Vaikuntha planets (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"Vaikuntha loka" |"Vaikuntha lokas" |"Vaikuntha planet" |"Vaikuntha planets" |"Vaikunthaloka" |"Vaikunthalokas" |"Vaikunthas" |"planet of Vaikuntha" |"planets Vaikuntha"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 25, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: (Laughs) Yes. Your materialistic life is full of anxiety. That is the main symptom of materialistic life. We are always anxious, everyone. President Johnson, he's anxious, "Oh, my presidency is going on. Now I shall no longer be president." He's thinking, very much anxious. And, similarly, you are also thinking, another man is also thinking. Everyone is anxious. Nobody is free from anxiety. And when you go to Kṛṣṇaloka or any Vaikuṇṭha planet, the first thing is that you have no anxiety. That is spiritual life. Always joyful. (Baby cooing). No anxiety. Because she knows, "My mother is there. She will protect me from everything." So no anxiety means when you know that "Kṛṣṇa will protect me," you have no anxiety. To become in the family of Kṛṣṇa. We are already in the family of Kṛṣṇa, but in a different way. Just like if one is in the prisonhouse, he is in the government's protection, but in a different way.

Yamunā: Swamiji, Jānakī-devī wrote me this very nice letter where she had a dream that there was a gigantic platform above the surface of the earth, and all of our devotees, our Godbrothers and sisters and you, were assembled on this gigantic platform for saṅkīrtana. And we had such a thunderous joy, magnificent kīrtana, that the whole earth... When you said, "Jaya oṁ paraṁ paramahaṁsa," the whole earth bowed down to you like this. And we were all crying, so happy. And you said, "Now my Guru Mahārāja is satisfied." That was her dream.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Yes. Thank you for your dreaming like that. It is very pleasing to me. Yes, I want to see like that. (Break)

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: There are some special marks on the chest of Viṣṇu by which in Vaikuṇṭha He is known that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise, in Vaikuṇṭha, everyone has got the same feature like Viṣṇu. Just like if President Johnson comes here as a gentleman, you'll not, nobody will recognize him whether he's president or not unless he shows his special mark. Is it not? All government officers, big officers, they have got within the coat one, some mark. So far I know. So similarly, in Vaikuṇṭha the inhabitants, they got svarūpa. Their form is exactly like Viṣṇu. There is no difference. When the Viṣṇudūta came to take Ajamila from the hands of Yamadūta. They were four-handed with śankha-cakra-gadā-padma as Viṣṇu, the lotus flower, this disc, and the club, and the conchshell. There is no difference in the body. Simply by that special mark, some special hair on the chest and there is Bhṛgu, I mean to say, sole, sole, a mark of the feet of Bhṛgu Muni. So by some special marks one can recognize He is Viṣṇu. Otherwise, from bodily features and from dress and from ornaments, there is no distinction between Viṣṇu and His devotees in Vaikuṇṭha. They're all four-handed. Svarūpa sāyujya sālokya sārṣṭi. They have got equal, I mean to say, situation of prosperity, wealthy, equally, almost equally powerful. So practically there is no difference between Viṣṇu and Viṣṇu-bhakta. In Kṛṣṇaloka also. Only Kṛṣṇa is little blackish. Otherwise there is no... In the Kṛṣṇaloka they are two-handed, and Viṣṇuloka they are four-handed. All the Vaikuṇṭhas, the residents, they are four-handed. You want four-hand or two-hand? (laughter) Mr. Murti? What do you want? Four hands?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Conversation -- September 28, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...planet, Vaikuṇṭha planet, and Kṛṣṇa comes to show us the ideal place in Vṛndāvana. The sample Vṛndāvana is here. So why do you say it is utopian?

Jayatīrtha: (indistinct) ideal. The material world isn't very ideal.

Prabhupāda: That is the imitation of the ideal.

Jayatīrtha: Some people are trying to make it ideal, trying to make this place ideal.

Prabhupāda: There must be something ideal; otherwise how they will try to make it ideal? They are trying to be immortal. Unless there is something immortal, how they...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The actual ideality is there.

Prabhupāda: That is explained in Bhāgavatam: satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi (SB 1.1.1). Finally proof.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: If there would be no ideality, the scientists cannot think about ideality itself.

Devotee (1): (indistinct) think about the concept of living eternally because this was the teaching of the church that I was going to. And I used to become very frightened at having to go on and on forever because I couldn't imagine what I'd be doing during all that time. I used to try to put some end to it all. Now in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we understand that eternity is filled up with ideal activities and that eternal life is very blissful and full of knowledge. This concept is not there in any other teaching. (indistinct)

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Material world, there is evolution because there is birth. But in the spiritual world there is no birth. Birth, death, old age, disease, these things are not there. There is no question of evolution. Evolution means to transmigrate from one body to another. But there is no such thing. Everyone is eternal. There is no death, there is no transmigration. This is botheration. Therefore spiritual world means all the varieties of the material world, less botheration, minus botheration.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But in the Vaikuṇṭha planets...

