Varieties of life (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"Life without variety is not possible" |"Varieties, the bodies, there are 8,400,000 varieties" |"human form life. There also variety, 400,000's of varieties" |"in other planet or in next life there are varieties" |"life in the varieties of representation" |"life, there are varieties" |"life, varieties of" |"varieties of forms of life" |"varieties of life" |"varieties of species of life" |"varieties of standard of life" |"varieties, 8,400,000 species of life"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

Actually, every one of us is spirit soul, living entities. It does not matter whether I am a human being or other than human being, lower animals, birds, beasts, trees or higher celestial beings. There are many varieties of life. 8,400,000. Nine... Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi. In the water there are living entities of 900,000 varieties. We simply know that there are some fishes and crocodiles or sharks in the water, but śāstra, Vedic śāstras, they give definite information, how many forms and varieties of life are there within the water: 900,000. How many we have seen? Our scientists, our botanists, how many they have seen? So actually you cannot have perfect knowledge by the experimental method.

Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

In prakṛti, material nature, there are three different qualities: goodness, passion and ignorance. So all the varieties of life, they are under the control of the material nature and therefore you see varieties of life, varieties. There are three qualities. You multiply three into three. It becomes nine. And if you multiply nine into nine, you become, you see eighty-one. So therefore all these varieties of life, they are being controlled because... Not controlled. He accepts to be controlled. Prakṛti does not want. Nature does not want to control you.

Lecture on BG 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

Because prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. In prakṛti, material nature, there are three different qualities: goodness, passion and ignorance. So all the varieties of life, they are under the control of the material nature and therefore you see varieties of life, varieties. There are three qualities. You multiply three into three. It becomes nine. And if you multiply nine into nine, you become, you see eighty-one. So therefore all these varieties of life, they are being controlled because... Not controlled. He accepts to be controlled. Prakṛti does not want. Nature does not want to control you.

Just like police force. Police force is not meant for controlling you. But when you accept to be controlled by police, when you become a criminal, then police force controls you, not that police force is made by the government unnecessarily to control you. No. He's to help you. Government has arranged policeman in every crossing. They are wandering in the street. They are meant for helping you. They are not meant for controlling you. But when you agree to be controlled by the police, then it will control you. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Then you become under the police control, if you become criminal. And what is that criminality? The criminality is that kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā. Kṛṣṇa is the original enjoyer, God.

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

Madhudviṣa: The Bhagavad-gītā has stated that whatever one's consciousness is during his lifetime will be at the time of his death, and that will determine his next body. Now, one who is living very lustily during his lifetime, his mind will be on that body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So there are many varieties of life. Just like somebody is very lusty, and he wants sex enjoyment so many times a day. So there are many animals, many birds. They are given the opportunity like that. Just like the pigeons, the sparrows. Or there are many birds, the swans, the ducks. They have got every day twenty times, sex intercourse. So this facility is given to them. You see? Similarly, somebody wants to eat meats and blood. He is given the chance to become a tiger. So Kṛṣṇa is giving chance everyone. And one who is very dull, cannot understand simply, oh, the sense gratification, they are made the dullest possible, like trees, stand up for thousands of years.

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

So all these different varieties of life, eight million four-hundred-thousands, we have got different varieties. You can calculate. There are three qualities. Three into three equal to nine. Three multiplied by three becomes nine, and nine multiplied by nine becomes eighty-one. Automatically it becomes more than so many, eight million.

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

So God's kingdom, His calculation, His fine judgement, is very difficult to understand. But practically we see there are so many varieties of life. Why? They have been given chance: "All right, you want this sort of life? Here it is. Take it. Accept it." So they are transmigrating from one life to another, one life to another, one life to another. Out of many such millions of living entities, one who comes under Kṛṣṇa consciousness by the grace of Kṛṣṇa and His devotee, spiritual master, his life is successful. He gets the clue to get out of this entanglement. Otherwise he is to travel within these 8,400,000 species of life.

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

Prabhupāda: The boys and girls, they are enjoying this, what is called?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Surfing.

Prabhupāda: Surface. Spending money. You see? But there is no instruction how they are wasting their time, this human form of life, simply by jumping in the water. (laughter) And they are thinking, "I am enjoying, butterfly." You see? They do not know the value of this life. And the system of civilization who is encouraging them to do this without any good information, what kind of condemned civilization is that? Pulling by force to the darkest region of hell. They do not know although the hellish condition of life is in the front. There are so many varieties of life. They do not question, "Wherefrom these lives come?"

The Padma Purāṇa says, jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati, kṛmayor rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ. There are, nava-lakṣāṇi, 900,000 species of life within the water. We begin our aquatic life. Because the whole world was in the beginning, full of water, so we had to live within the water. So there are 900,000 species of life within the water. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. And when the water dries up, as soon as the land comes out, the trees and plants begin to grow, two million types of trees and plants. In this way there are 8,400,000 species of life.

Lecture on BG 6.6-12 -- Los Angeles, February 15, 1969:

Devotee: Purport: "Book knowledge without realization of the Supreme Truth is useless. This is said as follows in the Padma Purāṇa..."

Prabhupāda: Yes, Padma Purāṇa. There are eighteen Purāṇas. There are, men are conducted in three qualities: modes of goodness, modes of passion and modes of ignorance. To reclaim all these conditioned souls in different varieties of life, there are presentation of the Purāṇas. The six Purāṇas are meant for the person who are in the modes of goodness. And six Purāṇas are meant for the persons who are in the modes of passion. And six Purāṇas who are in the modes of ignorance, those Purāṇas are meant for them. This Padma Purāṇa is meant for the persons who are in the modes of goodness. In Vedic rituals, you find so many differences of ritualistic performances. It is due to different kinds of men. Just like you have heard that Vedic literature, there is a ritualistic ceremony offering goat sacrifice in the presence of goddess Kālī. But this Purāṇa, Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, is meant for the persons who are in the modes of ignorance.

Lecture on BG 9.2 -- Calcutta, March 8, 1972:

So in India especially—not only India; everywhere—we have been especially encouraged to go on with these sinful activities. They do not like. In the American countries we see, while passing on the street, two sides of the road they're hoarding, advertising these things, either wine or cigarette or gambling or this or that, or some sinful activity. So our first propaganda is to not only give one Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but also to stop this sinful activity. Just like when you are treated by physician, he gives you some medicine and also ask you some restriction: "Do not do this," "Do not eat this, eat this." So if you are actually interested to get out of this entanglement of transmigration from one body to another, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa brahmite kono bhāgyavān jīva, Lord Caitanya says. We are wandering throughout the whole universe. That we do not know. We think that after finishing this body, everything is finished. But that is not the fact. Otherwise, why there are so many varieties of life? The varieties of life are because there are varieties of sinful activities. Because there are varieties of sinful activity, therefore we have got varieties of karma. Otherwise, if there would have been one class of activity, why there are different varieties of body? This is common sense.

