Aryan civilization means spiritual concept of life, how to make spiritually advancement. That is real civilization. Those who are compact in the thought of bodily comforts of life, they are all anāryas, and that is now deprecated, nānuśocitum arhasi: "Don't lament on these immaterial things."

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.2 -- London, August 15, 1971:

That I have several times explained. According to Prahlāda Mahārāja, dharmān bhāgavatān. Dharma means God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is dharma. That is religion. Dharmān bhāgavatān. So from the very beginning, in school, in primary schools, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be taught. That is real civilization. Unfortunately, there is no such arrangement. So you go to the authorities and the so-called authorities, rascals. Inform them that "Take this education. Introduce in the schools, colleges. Then there will be peace and prosperity. Otherwise there will be hippies. That's all. You may have very big, big universities, educational system, but the production will be hopeless, confused hippies. That's all." From the very beginning, the whole system should be changed, rascal civilization. Religion first. First religion, then pious activities. "I belong to this religion," but what is your activities? "Now, I'm debauch number one." You see?

Lecture on SB 1.16.21 -- Hawaii, January 17, 1974:

So in this way, if you analyze that everything is being maintained by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is real understanding of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how Kṛṣṇa is great, or God is great. So that is a real civilization of life, to understand, to appreciate, to appreciate the greatness of God. That is real civilization.

So, there is a process how to appreciate, how to become qualified to appreciate, and that system is called varṇāśrama-dharma, to divide the whole human society into four classes of men: the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra. And those who are not regulated, they are pañcamas, below the śūdras. So the, our subject matter was unlawful meat-eaters. So even the śūdras, who are meat-eaters, they're lawful meat-eaters. What is that lawful meat-eating? Lawful meat-eating is... In any religion, formerly, even the Muhammadans or Hindus or the Jews, they used to kill one animal as sacrifice. They used to kill. Not in the slaughterhouse. Even up to date, those who are strictly religious followers... Suppose the Muhammadans. There in the Koran, the injunction is that "You should sacrifice one animal in the mosque."

Lecture on SB 6.1.12 -- Honolulu, May 13, 1976:

So real civilization is how to go back to home, back to Godhead. But that they do not know. Na te viduḥ. The materialistic persons, they do not know. Therefore there must be organization, institution, to teach the human society how to go back to home, back to... That is real civilization. Otherwise cats and dogs, they are also eating, sleeping, mating, getting children, and dying. That is not human civilization. In the next verse we'll find that human civilization can be attained. The first thing is, thirteeth verse, tapasa, "by austerity."

Lecture on SB 7.6.6 -- Vrndavana, December 8, 1975:

Remain brahmacārī. But even he goes, only for twenty-five years. It is said, puṁso varṣa-śataṁ hy āyuḥ. So divide this varṣa-śatam, hundred years: twenty-five years, brahmacārī; twenty-five years, gṛhastha; twenty-five years, vānaprastha; and last twenty-five years, sannyāsa. That is real civilization, not that no brahmacārī, no vānaprastha, no sannyāsa, simply gṛhastha. They are not gṛhastha. They are called gṛhamedhi. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām (SB 2.1.2). There are two words, gṛhamedhi and gṛhastha. Gṛhastha means that is only for twenty-five years, not more than that. That is gṛhastha. And those who are gṛhastha up to the point of death, or unless he is killed, that is gṛhamedhi. Gṛhamedhi means he has made his center the wife and family. Just like one cow is, I mean, tied with the rope and with a fixed up wood, and he is going round this way, and he is thinking that he is going round the world. Yes. So gṛhamedhi means he has fixed up his center, the wife and children, and going round throughout the whole life, no ending. They are called gṛhamedhi. And gṛhastha means gṛhastha-āśrama. Gṛhamedhi-āśrama nei. Gṛhamedhi, only gṛhamedhi. And gṛhastha-āśrama. Gṛhastha-āśrama means it is as good as other āśrama, sannyāsa-āśrama, gṛhastha-āśrama.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Lecture -- New York, July 28, 1971:

The, in that sense, a tiger is better situated. He hasn't got to keep a slaughterhouse. By nature, he has got nails and jaws: immediately attack and finish. So these things are not advancement of civilization. Real civilization is how to understand your relationship with God, the supreme father. That is real civilization. You may learn it through any process. It doesn't matter. You learn your relationship with the supreme father through this Christianity. That's all right. Or through Vedic process. That's all right. Or Muhammadan, Koran process, that's all right. But you learn it. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not that we are out to make Christians Hindus, or Hindus Christian, or Muhammadan... No. Our propaganda is not that. Our propaganda is that "You are human being. Your business is to understand your relationship with God." That's all. You learn it. Anywhere you learn it, but you learn it. Otherwise you are simply wasting your time by animal propensities.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They cannot believe that other than this method, there can be civilization. This hoggish civilization is real civilization. To become like hog. That is real civilization. And to give up this process, thinking of soul, elevation of the soul, going back to Godhead, simply imagination, brainwashing. How they can understand? Mām aprāpya nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra vartmani (BG 9.3). Who can understand this? (Hindi) to return (Hindi) to the cycle of birth and death. You believe that. (Hindi) If you do not in this life achieve the sense of spiritual consciousness then you'll have to go back to the cycle of birth and death. Who will understand this philosophy? Mostly they do not know what is the cycle of birth and death, and what to speak of understanding God. This is the position. This is suar (pig) position. A suar cannot understand. The men have become like that. In the name of so-called civilization. Can a suar understand this philosophy? A man cannot understand. And what is the difference between him and the suar? Suar (Hindi) There is a narration, Brahmā came, and Indra became, by the curse of Bṛhaspati, became a suar. So he was living in the forest as suar. Brahmājī came, "All right, your punishment is now over. You come." "Where shall I go?" "The heaven?" "This is heaven." "You have got your kingdom, heaven. You have come to suffer this life." "No no, I cannot go." "Why?" "Now who will take responsibility for my, this suar?"

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Evening Darsana -- May 14, 1977, Hrishikesh:
Prabhupāda: Ṛṣabhadeva says, "This kind of advancement..." (break)...motorcar. "Gow! Gow! Gow! Gow!" Therefore He warns, "No, no, no, no. This is not civilization." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān (SB 5.5.1). "So much hard labor for sense gratification? This is not good." Then? What it is meant for? Tapo divyam. So human life is meant for tapasya, self-realization, ātma-śuddhi. Ātmā can be purified from the contamination of the material modes of nature by tapasya. That is real civilization. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam. Your existence will be purified. Now your existence is not purified. Therefore you have to accept birth and death, old age and disease. It is not purified. So here is the chance to purify your existence. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam. Brahman means the greatest, unlimited. You are hankering after happiness, but if you purify your existence, then you get unlimited happiness of Brahman. Anantam: "There is no end." Here, whatever happiness you are getting, that is not unlimited. Limited. That limited happiness is available in the life of cats and dogs also. So the human life is meant for tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam (SB 5.5.1).
Page Title:That is real civilization
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:28 of May, 2013
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=7, Con=2, Let=0
No. of Quotes:9