Prabhupāda: Just like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa had so many girlfriends. There are so many nice descriptions of embracing, kissing, but there is no pregnancy or abortion. There is no description of such things. And that is spiritual world. The attraction for young boy, young girl is there also. They are also enjoying their company. Everything is there. But there is no such thing as pregnancy and abortion. Here people do not want that, pregnancy and abortion. But they are forced to do it because there are so many inebrieties here. That thing is minus in the spiritual world. They are also attracted by the bodily features of the women. There is attraction, but they are more attracted by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Therefore this bodily attraction of woman does not affect them. Just like if you have got better attraction, you don't care for the lower attraction. The attractions are there. The body of the woman is very beautiful. But men are not so much attracted with the body of the woman. They are more attracted to Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. These are described in the Bhāgavata. Here also, practically we see, those who are attracted by the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, they are not very much attracted with the bodily features of the women. Is it not?

Morning Walk -- May 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Understanding that in the spiritual world... In the Vaikuṇṭha planets, we get that all the inhabitants are four-handed forms of Nārāyaṇa?

Prabhupāda: Yes, exactly like Nārāyaṇa. Their bodily features... Just like here, you cannot distinguish by the bodily feature who is President Nixon, who is a common man. You cannot distinguish by the bodily feature. Similarly, there also, you cannot distinguish who is a common man and who is Personality of Godhead. They are like that.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But still, there are plants and all the living entities in the Vaikuṇṭha...

Prabhupāda: They know. Because they have full knowledge, "He knows here is God. Although he is four-handed, I am four-handed, but here is God." Because there is full knowledge. That is the difference. Here we are selecting some rascal as God, because we have no full knowledge. There, in the Vaikuṇṭha planets, although the common citizens and God is of the same feature of the bodily, but they know, "Here is God, the Supreme." He has got special signs in the... Yes, that's all. Just like the king or the president, we may make mistake. We may accept somebody as "Here is president." No. But the associates of the president, he knows. They know that "Here is president." Similarly, there is no question of mistake there. Four kinds of defects of material life—to commit mistake, to become illusioned, to cheat, and imperfection of the senses—these things are not there. Everyone's senses are perfect. When he sees God, he sees perfectly. He does not mistake. He is not illusioned. And there is no cheating and there is no imperfection of the senses. There is no mistake. These are spiritual life.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So all the living entities are completely satisfied.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: That is also chanting. When you talk of Kṛṣṇa, that is also chanting. Kīrtana, kīrtana means kīrtayati, talking, speaking. Just like Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Parīkṣit Mahārāja: śrī-viṣṇoḥ śravaṇe parīkṣit. The item is śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). About Viṣṇu, to hear and chant. So simply by hearing about Viṣṇu, Parīkṣit Mahārāja became liberated. Śrī-viṣṇoḥ śravaṇe parīkṣid abhavad vaiyāsakiḥ kīrtane. Vaiyāsaki, the son of Vyāsadeva, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he became perfect kīrtane, by kīrtana. But he... He was... He did not chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, but he recited Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So that is also kīrtana. Talking of Kṛṣṇa, that is also kīrtana. Kīrtana does not always mean that you have to chan... You have to engage yourself always in glorifying the Lord. Just like Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. He was a busy emperor of the world, but he engaged himself... Sa vai puṁsām... kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). He fixed up his mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. This is first. If you fix up your mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then: sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane and he was talking only describing and glorifying Vaikuṇṭha. God's another name is Vaikuṇṭha. In Madras they say Veṅkateśvara. Vaikuṇṭha. Kuṇṭha means anxiety. So God has no anxiety, and God's devotees have no anxiety. Therefore they are vaikuṇṭha. Here in the material world everyone has got anxiety. Therefore it is kuṇṭha, the world of kuṇṭha, anxieties. Everyone. Birds, beasts, human beings. There must be kuṇṭha. So God is Vaikuṇṭha. The vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane. This is also chanting, kīrtana, to describe about Vaikuṇṭha. Vaikuṇṭhaloka, Vaikuṇṭha person, Vaikuṇṭha devotees. So this is the remedy of bhavauṣadhi. Bhava. Bhava means to take birth. Bhava. This is called bhava-saṁsāra, this material world. Here bhava, you take birth, you live for some time, again you die, again take birth. This is going on.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No, this is in Bhāgavata.

Revatīnandana: I see. But that seeing...