Lecture on BG 9.2 -- Melbourne, April 20, 1976:

I have several times given example. There are different types of bodies: animals, birds, beasts, demigods, human being, many varieties of life, 8,400,000, higher life, lower life. So those who are associating with the base qualities of material nature, they get lower life. That is natural. Just like you contaminate a kind of disease. It will become manifest in due course of time. So this is going on.

Lecture on BG 9.4 -- Melbourne, April 22, 1976:

Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). You are under the control of the material nature and if you are manufacturing different ideas, nature will give you the facility to have such body. That is called transmigration of the soul. Therefore we find so many varieties of forms of life within the water, on the land, so many plants, so many varieties of trees, so many varieties of insect, so many varieties of birds, beast, and then human life, then civilized life.

Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Paris, August 10, 1973:

Where the tiger is coming? That he has no brain to understand. Why there are so many varieties of life? Because according to... Just like your... In a, in a city, there are many varieties of apartment. As you are able to pay for it, or in a shop, in a store, there are many varieties of articles. But you have to purchase according to the price you can pay.

Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:

As we are getting life here according to the father's semina and mother's secretion, the body and situation... Somebody is very highly intelligent. Somebody is not so intelligent. Somebody is very rich. Somebody is poor. Somebody is middle class. Somebody is animal. Somebody is tree. Somebody is insect. Somebody is aquatic. Varieties of life.

Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:

There are so many varieties of life. We have no information. There are so many universities, so many educational institutions, but they cannot say exactly how many varieties of life are there. They cannot say. Their education is not perfect. They cannot say. But we can see there are so many varieties of life, and each of them is a living entity. But if you consult Vedic literature, you'll find exactly the number. Just like in the Vedic literature you'll find jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi: "In the water the aquatic living beings are 900,000 different bodies."

Lecture on BG 13.3 -- Bombay, December 30, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa says: cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma (BG 4.13). Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. So according to guṇa, if we are associated with sattva-guṇa, then that class is called brāhmaṇa. If one is associating with rajo-guṇa, that class is called kṣatriya. If one is associating with mixed guṇa, especially rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, that class is called vaiśya, and if one is associating with tamo-guṇa, that class is called śūdra. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). So in this way, there are varieties of life.

But that opportunity is given by Kṛṣṇa. Because He's witness. He is anumantā, upadraṣṭā. He's seeing everything. He is within our heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). So in this way we are changing different varieties of life... Sometimes human being, sometimes animal, sometimes demigod. Sometimes something else. Sometimes rich man, sometimes poor man, sometimes brāhmaṇa, sometimes śūdra. In this way, we are wandering in different species of life, and different position, in different planets.

Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Miami, February 27, 1975:

Why we find so many varieties of life? How it has come into being? It is... Everything will be explained by Kṛṣṇa. He says, tat samāsena me śṛṇu: "From Me you hear." Everyone is inquisitive, "Why there are varieties of life?" I do not know what the modern scientist says, but they do not understand that there is soul in these different types of body. That we have already discussed, that idaṁ śarīraṁ kṣetram ity abhidhīyate.

Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Miami, February 27, 1975:

And we have got so many varieties of life. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ, means the aquatics, there are nine hundred thousand, and the trees and plants, two millions, and eleven hundred thousand, these flies and insects. Kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ. And then birds, one million types of birds. Then three million types of beasts. Then four hundred thousand of human being, civilized, uncivilized, white, red, black, so many varieties. In this way, the whole calculation is eight million four hundred thousand different types of body.

Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 14, 1976:

Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram (SB 7.5.30). Because we cannot control our senses, adānta... Adānta means uncontrolled, and go, go means senses. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram. Just like we see varieties of life, so there is life also in the hell, tamisra. So either you go to the hellish condition of life or you go to the path of liberation, both ways are open to you. So if you go to the hellish condition of life, that is called pravṛtti-mārga, and if you go towards the path of liberation, that is nivṛtti-mārga.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.3 -- Rome, May 27, 1974:

Therefore, to cover all this ignorance, they do not believe in the next birth. But wherefrom these varieties of life are coming? They have no brain. The so-called scientists, so-called... All bogus theory. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. As you desire, you will be given this chance by prakṛti.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

(BG 3.27)

Lecture on SB 1.2.7 -- Delhi, November 13, 1973:

Why there are so many varieties of life? Cats, dogs, trees, aquatics, birds, beasts, human beings, demigods, civilized, uncivilized, so many. Why there are so many varieties? kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As he is associating with different types of qualities, he is getting a different types of body. This is going on.

Lecture on SB 1.2.9 -- Detroit, August 3, 1975, University Lecture:

Real problem is that a living being is eternal, and by the laws of nature, by his karma, he has to change his body. That is real problem. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. And we can see, if we have got eyes, that there are many varieties of life, 8,400,000 varieties of life. Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. So Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. According to your karma, you will get another body. That What kind of body I shall get? That I do not know. Then what is your education?

Lecture on SB 1.2.17 -- San Francisco, March 25, 1967:

"My dear Arjuna, whatever forms of life you are seeing..." There are eighty-four lakhs species of life. That means eight millions and four hundred thousands of different varieties of life. Not one, two, three or one thousand, three thousand. No. We have not seen. Even the biologists, or the anthropologists, they cannot calculate. But from authoritative, revealed scripture we get this information that there are eight, eight, 8,400,000's of species of life of which human beings, they are divided into 400,000's species of life.

Lecture on SB 1.5.18 -- New Vrindaban, June 22, 1969:

You see different grades of standard of living condition. So they're according to the past karma, daivena, daiva-netreṇa, karmaṇā. So you cannot change that. That nature's law, you cannot change. Why you have got varieties of life, varieties of position, varieties of de...? It is destined. Viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. Viṣaya, these material enjoyment—means eating, sleeping, mating and defending—these... Only standard is different. I am eating something, you are eating something. Maybe, in my calculation, you are eating not very good. In your calculation I am not eating very good. But the eating is same. You are eating. I am eating.

Lecture on SB 1.7.8 -- Vrndavana, September 7, 1976:

Mūḍhā janmani janmani (BG 16.20). Mūḍhā-yoniṣu. They do not even try to understand wherefrom so many varieties of life are coming-jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. And still they are passing on as scientist. What science? It is only ignorance. If you have to study science, you have to take it from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa said, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). According to your guṇa you are creating your next body. Just like according to the infection of a certain disease you are creating your future diseased condition, similarly sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa.

Lecture on SB 1.7.26 -- Vrndavana, September 2, 1976:

Kṛṣṇa is the best authority. So Arjuna is asking from Him, kim idaṁ svit kuto veti: "My dear Kṛṣṇa, wherefrom this temperature is coming?" Kim idam. Deva-deva. Why he's asking to Kṛṣṇa? Because Kṛṣṇa is the deva-deva. Here we have got many millions of different varieties of life, 8,400,000 varieties of life.