Prabhupāda: That seeing is not ānanda. Seeing is ānanda, undoubtedly, but seeing and talking and becoming friend, that is higher. Friend or conjugal lover, father, mother. That kind of seeing is different.

Revatīnandana: If that yogi quits his body in that condition, does he attain a Vaikuṇṭha planet?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: (break) Is it possible that if he was... This is a question that sometimes a devotee has asked me. If a yogi does attain a Vaikuṇṭha planet, but by his constitutional nature he is meant to be associated with Kṛṣṇa in Goloka...

Prabhupāda: No, why not with Viṣṇu. Vaikuṇṭha is Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa. That is also... But there Nārāyaṇa is worshiped with awe and veneration. He is God. No friendship as in Vṛndāvana. That is not possible. Vipralambha-sakhya. Aiśvarya, aiśvarya, opulence. There the Supreme Lord is taken in aiśvarya, opulences. Not aiśvarya-sthiti. In Vṛndāvana the devotees, they practically do not know that Kṛṣṇa is God. "He is our very beloved friend." That's all. They doesn't care to know whether He is God or not. Here the conception of God. Vaikuṇṭha, "Oh, here is God," with awe and veneration, respect.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So far (I) know, those planets are here within this material world.

Revatīnandana: Wherever He is appearing.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Even Rāmacandra's. So far I have...

Revatīnandana: On all the Vaikuṇṭhas, Kṛṣṇa is in His catur-bhuja, four-armed form?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Revatīnandana: But those devotees will eventually go there. Those kind of devotees like devotees of Sītā-Rāma, they will also attain the spiritual sky in their various positions.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Revatīnandana: All right. Thank you very much. (offers obeisances)

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Jānakī: One is rice and the other baḍā.

Prabhupāda: What are there?

Jānakī: Milk, hot.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Hṛdayānanda: Like in the Bhāgavatam, Arjuna said like money created by magic word.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. Prāpti-siddhi. Now we are flying by aeroplane. A yogi can fly without any instrument. As Durvāsā Muni, he went even Vaikuṇṭha-loka. Not Vaikuṇṭha-loka. Within this planet, there is one planet where, Śvetadvīpa, Lord Viṣṇu lives. He went there and saw Lord Viṣṇu personally to request him to save him. He refused, "No, I cannot. You go to Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, beg pardon of him. If he pardons, then you will be saved." So to a devotee, innocent devotee, he had to fall down on his lotus feet, "Please save me." So what is the power of yogi?

Devotee: Is the pure devotee more merciful than Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, yes. Because Viṣṇu could not excuse him, but as soon as he came to Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, fell down, and "You take all my assets of pious activities. You be saved immediately." That is Vaiṣṇava. When he begged, humble, "Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, you save me, I am in danger." "Yes, you take all my pious activities' result. You be saved immediately." That is devotee. Viṣṇu refused, "No, I cannot give you protection." Therefore he is more merciful, although he was attacked, he was harassed. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was merciful, "Let them enjoy. I don't want to kill them." Kṛṣṇa said, "You must kill. You must kill. Why you are deviating from your path? You must kill." Therefore he taught him Bhagavad-gītā, just to induce him to kill. But he was merciful, "No, they have done so much wrong to me, never mind. They are my relatives. I excuse. I don't want to fight." Yes. This is Bhagavad-gītā. You see? Arjuna is more merciful than Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa wanted to see them all killed because they were, I mean to say, offender to the devotee. Last time, Kṛṣṇa says, "Arjuna, you fight or not fight, it is already settled. They are not going back home. They will be killed here. If you like, you take the credit. That's all. It is already settled." Then Arjuna understood that "My Lord is so persistent. (laughter) Why shall I resist Him? All right, I will do what He says."

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Hrishikesh, yes, that is Haridvar. So one yogi friend was coming to my father. He said that, he said that "I went with my Guru Mahārāja." They simply sit down and touch guru and after few minutes, he's in Dvārakā. This is, this is yogic power. What your aeroplane will do? Just like Durvāsā Muni, he traveled all over the universe, up to the Vaikuṇṭhaloka within one year. But according to modern calculation, they say, with light year, in forty thousand light years we can approach to the highest planet. Is it not? If they want to go to the topmost planet, how much, how many years it will take? Is there an estimation? But, so far I know, I heard it that, someplace... They have estimated it will take forty thousand leap year. Now, leap year is beyond our calculation. What is called leap year? Light year.

Hṛdayānanda: Light year.

Devotees: Light year.

Prabhupāda: Light year.

Hṛdayānanda: The speed of light.

Prabhupāda: Light year. That is beyond our estimation. And that, such forty thousand. But it is just in your front. We see so many stars out there. You cannot go. Even if you can go, are you going to live for forty thousand light years? So what is your power? Why you are so much proud.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Ah, mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ. Mad-bhāvam, "My nature." "My nature" means spiritual nature. Kṛṣṇa is spirit. Or the another nature. This is material nature. This is another nature. That is kingdom of God, spiritual nature, Vaikuṇṭha planet. Āgatāḥ: "They came." Every information is there, every opportunity is there. Simply they are not educated. Therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for educating these rascals. That's all. They are mad after sense gratification. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ, mad. From the morning, as soon as they rise, "Give me a cup of tea, immediately I have to go to there and there and there." What you will do then? "Yes, I will die. I will die in a motor accident. They are waiting for me." All right, go. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). All kinds of forbidden works they are doing. What? What is the purpose? Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaye. Purpose is only sense gratification. The rascal does not know that "I am doing all these sinful activities for sense gratification, and I will have to accept a very low-grade body." That he does not know. He has already got one low-grade body. He is suffering only. And he will still get another low-grade body, more suffering. That he does not know. But still, he will do everything for sense gratification. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti na sādhu manye: (SB 5.5.4) "Oh, it is not good." Na sādhu manye yata ātmano' yam: "This kind of activities will cover your soul by body." "Well, this body is temporary. Don't bother." Then another body, rascal. This body is temporary, but you get another body, most abominable. Why you are doing like this? Asann api. Although this body is temporary, but why don't you understand that it is kleśada: It is always subjected to miserable condition of material life. Kleśada. This is kleśada, another body you get, kleśada. Any body you get, kleśada. Why do you get this? Stop these activities. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: How the house will be brought there?

Karandhara: Well, they plan on in the future building stations and...

Prabhupāda: The water has to be taken from the station?

Karandhara: Yes. Air, water, everything has to be taken.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And still they must go there. And we are proposing another planet, Vaikuṇṭha planet. They are not willing to go there.

Yogeśvara: They have found one use for all this space travel. They've decided to... They've experimented grounding lenses, grinding lenses in outer space since there's less dust. They can grind lenses that are more perfect.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Spectacle glass. Good advantage.

Bhagavān: There's another purpose. Instead of testing bombs on the earth, they are trying to test bombs on the moon.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1974, Geneva:

Bhagavān: Over here Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Look up in the sky here and you can see all the different planets and stars. Can you also look up into the sky, the brahma-jyotir, and see all the different Vaikuṇṭha planets?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. The space is three-fourths there. Here the space is one fourth. In one-fourth space there are unlimited number of universes, ananta-koṭi. This material world is situated in a one-fourth space, and three-fourths space, in the spiritual world. Just imagine how big it is. There the Vaikuṇṭha planets, each planet is as big as the universe, so big. There are aeroplanes also. It is described in the Second Canto of Bhāgavatam.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: When one looks up towards Goloka Vṛndāvana. Just as the... There's a description in Brahma-saṁhitā of Goloka Vṛndāvana with the lotus petals, corolla of lotus petals.

Prabhupāda: No. Lotus... These Vaikuṇṭhas are like lotus petals, and the Kṛṣṇaloka is the middle portion, whorl of the lotus. This way? (some talking in background, French) (break)

Prabhupāda: So their body and your body has nothing to do individually. Harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...living entities. As soon as there is opportunity, they are coming up. (break) ...as have got experience within this planet there is water. And the watermelons, they grow very nicely in the desert. And you see, within the watermelon, there is water. So wherefrom this water is coming? Hm? Wherefrom the water is coming.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They will fall down. Śāstra says. They will fall down. The same example: if I ask you that "You sit down in this vacant land and you live eternally," you will leave this place: "No, no, I don't want this eternity. Let me go to Calcutta." (laughter) (break) ...perpetually. So that is wanted. The spiritual kingdom is Brahman effulgence, and there are Vaikuṇṭha planets. So if you take shelter of the Vaikuṇṭha planet, then you can stay. And if you take simply the impersonal Brahmān, sky, you cannot stay there. Arūhya kṛcchreṇa patanty adhaḥ. So without varieties, simply impersonal conception of Brahmān will not make you happy.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: The descriptions of Goloka Vṛndāvana, that even the dust is personal... So we have experience of personal form. Even Kṛṣṇa's form is personal. How is the dust of Vṛndāvana personal? How is it individual living entity?

Prabhupāda: If you want something from this dust, you cannot get it. That is material. But in Vṛndāvana, even from the dust if you want any, he will deliver immediately.

Jayapatāka: Would you like to see the land that we have got here, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatāka: Just take one moment. (break)

Rāmeśvara: ...for enjoying, but if He's our friend...