Lecture on SB 1.7.26 -- Vrndavana, September 2, 1976:

You may be a first-class prisoner, it doesn't matter, but you are a prisoner. You are a criminal. Sometimes the big, big politicians, they are put into the jail and they're given all comforts. But that does not mean he's not a criminal. He's a criminal. Either he may be Gandhi or anyone, because he's put into the jail he's a criminal. Similarly, anyone who is enwrapped with this material body, he's a criminal. He's a criminal. Either he may be in the heavenly planet or in this earthly planet or in the cats' and dogs' life or insect or aquatics. There are varieties of life. Every one of us, as long as we are put into this material body, it is to be understood that we are all criminal.

Lecture on SB 1.8.23 -- Los Angeles, April 15, 1973:

Therefore Kuntīdevī says, "Hṛṣīkeśa, my dear Kṛṣṇa, You are the master of the senses, and for the sense gratification, we are fallen in this material condition of life, different varieties of life." So we are suffering, and suffering to the extent, even one becomes Kṛṣṇa's mother... Because this is material world, she's also put into suffering, what to speak of others? Devakī is so advanced that she has become the mother of Kṛṣṇa, but still she's put into difficulties. And difficulties by whom? By his brother, Kaṁsa. So this world is like that. Try to understand.

Lecture on SB 1.10.6 -- Mayapura, June 21, 1973:

Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. There is life after death, simply change of body. Now, there are so many bodies, 8,400,000's of bodies. I can become next life a fly, according to my karma. Or I can become next life Brahmā. That is also according to karma. But there are varieties of life. So the so-called scientists, they do not know what is life after death, how it happens, how it is going on. This is a great science. That you can understand from the Vedic literature, not from your so-called scientific research. That is not possible.

Lecture on SB 1.15.20 -- Los Angeles, November 30, 1973:

We are under the modes of material nature, and the material nature has got the modes, different modes: goodness, passion and ignorance. You mix up these three; three into three, it becomes nine. Nine into nine, it becomes eighty-one. Eighty-one into eight..., it increases. It increases. Therefore we see so many varieties of life, according to the mentality.

Lecture on SB 1.15.44 -- Los Angeles, December 22, 1973:

There (are) so many varieties of life. Why so many varieties of...? What is the explanation? Just like there are so many varieties of apartment. So what does this mean? You enter some apartment according to the payment you can provide. Therefore there are so many varieties of apartment. It is a commonsense affair. Otherwise all apartments would have been the same, of the same size, same quality, same... No. There are different tenants, they pay differently; therefore there are different kinds of apartment. Similarly, this is also apartment. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). The spirit soul is within this apartment body. So according to karma, according to payment, one has got American body, one has got African body, one has got Indian body, one has got this body, that body, dog's body, cat's body, tree's body.

Lecture on SB 1.16.3 -- Los Angeles, December 31, 1973:

If you become implicated in sinful life, how you can be happy? There must be nature's punishment. Just like if you infect some disease, nature must punish you. You must suffer from the disease. You cannot get out. It is not possible. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Why there are so many varieties of life? Why not one class of men, all President Nixon? (laughter) Why not? Why there is bum in the Bowery Street? In your country I am saying. Why there are arrangement of first-class, second-class, third-class, fourth-class, fifth-class men? Or animals, or trees? Everything is there. Why?

That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. As you have infected yourself with a particular type of modes of nature, you will get a body.

Lecture on SB 2.1.5 -- Paris, June 13, 1974:

This outward dress is different. Somebody has become ant and somebody has become elephant or bigger than that, whole fish. Another fish there is timiṅgila. That perhaps we have not seen. Whale fish, some of them have seen. It is just like as big as a big house. And still, whale fish, just like you swallow up some small nut, they are called timiṅgila. So there are so many varieties of life. We do not know. But we know from the śāstras. In the śāstra we can know. Therefore we should consult Vedic literature to have full knowledge.

Lecture on SB 2.1.6 -- Paris, June 14, 1974:

Janma-lābhaḥ means getting a type of births. So there are different types of birth. The so-called scientists, physicists, they do not know why there are so many varieties of life. Why not only human being? Why there is cat, there is dog, there is rat, there is fly, and there is serpent, there is tree, there is creeper, there is fish, there is so many, 8,400,000 species of life? So they are also taking their birth by father and mother. The insect or the cats and dog or human being, the process of birth is the same, father and mother, anywhere you go. Therefore one Vaiṣṇava poet has sung, janame janame sabe pitā mātā pāya, kṛṣṇa guru nahi mile bhaja hari ei. Everywhere, either you take birth as man or cat or dog or insect, there is father, mother. Father, mother you will get in any type of birth, but not guru and Kṛṣṇa. Therefore this birth is meant for achieving guru and Kṛṣṇa. Father, mother you will get, anyone. Even you become a serpent there is father and mother. That is the way of birth. Therefore janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ.

Lecture on SB 2.3.9 -- Los Angeles, May 26, 1972:

We are transmigrating from one species of life, one species of life, another, another, another, another... They cannot explain why there are so many varieties of life. The varieties of life is there because we have desire, kāma. "I want this." "All right, take this." Kṛṣṇa is immediately prepared. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). "If you want, you can take it." But Kṛṣṇa says, ultimately, that "You'll never be happy in this way. Therefore you give up this business. Simply surrender unto Me." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66). So that is called akāma. So here it is said that akāmaḥ yajet puruṣaṁ param. If you want to be akāma, devoid of all material desires, then surrender to Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 2.3.18-19 -- Los Angeles, June 13, 1972:

And big professor, he says, "Swamiji, there is no life after death." Just see. And he is a professor. He's teacher. This is the position. Fools, rascals, they are leaders, professors, and scientists and philosophers, and pushing us towards hell. That's all. Because they do not know what is the value of life. They do not know that there is life after death. Otherwise, why there are so many varieties of life? They concoct their own conclusion. They do not refer to the authorities, what is the actual position. They make, they manufacture their own way of life.