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa, not that "I told him, and he did not do. I am free. That's all." (laughs) Expansion of order, and nobody is doing—not like that. One has to see whether it is done. That is Kṛṣṇa. Not that I have told the another man and sleep myself. And Kṛṣṇa does everything in such a way perfect. Pūrṇam idam (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). Nobody can find out any defect. That is Kṛṣṇa, all-perfect. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...in the Vaikuṇṭhas, surrounding Nārāyaṇa is Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So five are present. Pañca-tattva.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, you say that Kṛṣṇa is pūrṇam, the complete whole. So in the material world, if something is very great, even though we may not like it, like people may not like the United States, but still, they have to admit that it is a very great country in comparison to theirs. So in the material world, things which are great, at least we have to admit that to some extent they are great. But Kṛṣṇa is everything. So how is it that people are saying that He's so tiny that He may even be an ordinary man? How can they be so illusioned to think like that? Kṛṣṇa is everything. How can they ignore Him?

Prabhupāda: Illusioned because you do not know what Kṛṣṇa says. That is your fault. Kṛṣṇa says, "You do this," but you do not do that. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. Who is doing that? Just take a census, who is thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Hardly you will find one in million. So who is carrying out the order of Kṛṣṇa? Nobody is doing.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You are. But Śrīla Prabhupāda, how is it that Kṛṣṇa is everything, completely...

Morning Walk -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Madhudviṣa: It seems there would be a lot of impersonalists.

Prabhupāda: No, more than them, there are personalists. They are in Vaikuṇṭhaloka.

Devotee 3: (break) ...in the material world.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee 3: Is there any real happiness?

Prabhupāda: That is material world, no happiness.

Devotee 4: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is the advantage of going to India, to Vṛndāvana?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee 4: What is the advantage of going...

Prabhupāda: To get impetus to go back to home, back to Godhead. To come to Australia we get impetus to go to hell. (laughter) (break) Hell means anywhere where material happiness is given more importance. Mahat-sevāṁ dvā r a m āhur vimuktes tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi... In the western countries and..., they are simply busy in sense gratification. So that is the way of hell. (break)

Devotee 5: ...said that "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God."

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Press Conference -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda:

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya

jñānāñjana-śalākayā

cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena

tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

(I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who with the torchlight of knowledge has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance.)

Ladies and gentlemen, regarding Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement... (about microphone:) It is working? We are talking about the spiritual existence of the living being. By evolutionary process we come to the human form of life, and here we have got developed consciousness. We can decide now which way to go forward. There are different planetary system. That we can experience. We can see innumerable planets, upwards and downwards. So the upper planetary system is called Svargaloka, or the heavenly planets, and the middle planetary system is called Martyaloka or Bhurloka, in which we are staying at the present moment, and the down planetary system is called Pātālaloka or downwards. Downwards means fall down, upwards means getting promotion, and middle means we remain where we are now. That is... Indication is given in the Bhagavad-gītā, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā: (BG 14.18) "Those who are cultivating the modes of goodness, they are promoted to the higher planetary system." And madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. "Those who are passionate or under the modes of passion, they remain in the middle planetary system." And jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ: "And those (whose) character is very abominable, they go down." And beyond this, there is another nature. That is called spiritual nature, which is beyond this material universe. There, we understand, that is eternal. This material nature is not eternal. It is manifested or created, and again it is dissolved or annihilated. But beyond this material nature, there is another nature. There are also innumerable planets. They are known as Vaikuṇṭha planets or Vṛndāvana planets.

Morning Walk -- November 7, 1975, Bombay:

Bhāgavata: Oh. You didn't want a separate building.

Prabhupāda: No. We wanted to display where is...

Passerby: Oh, haribol!

Prabhupāda: The Vaikuṇṭha planet, where is the Goloka planet, where is this material world—in this way.

Bhāgavata: So if that's what you want, then we should not make a permanent structure? We should make some temporary structure like last year.

Prabhupāda: That you decide yourself.

Bhāgavata: So we should engage the local dollmakers in doing this.

Prabhupāda: First of all you have your place; then make dolls. But dolls should not be exactly like this, in the same way. But when you make actually, then I will give you how the models should be made. Now, how to do, where to do, that, it is your business. You decide, some of yourself, and do the needful. You have not yet done any plan for the big temple?

Saurabha: I have been asking Jayapataka for about one year to please send me some plan of the land so that I can place all these buildings, because there is no...

Bhāgavata: The blueprints are done. Jayapataka is revising them now. They are in Māyāpur. He is reviewing all the blueprints. They are all done. And when they are finished... When he finishes reviewing them, then we'll have them sent here immediately. I just sent them to Māyāpur.

Saurabha: As soon as I get the plans, I will make immediately, finish everything. We can make a master plan for the whole situation.

Prabhupāda: So ask him to send immediately site plan and begin.