Lecture on SB 2.9.11 -- Tokyo, April 27, 1972:

So when there is facility, you can go to this kingdom of God. Why don't you...? Just like a student studies very faithfully, taking so much pains. Why? He expects that "Somehow or other, if I can pass this examination, I will get a very nice job, good salary, and live very happily." Everyone hopes like that. A businessman works so hard day and night with the hope that "At the end of my life, if I get a good balance, bank balance, then I shall live peacefully without any botheration." So everyone hopes like that for future. But what is this civilization? They have no future hope. The rascal professors, they say..., he is saying that "After death everything is finished." After death everything finished—why? Why there are so many varieties of life? After death there is life. But you do not know what is that life. That is your ignorance. Here is a chance, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that you get next life very good life. If you complete, you go to Vaikuṇṭha and get life like this. If you don't complete, if you are so unfortunate that you cannot complete one life, that is unfortunate. Why you... So then you get chance to get your birth as a human being in very rich family, in very pious family. That chance is again given so that you can revive your, again, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

Although we find in the neophyte devotee some bad behavior due to his past experience, so we should not take him as nondevotee. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). He is sādhu—if he sticks to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And the bad habits which are visible now, it will disappear. It will disappear. So we have to give chance because we see some bad habits of a devotee, we should not reject. We should give another chance. We should give another chance because he has taken the right thing, but to past behavior he appears to be again going to the māyā's clutches. So we should not reject, but we should give chance. One may take little more time to come to the standard, but we should give him chance. If he sticks to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, very soon all these defects will be disappearing. Kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā. He will be completely a dharmātmā, a mahātmā. Why? Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati: (BG 9.31) "Anyone who has taken seriously My lotus feet, seriously surrendered to Me, he will never be anxious. He will never be anxious, although sometimes it appears that he is coming down." So this should be our principle. We stick to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then everything will be all right in due course of time. So the varieties of life there is. That variety is actual variety.

Lecture on SB 3.25.10 -- Bombay, November 10, 1974:

Partially, if we simply understand eternity, that will not help us. We must have blissful knowledge. So the Māyāvādīs, those who are impersonalists, they want to make these material varieties of life zero. Because they are very much disgusted with this material life. So jagan mithyā. They say, "This is mithyā. This is false."

Lecture on SB 3.25.10 -- Bombay, November 10, 1974:

Māyā means when we forget Kṛṣṇa and we want to enjoy this material world to the best capacity, means as far as we can do with our senses, Kṛṣṇa gives us opportunity. Kṛṣṇa gives us opportunity, and therefore so many varieties of life. If somebody wants to eat without any discrimination anything... There are many persons, even in the so-called civilized world, they eat anything and everything. But that is misuse of life. Human life is meant for eating Kṛṣṇa's prasādam, not anything and everything. That is not human life. Human life is meant for eating... Yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ.

Because this material life is all sinful life. Because everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa, and we are possessing things for my satisfaction. This is sinful. Criminal.

Lecture on SB 3.25.29 -- Bombay, November 29, 1974:

Brahma-bhūtaḥ means to make this material world null and void and you come to the another world, spiritual world. So if you cannot enter into the spiritual world, mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54), if you simply remain brahma-bhūtaḥ, then you will fall down. Because you are by nature seeking ānanda, blissful life. So if you do not get varieties of life... Just like we want varieties in this material world. This material world is simply imitation of the spiritual world. So we are attached to the varieties; therefore we are seeking ānanda. But because it is material and we are spiritual being, we cannot enjoy this ānanda, material varieties fully. There are so many defects, inebrieties, and we are seeking that spiritual variety. So if you don't enter into the spiritual world with spiritual variety then you will again fall down. That is called bhakti-yoga.

Lecture on SB 3.26.5 -- Bombay, December 17, 1974:

So at the present moment our position is contaminated position by the contact of the three modes of material nature. Guṇair vicitrāḥ. Guṇair vicitrāḥ. You see so many varieties of life, different varieties of life. Uccāvaca. Some of them are higher, in higher position; some of them are lower position. But this vicitra, soul, is pure. That is one quality. But this vicitra quality, why? Vicitra means variety. Because guṇaiḥ. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22).

Lecture on SB 3.26.5 -- Bombay, December 17, 1974:

So because we are duṣkṛtinaḥ, mūḍhāḥ, narādhamāḥ, therefore there are so many varieties of life. Guṇair vicitrāḥ sṛjatīm. And that is being done by the material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Prakṛti, nature's law, it does not... It is so perfect machine... One... We have several times said. Just like there is perfect machinery: if you have contaminated the germs of cholera or smallpox, venereal disease, then you must suffer from that disease. The machine is working. Machine is working. Similarly, the machine of the prakṛti is working very finely. As soon as you contaminate one kind of sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, then you become contaminated, and your activities and your body and your mode of life—everything according to that contamination.

Lecture on SB 3.26.17 -- Bombay, December 26, 1974:

Now we cannot understand how one can make his wife pregnant simply by glancing. That is possible by Bhagavān. Therefore He is called almighty. We have got experience. If we want to make pregnant my wife, then we have to use certain sense. That particular sense can make pregnancy. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead, being all-powerful, He can do anything from anywhere from any sense. That is almighty. We speak of almighty—"God is almighty"—but we do not understand what is the almighty. This is almighty. The almighty Lord, simply by glancing over prakṛti, He makes the prakṛti pregnant, and the prakṛti produces so many varieties of life. Ceṣṭā. Ceṣṭā yataḥ sa bhagavān.

Lecture on SB 3.26.17 -- Bombay, December 26, 1974:

The original father, Kṛṣṇa, says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā: "I am the seed-giving father." Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ (BG 14.4). There are varieties of forms of life. How they are being begotten? Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā. That pitā, father, is Lord Śiva.

So when Kṛṣṇa comes in touch with prakṛti for giving birth of these varieties of forms of life, that is Śiva. That is Śiva. Śiva is not different from Kṛṣṇa, but still, Śiva is not Kṛṣṇa. This is called inconceivable one and different. Inconceivable one and different. The example is given: just like milk and yogurt, dahi. Dahi is not different from milk. It is milk—it is milk, everyone knows—but it is not milk at the same time. You cannot get the benefit of milk by drinking dahi, or yogurt. Milk is used for different purpose, and dahi is different purpose.

Lecture on SB 5.5.4 -- Vrndavana, October 26, 1976:

Yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra lokāyaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ. If you don't act only for yajña, then you become implicated. The evidence is, the proof is I am implicated that there are different varieties of life. You should know that "Why there are so many varieties of life." That is explained here. The varieties of life is na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). Here, and anyone who has got this material body Material body means kleśada, different degrees of kleśada. Somebody is millionaire—but don't think that his body is not kleśada. His body is also kleśada, giving some pain.

Lecture on SB 5.5.21-22 -- Vrndavana, November 9, 1976:

So in this way, varieties of life, beginning from the insects and the aquatics, animal, up to the point of Lord Brahmā. But they are all within this material world. It does not mean because the Gandharvas, Siddhas, they have got higher standard of life and power hundreds and thousands times more than our power, do not think that they are liberated persons. They are not liberated person. They are all conditioned soul. Ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokān punar āvartino arjuna. All these conditioned soul, according to karma, they are getting different types of body.

Lecture on SB 5.5.32 -- Vrndavana, November 19, 1976:

So varieties of life and varieties of position, you cannot change them. That is not possible. So the theory is humanitarianism, daridra-nārāyaṇa-seva... Seva. It is not seva. A poor man, you can have mercy, dayā. That is allowed. Just like we distribute prasādam. That is bāliśeṣu Īśvare tad-adhīneṣu bāliśeṣu dviṣatsu ca, prema-maitrī-kṛpa upekṣā. Kṛpā. Those who are suffering—innocent, they do not know how to get release from the suffering—they are called bāliśa. Just like a child. A child is suffering, he does not know how to get relief; so one should take care. They should be given shelter, they should be given cloth, food. It is the duty of the parents. That is natural. So for the bāliśa, innocent, it is our duty to show them mercy, give them food, give them shelter, give them instruction of Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that he may understand why he is here in this material world, why he is suffering. Ke āmi kene amaya jape tāpa traya. Everyone is suffering threefold miserable condition of life, adhyātmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika.

Lecture on SB 6.1.3 -- Melbourne, May 22, 1975:

Association means infection. If we infect tamo-guṇa, then your life is different. And if you infect the rajo-guṇa, then your life is different. Therefore there are varieties of life. Why there are varieties of life? Because we have infected different varieties of infection. There are three kinds of infection originally: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, just like originally there are three colors: red, yellow, and blue. Now, you mix up these three colors. Three into three, it becomes nine, and nine into nine, it becomes eighty-one. So those who are expert color mixer, they make varieties of color originally from these three color. Similarly, originally there are three kinds of material modes of nature: goodness, passion, and ignorance. Now mix it. It become nine, and again nine into nine, Therefore there are 8,400,000 forms of life on account of this mixture.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6-8 -- New York, July 21, 1971:

The living entities are rotating in different species of life, in different planetary system, all over the universe, brahmāṇḍa. Means a living entity can go anywhere, hell, heaven, as he likes, as he prepares himself. So there are many heavenly planets, many hellish planets, many species of life, not only planets. This is varieties, 8,400,000 species of life. So a living entity is rotating, wandering. According to the type of mentality he's creating in the present life, he's getting next life similar body. "As you sow, so you reap." This is going on. So therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa brahmite. The living entity is rotating. Out of them... Millions, numberless living entities are rotating.

Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, May 8, 1976:

Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22), in the Bhagavad-gītā. Why there are different varieties of life? What is the reason? That reason means kāraṇam. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad..., kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma-yoniṣu. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni prakṛti-stho 'pi puruṣaḥ bhuñjante tad-guṇān. So the reason is as we are infecting. The nature's law is so perfect that you infect something, some disease, some contamination, then you must suffer. This is nature's law, automatically going on. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya.

Lecture on SB 6.1.8 -- Los Angeles, June 21, 1975:

Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-sangaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Why there are so different varieties of life if there is no some judgment behind it? There must be. Otherwise everyone should have been of the same bodily feature, same standard of life, same opulence. No. So many grades, because the modes of material nature are different, different mixture.

Lecture on SB 6.1.8 -- Los Angeles, June 21, 1975:

Labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte. This is the instruction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. "No, don't spoil it. You have got this boon, this human form of life, after many, many births, evolutionary process. Don't you see so many different varieties of life? And you had to undergo through all these life. Now you have come to human form of life, so you should utilize it."

Lecture on SB 6.1.32 -- Honolulu, May 31, 1976:

As you have got the laws and the punishment in this government, so why do you think there is no punishment and there is no God? This is utopian. Don't think like that. Utopian. There is God, there is his government, there are his agents, there are witnesses, and... Otherwise why there are different varieties of life? Different varieties of life. Why? Eight million, four hundred thousand species of life. Everyone is a living being. The trees are living being, the fishes are living being, the ants are living being, the mosquitos are living being, and the human being also living being, the demigods also living being, the cats, dogs—everyone is living being. It is simply in different dresses. They're living beings. But why they are situated in different position? According to karma, punished.

Lecture on SB 6.1.44 -- Los Angeles, June 10, 1976:

Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Why there are different varieties of life, so many, 8,400,000? Now, what is the reason? Kāraṇam... Kāraṇam means reason, the cause. Guṇa-saṅga. Guṇa-saṅga. Now, here is temple, and a few yards after this temple there may be a brothel, there may be liquor house. So somebody is coming here, and somebody is going there. So what is the reason? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṇgo 'sti. One is attached to sattva-guṇa; one is attached to rajo-guṇa; one is attached... But everyone is working, and that working must be under the influence of one of these three qualities: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa.

Lecture on SB 6.1.46 -- San Diego, July 27, 1975:

Three kinds. Here also, in this world, we see varieties of men, varieties of animals, varieties of trees, varieties of insects-many varieties. It is already informed that altogether, within this universe, there are 8,400,000 varieties of life. Life is one. The varieties means body. Just like we are sitting. Every one of us has got a particular type of body. You will never find that this man or this boy or this girl exactly of the same bodily feature. Varieties. So altogether there are classes, or species, 8,400,000.

Lecture on SB 6.1.46 -- San Diego, July 27, 1975:

So here it is said that it is anumīyate. As here we find varieties, similarly, in other planet or in next life there are varieties. This is intelligence, human intelligence. Why you should say there is no next life or there is no life in other planet? Therefore we have to refer to the śāstras, śāstra-vidhi. Yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma... (BG 16.23). If you unnecessarily becomes too much intelligent and theorize, then he is never successful, he is never sukhi. Na sukhaṁ na... Na siddhiṁ sa avāpnoti na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim. Such a rascal, who does not consult the śāstras and thinks whimsically according to his mad conception, such person, na siddhim avāpnoti. That is spoken by Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 6.1.46 -- San Diego, July 27, 1975:

So from śāstra we can get the different varieties of life there are, 8,400... Some of them living for a few second, some of them are living few hours, some of them are living for years, and some of them are living for a few millions of years, some millions of years, just like Brahmā. You cannot calculate Brahmā's duration of life. But the duration of life is given in the Bhagavad-gītā, sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17).

Lecture on SB 6.1.46 -- San Diego, July 27, 1975:

Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). So these are the subject matter of studies. Why there are, everyone is unhappy and happy to some extent? According to these qualities. So here it is said, therefore, that "As here we see in this life, in duration of life, there are varieties, similarly, guṇa-vaicitryāt, by the varieties of the guṇa, guṇa-vaicitryāt," tathānyatrānumīyate. Anyatra means next life or next planet or next anything. Everything is being controlled. Traiguṇya-viṣayā vedā nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna. Kṛṣṇa advises Arjuna that "The whole material world is being controlled by these three guṇas," guṇa-vaicitryāt. "Therefore you become nistraiguṇya, where these three guṇas cannot act." Nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna.