Morning Walk -- November 7, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He approached me that "You just have a big hall in the Yogapīṭha." I immediately accepted, that "Yes, if you give us the charge we can spend immediately ten lakhs." So Śrīdhara Mahārāja has said that "If it is gone to Swami Mahārāja, then there will be no trace of Tīrtha Mahārāja." Therefore he is trying for that. So I think we shall have, according to our original plan, the temple, and in that temple we shall display all these dolls: "Here is Vaikuṇṭhaloka, here is this loka, this loka, this loka." That will be... (break) ...we make some arrangement for exhibition of our books very nicely.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They're going to have booths in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That Tīrtha Mahārāja will not be able to show.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Never.

Prabhupāda: He has no capacity.

Yaśomatīnandana: He will display only one Brahma-saṁhitā, that also by Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī.

Bhāgavata: So we will make a very nice book display. I will see that there is a very nice book display made with the Caitanya-caritamṛtas and the Bhāgavatams displayed. (break) ...the governor of Bengal, and he was quite congenial. He was friendly. And he agreed that if we contact him and make the proper arrangements he might come and see you there when you come to Māyāpur.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...from the Bhāgavatam. So this should be mentioned. It is not only a temple, but a planetarium according to Bhāgavatam, where which planet is situated, where is Vaikuṇṭhaloka, where is Goloka Vṛndāvana, where is Mahar...

Devotees: Wow!

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want a real planetarium just like in the West.

Jayapatākā: That's what I told them, Prabhupāda...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: ...that this is not a temple; this is like a big cultural exposition, museum, planetarium.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Boy, Prabhupāda, the people will pay... Everyone will pay a rupee to go in and see that. One rupee for that, one rupee to ride the escalator.

Prabhupāda: And there will be escalator to take them to different planetary system. Mention there.

Bhavānanda: My father... In those planetariums, they use a machine in the center that shoots out light. My father helped to invent that, so we could probably...

Prabhupāda: So bring your father. Father and son, both together. He is... Where he is?

Bhavānanda: In America.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They'll come like that.

Hṛdayānanda: Jaya.

Trivikrama: The road must be bigger.

Devotee (1): Two lanes. They'll probably have...

Prabhupāda: Within that temple, there will be the tree of planetary system, electric bulb, and they'll move round. And upon that, sun will run. That requires electrical mechanism. (break) ...all side, other, different planets, Vaikuṇṭha-loka.... There will be escalator to go.

Yaśodānandana: I think in some of the Western countries they have these elevators with brass windows all around, so that one can, even though he's going up, he still sees all around. It would be very fascinating for these people.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What to speak of escalators?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What to speak of escalators?

Yaśodānandana: And that light system.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People will pay just to get on that escalator every day. (laughter)

Pañca-draviḍa: In Los Angeles they have installed a speed walk at the airport, an escalator that you can walk on.

Prabhupāda: So you are not going to Calcutta? Calcutta?

Morning Walk -- March 26, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: In the material world the poor man thinks, "Oh, this gentleman has got such big, big house. If I could have one." Eh? And the spiritual world, without desiring there are so many big, big house we have got.

Guru dāsa: Everyone can ride in the airplane in the spiritual world because everything is a pleasure trip for Kṛṣṇa. You've written in a purport in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that in the Vaikuṇṭha planets everyone can ride in the airplanes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, there is. (break) They say that when they're combined, there will be life, but the way of analysis we suggest is not complete?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The fact remains that even if they have a completely combined body, say a dead body, they still can't bring life back to it.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even if there is a body that's already combined-say someone has just died—they still can't bring life back.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we shall go this way or that way? Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This way, Śrīla Prabhupāda, into the temple room.

Prabhupāda: (break—room) So what is the news? Your wife and son?

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What you can do? If I take your blood, what you can do? You'll die, that's all. Hm.

Hṛdayānanda:

na tad bhāsayate sūryo

na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ

yad gatvā na nivartante

tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

(BG 15.6)

"That abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by electricity. One who reaches it never returns to this material world." Purport? "The spiritual world, the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, which is known as Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka Vṛndāvana, is described here. In the spiritual sky there is no need of sunshine, moonshine, fire or electricity, because all the planets are self-luminous. We have only one planet in this universe, the sun, which is self-luminous, but all the planets in the spiritual sky are self-luminous. The shining effulgence of all those planets, called Vaikuṇṭhas, constitutes the shining sky known as the brahma-jyotir. Actually, the effulgence is emanating from the planet of Kṛṣṇa, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Part of that shining effulgence is covered by the mahat-tattva, the material world. Other than this, the major portion of that shining sky is full of spiritual planets, which are called Vaikuṇṭhas, the chief of which is Goloka Vṛndāvana. As long as a living entity is in this dark material world, he is in conditional life, but as soon as he reaches the spiritual sky, by cutting through the false, perverted tree of this material world, he becomes liberated.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Duryodhana-guru: (break) It says in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). So this refers to someone who has attained Brahman realization, that he must fall down because he does not take shelter at Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. Does this also refer to someone who has attained paramātmā realization?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Unless one reaches Vaikuṇṭha planet, nobody is safe. (break)

Rāmeśvara: ...to the reporter?