Lecture on SB 6.1.46 -- San Diego, July 27, 1975:

So that is wanted, that guṇa-vaicitryāt, if you want to save yourself from these varieties of life, birth, death, old age and disease, and accept so many varieties of life... Just like you were telling while walking that there are trees in California; they are living for five thousand years. That is also another variety of life. People are trying to live for many many years. By nature's way, here is a tree, five thousand years. So is that kind of living is very profitable, to stand up five thousand years in a forest? So any variety of life within this material world is not good, either you are demigod or tree or this or that. That is education. That is education. So one should understand that any varieties of life, either as demigod or dog, here the life is troublesome. The demigods even, they are put into so many dangers. Many times they approach God. So here you will be always in danger. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). It is futile to attempt to make this material world dangerless. That is not possible. As there are varieties of bodies, varieties of dangers, calamities, so one after another, you will have to... So best thing is, therefore, stop this business, material. That is Vedic civilization. The whole Vedic civilization is based on this idea, that "Stop this nonsense business, repetition of birth, death, old age." Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is knowledge. What knowledge, this technical knowledge, this knowledge? You cannot stop these things. Therefore main business is how to stop it. And because they are foolish people, they think that "These things cannot be stopped. Let us go on with this repetition of birth and death, and in each life let us struggle for existence." This is material civilization, ignorance, no knowledge.

Lecture on SB 6.1.47 -- Dallas, July 29, 1975:

Dharma means which will bring me again to my original, constitutional position, and adharma means which will take me down and down from my original, constitutional position. This is the test of dharma and adharma. I am eternal part and parcel of God, so my dharma is to render service to God and go back to home, back to Godhead. This is my real business. So adharma means I forget my relationship with the Supreme Lord and I go down and down just to become up to the worm in the stool. This is called adharma. There are so many varieties of life. Why? This is due to difference of dharma and adharma. Those who are trying to take the principles of dharma, they are being elevated to the higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, up to back to home, back to Godhead. And those who are not accepting... Jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ (BG 14.18). Jaghanya, they do not know how to live, just like animal, less than animal. Animal has got also sense. The modern civilization is less than animal. Animal does not kill its own son. The human being is killing his own son.

Lecture on SB 6.2.11 -- Allahabad, January 16, 1971:

Therefore pure devotion means anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam (Brs. 1.1.11). Pure devotion means one should be freed from all material desires, even from the desire of being elevated to the heavenly planet or Brahmaloka, Satyaloka—that is karma—or to try to understand, just like the philosophists, they do. By speculation, by philosophical speculation, they try to understand what is God. So they are not pure devotion. They are karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa. And Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura warns that karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa, sakali viṣera bandha, amṛta baliyā yebā khāya: "A person, by mistake if he takes to the pots of karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa, then the result is: nānā yoni bhraman kare, he wanders in various species of life, sometimes as demigods, sometimes in heaven, sometimes..." But does not mean liberation. Nānā yoni bhraman kare, kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare. And within these different varieties of life he may be sometimes a worm in the stool, a hog. Kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare. At that time he has to eat most abominable things. Therefore who takes to this principle—tāra janma, adho pāte yāya. If one does not take advantage of this human form of life to be a Kṛṣṇa conscious person, then he simply spoils his life. Tara janma, adho pāte yāya. Even if he is elevated to the heavenly kingdom what does he gain? He's adho pata because the next chance he may be worm in the stool. Tāra janma, adho pāte yāya. These are facts.

Lecture on SB 7.5.30 -- London, September 9, 1971:

Prabhupāda: So materialistic life means sense gratification. This sense gratification process is going on life after life. So many varieties of life means different standard of sense gratification. Kṛṣṇa is so kind that he has given us full liberty to gratify our senses. Kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga-vāñchā kare. We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, but we are living entities, and because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we have got all the desires of Kṛṣṇa in small particle. As our existence is a small particle... Just like, try to understand gold and a small particle of gold. So the small particle of gold has got all the qualities of the original gold. Just like sense gratification. Kṛṣṇa has got also propensity for sense gratification. He is the original sense gratifier, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). Supreme enjoyer. Wherefrom the enjoying spirit of us comes? Because it is there in Kṛṣṇa. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). The Vedānta-sūtra says everything is originated from Kṛṣṇa. Para-brahman or the Absolute Truth means where everything is generated. That is Absolute Truth. Therefore our desire for sense gratification is from Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 7.5.30 -- Mauritius, October 2, 1975:

There is no science to understand why there are varieties of life, why this tree standing in front of me in miserable condition and I am sitting in this room very comfortably. It is also a life; I am also a life. Why? Who is arranging for this different status of life? These are to be understood. And everything is there, clear, in the Bhagavad-gītā. If you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, study Bhagavad-gītā, and then after studying we study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then our life is successful. So every father, every state, every guardian, every guru, every, everyone, relative, should educate his dependent in Kṛṣṇa consciousness to give them chance to be liberated from this bondage of miserable condition of material life.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Boston, May 8, 1968:

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva

guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

(CC Madhya 19.151)

Bīja means seed. So hundreds and thousands and millions of living entities are rotating in many places in the kingdom of God, both material and spiritual. There are so many planets, and each planet there are so many countries, towns, cities, life, varieties of... So the living entity is circumambulating in different kinds of species of life, different kinds of countries, places, planets. That is their material business. So in this way, while traveling, if he meets by chance a devotee of God, Kṛṣṇa, and if he gets that seed... Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona... That is obtained fortunately. Fortunately.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Vrndavana, December 2, 1975:

Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7). So what is that dharma? This Bhāgavata-dharma. When the rascals forget what is the relationship with Kṛṣṇa, what is the relationship with God, he becomes entangled in this material affair, māyā. He is harassed, harassed in this way, that he has to take birth one after another, beginning from Brahmā down to the small ant. There are so many varieties of life. So according to karma, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1), by superior arrangement one has to accept a type of body. That we are forgetting.

Lecture on SB 7.6.6 -- New Vrindaban, June 22, 1976:

Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ, there is dehāntara, another body. So we must be very careful what kind of body I'm going to get. Now, this life I have got very nice, beautiful body and everything is all right, but if we act irresponsibly, the nature will give me a suitable body. Otherwise, why there are so many varieties of life, 8,400,000? So we should be very, very careful not to waste the duration of life even by a second. We shall eat less, then we shall sleep also less. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi: then our sex appetite also will be less. Unnecessarily eating, unnecessarily sleeping is not required at all. That is the practice by the Gosvāmīs.