Bharadvāja: What did he say?

Rāmeśvara: He said that's all right, because the fish are happy.

Prabhupāda: And why did you not say that "I'll eat you"? (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: We told him it would take him one million years to get human birth again, and he was shocked.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it's a fact.

Rāmeśvara: (break) ...say that when the unemployment problem becomes very great, it will cause the government to start wars with other countries just to engage the men.

Prabhupāda: Where the government will get money?

Mahendra: They'll print it. (break)

Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Then everything is done automatically. There's no need of contraceptive method. If one is trained up to indulge in sex only for begetting nice children, there is already contraceptive method. There is no necessity of unnecessarily producing cats and dogs children. So that requires training, determination. The śāstra says you should not become father if you cannot train up your children to save him from death. Who is the father who's training? To save him from the cycle of birth and death means to make him Kṛṣṇa conscious. So if you are not yourself Kṛṣṇa conscious, how you can train up your children to become Kṛṣṇa conscious? This is determination, that "If I cannot train my children to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and thus avoid the botheration of birth and death, I shall not have sex." That determination will save so many troubles. That can be done by practice. By engaging the mind in Kṛṣṇa, it is possible. The more you advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you'll lose interest in this sex life. In Vaikuṇṭha there is no sex life because the sex pleasure is not the foremost pleasure in the Vaikuṇṭhaloka. The sex pleasure is foremost here in this material world. They have got so much transcendental spiritual pleasure, this sex pleasure—they are astonished: is that pleasure? (Makes spitting sound) Phu! Yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde nava-nava-rasa-dhāma... That stage is possible. Still there are so many brahmacārīs. So everything depends on practice. Abhyāsa yoga-yuktena (BG 8.8). That requires determination. (aside:) Where did you go, to take bath?

Pālikā: This house just across.

Prabhupāda: There is water? Well? No.

Pālikā: There are barrels there, filling them daily.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: The defect of modern civilization is that they have no idea about liberation. Neither they have any idea about transmigration of the soul. From the very root, they are defective. They are thinking... Just like animals. Dog is thinking, "I am this dog. I am born dog and I'll die, that's finished, everything." He cannot think that "I can become also man." He cannot think that. So the modern civilization, they cannot think even that there is next life and we can go... They have got the tendency to go to the higher planetary system, moon. Artificially, they are trying, but they do not know. Just like they can go to any planet, sarvaga. Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṛn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25). They do not know this, although they have got the tendency to go. But they do not know how to go, positively what are the position of the different planets or Vaikuṇṭhaloka or liberation or next life, transmigration—nothing of the sort. Simply like dogs. Now consider this point, whether I'm speaking right or wrong. I know I am speaking the right thing, but if you deny, then you talk amongst yourselves.

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, they think that liberation means that you can do anything you like, that you are free from any moral or ethic...

Prabhupāda: That is the rascaldom. That is rascaldom. Just like in prison house, if a prisoner thinks that he can do whatever he likes, that is rascaldom. That is going on. The modern civilization is rascaldom. He is seeing practically that he's under the control of material nature, and still he thinks that "I can do whatever I like." This is rascaldom.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The Christian conception of salvation was more one of being saved from hell rather than an attraction for some transcendental reality.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Fifth Chapter?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: "This chapter is chiefly devoted to describing the essential nature and glories of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the absolute Personality of Godhead, and His first expansion in a form for pastimes is Śrī Balarāma. Beyond the limitation of this material world is the spiritual sky, paravyoma, which has many spiritual planets, the supreme of which is called Kṛṣṇaloka. Kṛṣṇaloka, the abode of Kṛṣṇa, has three divisions, which are known as Dvārakā, Mathurā and Gokula. In that abode the Personality of Godhead expands Himself into four plenary portions-Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Pradyumna (the transcendental Cupid) and Aniruddha. They are known as the original quadruple forms. In Kṛṣṇaloka is a transcendental place known as Śvetadvīpa, or Vṛndāvana. Below Kṛṣṇaloka, in the spiritual sky, are the Vaikuṇṭha planets. On each Vaikuṇṭha planet a four-handed Nārāyaṇa, expanded from the first quadruple manifestation, is present. The Personality of Godhead known as Śrī Balarāma in Kṛṣṇaloka is the original Saṅkarṣaṇa (attracting Deity), and from this Saṅkarṣaṇa expands another Saṅkarṣaṇa, called Mahā-Saṅkarṣaṇa, who resides in one of the Vaikuṇṭha planets. By His internal potency, Mahā-Saṅkarṣaṇa maintains the transcendental existence of all the planets in the spiritual sky, where all the living beings are eternally liberated souls. The influence of the material energy is conspicuous there by its absence. On those planets the second quadruple manifestation is present. Outside of the Vaikuṇṭha planets is the impersonal manifestation of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, which is known as the Brahmaloka. On the other side of the Brahmaloka is the spiritual kāraṇa-samudra, or Causal Ocean. The material energy exists on the other side of the Causal Ocean, without touching it.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Vedic Astronomer -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There was a Gosāi. He was reading Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So the description of the planetary system there is. He used to say to his audience, "Actually these things are not there. These are imaginary descriptions." He was such a fool. So the whole world has taken like that, "symbolic, imagination."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And he was lecturing on Caitanya-caritāmṛta. I think you mentioned that one of your Godbrothers once said to you, "You really believe that there is such a place, Kṛṣṇaloka, Vaikuṇṭhaloka?" He was himself...

Prabhupāda: Bon Mahārāja did not believe. No... Nobody ever thought of it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are the only representative, the lone representative of religion left on this planet, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So what to do? He has wasted so much money. He's not the proper man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Why not let us try to find out some man locally here in Bombay?

Prabhupāda: Very difficult. You can try.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I mean, there's just as good a chance he'll find him here as anywhere else. And it won't cost anything.

Prabhupāda: "Astronomer knowing the planetary system," you can advertise. "Expert astronomer who knows the planetary systems as described..."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "...in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam."

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If there is no training, naturally it will deteriorate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...and millions of Vaikuṇṭhalokas, planets, and the topmost planet is Goloka Vṛndāvana. This is the spiritual nature. This is material, within this universe, and that is spiritual. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ: (BG 8.20) "another nature, which is indestructible." This is the whole situation. Now, how you show it, that you think over. This is only fragmental part of material creation. And each universe is floating in the..., like a football. Football floats in the water. It is like that. And each universe, half filled up with water, Garbhodakaśāyī. And the planetary system is hanging on that half filled-up water.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Above it.

Prabhupāda: Hm. And if it is dropped, it falls in the ocean, as once it was. Varāha-mūrti saved.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Earth fell.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Earth, planet earth, fell down.

Prabhupāda: This is like that. So you have to, as far as possible... If you can you have to demonstrate, "This is planetary system." So at least we shall show what is going on within this universe. And above... And each universe is covered with seven material elements. Each covering is ten times more than the other covering, earth, water, air, fire. A wonderful creation. And how it will be shown? So I have decided, therefore, that let us show something about this planetary, er, this universe. And others, we give idea. How it will be done, you think over as far as possible. (laughs)

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is that bell?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That bell? It didn't ring four times earlier. (discusses with Upendra) Yeah, there is a bell in the front of the temple which people sometimes ring as they enter. Do you want to hear the purport to this verse? Yes? Purport. There are two sides of the transcendental manifestations of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. For the pure devotees He is the constant companion, as in the case of His becoming one of the family members of the Yadu dynasty, or His becoming the friend of Arjuna, or His becoming the associate neighbor of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, as the son of Nanda-Yaśodā, the friend of Sudāmā, Śrīdāmā and Madhumaṅgala, or the lover of the damsels of Vrajabhūmi, etc. That is part of His personal features. And by His impersonal feature He expands the rays of the brahma-jyotir, which is limitless and all-pervasive. Part of this all-pervasive brahma-jyotir, which is compared to the sun rays, is covered by the darkness of the mahat-tattva, and this insignificant part is known as the material world. In this material world there are innumerable universes like the one we can experience, and in each of them there are hundreds of thousands of planets like the one we are inhabiting. The mundaners are more or less captivated by the unlimited expansion of the rays of the Lord, but the devotees are concerned more with His personal form, from which everything is emanating (janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1)). As the sun rays are concentrated in the sun disc, the brahma-jyotir is concentrated in Goloka Vṛndāvana, the topmost spiritual planet in the spiritual sky. The immeasurable spiritual sky is full of spiritual planets, named Vaikuṇṭhas, far beyond the material sky. The mundaners have insufficient information of even the mundane sky, so what can they think of the spiritual sky? Therefore the mundaners are always far, far away from Him. Even if in the future they are able to manufacture some machine whose speed may be accelerated to the velocity of the wind or mind, the mundaners will still be unable to imagine reaching the planets in the spiritual sky. So the Lord and His residential abode will always remain a myth or a mysterious problem, but for the devotees the Lord will always be available as an associate.