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

So existing means the consciousness according to the contamination of different condition of the guṇas... This condition is the guṇas. Sattva-guṇa, one who is in sattva-guṇa, his consciousness is different from the consciousness of the raja-guṇa. One whose consciousness is raja-guṇa, his consciousness is different from the tamo-guṇa. In this way you will find different types of consciousness. In pure there are three. If they're mixed up-three into three, it becomes nine. Again mixed up-nine into nine, it becomes eighty-one. Again mixed up-eighty-one... In this way you will find varieties of life. But they're based on the three types of consciousness—sattva-guṇa consciousness, raja-guṇa consciousness, tamo-guṇa consciousness. So when one is transcendental to this contaminated consciousness, polluted by the three qualities of material nature, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 7.9.31 -- Mayapur, March 9, 1976:

Nobody scientist; all fools and rascals, mūḍhā. They do not know anything. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, "I am this." That is the actual fact. But His energies are so, mean, manifestedly variegatedness energy. You'll find so beautiful world. It is condemned place. Still, you see, by Kṛṣṇa's energy the world is so beautiful—so many trees, so many flowers, so many fruits, so many varieties of life, so many varieties of human beings. This is Kṛṣṇa, varieties. Parasya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate sva-bhāvikī... (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport).

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 20, 1972:

There are three modes of material nature: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. So if I am associating with sattva-guṇa, then next life, I'll get a sattva-guṇa body. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā. (BG 14.18) Sattva-guṇa body means higher standard of life. So similarly, if I am associating with the modes of passion, then I'll get a body, next life, passionate. If I am associating with ignorance, tamo-guṇa, jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. Tāmasāḥ. Tama-vṛtti. The jaghanya, the lowest. There are so many varieties of life. So those who are associating with tamo-guṇa, drinking, flesh eating, smoking, illicit sex, gambling... These are the association of tamo-guṇa. Yatra pāpāś catur-vidhā. Where there are four kinds of sinful activities. So intoxication is sinful activities. That is tamo-guṇa. Associating with tamo-guṇa. So jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. Those who are associating with tamo-guṇa, their vṛtti, their habits, are very abominable. Jaghanya. Therefore adho gacchanti. They go downwards.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 2, 1973:

The atheist philosopher, Cārvāka Muni says, bhasmī-bhūtasya dehasya kuto punar āgamano bhavet: "Don't care for next life." This is going on now: atheism. Big, big professors, educationists, they're also in this opinion. I have traveled all over the world. One Russian professor said, "Swamijī, after this life, there is no... Everything is finished." But that's not the fact. That is the defect of modern education. There is life. There is life. Otherwise why there are so many varieties of life? We should consider that.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 2, 1973:

There is chance of falling down again into this material world. Because we are living entities, we want variety. As I have explained several times, just like if you go in the sky... The sky is very brilliant, all shining, but still you'll not like it. You'll come down. You'll want to come down again, because you want variety. So if you go very high in the sky, if you actually enter into some planet where there is varieties of life, then you become satisfied. Otherwise, if you remain only in the sky, nirviśeṣa, nirākāra, then you'll hanker after: "Where is viśeṣa? Where is varieties? Where is variety?" This is natural. Therefore śāstra says, āruhya kṛcchreṇa param... You can go very high with your aero..., aeroplane, but if you don't get any shelter in the sky, then you'll have to come back. As they are doing. They're trying to go to the moon planet, not in the sky. The sky, you can remain in the sky. Why you are coming back? No, that is not very pleasing. That is not very pleasing.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 2, 1973:

So the varieties of life... Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis (Bs. 5.37). Ānanda-cinmaya. These varieties, this is material variety. We cannot enjoy here, but there is spiritual variety. That is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ. Just like Kṛṣṇa Himself is expanding Himself as gopīs, as cowherds boys, as calves and cows and trees in Vṛndāvana. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis. They are all ananda-cinmaya-rasa, expansion of Kṛṣṇa's pleasure potency. Rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmād (CC Adi 1.5). So we want liberation, but not liberation in the impersonal existence. That is... That is not very safe. We must enter into the spiritual varieties of life. That is Kṛṣṇaloka, that is Vaikuṇṭhaloka, especially Kṛṣṇaloka. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). He's Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). His body is not like us. He is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. But He has got form. So Brahman realization means partial understanding of the sat portion of sac-cid-ānanda. Paramātmā realization means realization of para, of the cit potency. But ānanda realization means to become associated with Kṛṣṇa. That is ānanda, varieties, rasa-līlā. Kṛṣṇa is playing with the cowherds boys, Kṛṣṇa is dancing with the gopīs, Kṛṣṇa is enjoying the association of His mother, His father, His friend. Itthaṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena. The Kṛṣṇa is the origin of Brahman effulgence. Those who are trying for Brahman-sukha, here is the point. Śukadeva Gosvāmī: itthaṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā. The origin. Brahmano 'haṁ pratiṣṭhā. "Impersonal Brahman is situated on Me." Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40).

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.112 -- Bombay, November 24, 1975:

So we were discussing other night about the three principal energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There are multi-energies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). From śruti we understand that the Supreme Lord is full of potencies. Even we are. We are a small particle of the Supreme Lord; still, we are full of potencies. Just like you shave today, and tomorrow morning, by your own potency, the hairs again grown. We see actually things are happening. How it is happening, that we do not know, even in our body. But it is a fact it is happening. Things are happening. That means due to my potency. As soon as I leave this body there will be no more hair growth. The potency is gone. So as we are a small particle, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ... (BG 15.7). Jīva, the living entity is a very small particle, one ten-thousandth part of the top point of hair. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140). So such a small particle, atomic particle of the Supreme Lord, has got so much potencies. We see different varieties of life, different intelligence all over the world. What is that? Potency. So if we have got so much potencies, just imagine what Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, has got, potency.

Festival Lectures

Janmastami Lord Sri Krsna's Appearance Day Lecture -- London, August 21, 1973:

Kṛṣṇa advents to teach us this lesson, that "You are immortal by nature. As spirit soul you are part and parcel of Me. I am as immortal. So you are also immortal. Unnecessarily, you are trying to be happy in this material world."

mamaivāṁso jīva bhūto

jīva-loke sanātanaḥ

manaḥ saṣṭanindriyāni

prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

(BG 15.7)

Simply struggle for..., unnecessarily. The best thing is that you have enjoyed sense life in so many varieties of life, as cats, as dogs, as demigods, as tree, as plants, as insect. Now, in this human form of life, don't be captivated by sensuous life. Just try to understand Kṛṣṇa. That is the verdict of the śāstras. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). To work very hard like dogs and hog for sense gratification is not the ambition of human life. Human life is meant for little austerity. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam. We have to purify our existence. That is the mission of human life. Why I shall purify my sattva existence? Brahma-saukhyam tv anantam. Then you get unlimited pleasure, unlimited happiness. That is real pleasure. Ramante yogino 'nante satyānanda-cid-ātmani iti rāma-padenāsau paraṁ brahmābhidhīyate (CC Madhya 9.29).

Six Gosvamis Lecture, Sri Sri Sad-govamy-astaka -- Los Angeles, November 18, 1968:

A highly-elevated devotee, first-class devotee, he sees trees or the animals are moving, nonmoving, so many varieties, but he does not see their form. Everywhere he sees Kṛṣṇa. That is a fact. Kṛṣṇa says that sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayayaḥ yaḥ (BG 14.4). There are millions of varieties of forms of life, but I am the seed-giving father. So a devotee sees, "Oh, here is a son of Kṛṣṇa. Here is a son of Kṛṣṇa. Here is a son of Kṛṣṇa. Here is a son of Kṛṣṇa." So if you love somebody, as soon as you see his son, you immediately remember who's son he is. Therefore he sees the tree but immediately remembers, "Oh, it is Kṛṣṇa's." He sees a dog; he immediately sees Kṛṣṇa, "Oh, he is Kṛṣṇa's." He sees a watch; he immediately sees, "It is Kṛṣṇa's." Therefore he is single-eyed, Kṛṣṇa. That's all. He has no other, any other vision.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Lecture -- Los Angeles, April 13, 1973:

So long we have a pinch, a drop of desire to enjoy material happiness, we'll have to accept a body, different types of body, out of the 8,400,000. But if we become satisfied with service of Kṛṣṇa, then we have no more interest with this material happiness. That is mukti. When we shall be detestful with this material happiness... (indistinct) Just like Jagāi-Mādhāi. (indistinct) No more (indistinct). That is mukti. Kṛṣṇa will give you all facility. He'll give you facilities, whatever you want. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy a... (BG 4.11). Therefore we see varieties of life. It is arranged by Kṛṣṇa through the agency of material potency. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sar... (BG 3.27). It is going on. But if we say, "Kṛṣṇa...," to Kṛṣṇa, "Now, from this day, I surrender unto You. My Lord, I don't want anything material," then you are mukta, liberated. And if you keep the standard, māyā will not touch you. Just after giving up this body, you go back to home, back to Godhead. It is very easy.

Arrival Lecture -- Miami, February 25, 1975:

The modern civilization, everyone is thinking, "If I get a good wife and nice motorcar and a nice apartment, that is success." That is not success. That is temporary. Real success is to get out of the clutches of māyā, means this material conditional life which comprehends birth, death, old age and disease. We are passing through many varieties of life, and this human form of life is a good chance to get out of this chain of changing body one after another. The soul is eternal and blissful because part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, God, sac-cid-ānanda, eternal, full of bliss, full of knowledge. Unfortunately, in this material, conditional life we are changing different bodies, but we are not getting situated again in that spiritual platform where there is no birth, no death. There is no science. The other day one psychiatrist came to see me. And where is your education for understanding the soul, his constitutional position? So practically the whole world is in darkness. They are interested with fifty, sixty or hundred years of this span of life, but they do not know that we are eternal, blissful and full of knowledge, and due to this material body we are subjected to birth, death, old age and disease. And this is going on continuously.

Arrival Lecture -- Dallas, March 3, 1975:

Have you seen, anyone, a sannyāsī in Vṛndāvana? At least in the books? Sannyāsa means to make this material life sannyāsa, finished, "No more this," renounce. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu did. He renounced His material family life. He had very nice wife, young wife, and He was young man, twenty-four years old, and there was a very affectionate mother. He had very good position in the society, Nimāi Paṇḍita. Yesterday you showed one play called Chand Kazi. So He was so influential that simply by His calling, hundreds and thousands of men immediately joined to go to the Chand Kazi's house to perform kīrtana. So just imagine what was His social position, so popular, leader. He had very good position. As a learned scholar, He was known as Nimāi Paṇḍita. Beautiful, very beautiful body, Gaurasundara. Very beautiful wife. Very honored brāhmaṇa, Jagannātha Miśra's son, grandson of Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, very social, aristocratic position. But still, He gave up everything. That means that although He had nothing material, but to show us that material things should be renounced, that is sannyāsa; and enter into the spiritual family of Kṛṣṇa. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). He does not become again entangled in these material varieties of life. In material world there is also varieties, but that is false. This morning we were discussing this point, mirage. In the mirage there is a show of false water, and the animal runs after it. But there is no water, and finally he becomes more thirsty, and it is desert; he falls down and dies. So the material world means we are running after false family. But don't think that there is no real family life. There is real family. That is Kṛṣṇa's real family, eternal family, blissful family. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to train up people to be detached from this false family and to enter into the real family. That is the point.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation Lecture -- Toronto, June 17, 1976:

The Brahmā has got body and the small insect, it has got also body. The spirit soul is encaged in this material body. So lower than human being up to the animals, there are so many forms of life. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. In this way, varieties of life. But Ṛṣabhadeva said, "Now you have got this human form of life, don't spoil it like the hogs and dogs simply by sense gratification." Sense gratification is available by the hogs and dogs also. That was the instruction of Ṛṣabhadeva. And what is the duty of human life? Tapo, tapasya. Tapasya. Voluntarily accepting some inconvenience. That is called tapasya.

General Lectures

Lecture -- New Vrindaban, June 22, 1969:

We can get very nice body or very bad body. That doesn't matter. We can get a dog's body, or we can get a demigod's body. We can live for five minutes. There are many insects and germs which live for five minutes, and there are living entities in Brahmaloka who live for five millions of years. All varieties of life there are within this universe. By Kṛṣṇa's creation, you will find, aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān: the bigger than the biggest and the smaller than the smallest. You will find. Just see in this New Vrindaban. There are big trees, also small, very insignificant, so small tree that you are trampling over it. So in the living condition there are so many varieties, 8,400,000's of species.

Lecture -- Los Angeles, May 18, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa says, "I am father of all living entities." Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā.

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya

sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ

tāsāṁ mahad yonir brahma

ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā

(BG 14.4)

In all varieties of species of life... There are 8,400,000 species of life. The aquatics, the trees, the plants, the birds, the bees, the insects... Then human beings. And out of the human beings also, there are so many uncivilized. Civilized human beings are very few. And out of the civilized human beings, very few take to religious life. Very few. And out of these so-called religious human society, most of them, they simply designate, "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," but they do not know about religion. And one who knows about—not knows, little attracted—they are engaged in philanthropic work. To give help to the poor, or to open a school, hospital. This is called karma-kāṇḍa. Out of many millions of these karma-kāṇḍa people, one is jñānī. Jñānī means "one who knows." And out of millions of persons who know, one is liberated. And out of millions of liberated persons, one can understand what is Kṛṣṇa. This is the position of Kṛṣṇa.

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ

kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ

(BG 7.3)

So to understand Kṛṣṇa is little difficult. Actually, to understand God is a subject matter very difficult. But the God Himself is explaining Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā. "I am this, I am like this. I am like this, this material nature is like this, this spiritual nature is like this, the living entities are like..." Everything are completely described in the Bhagavad-gītā. God Himself, giving His own knowledge, and that is the only process to understand God. Otherwise, by speculation we cannot understand God. It is not possible. He is unlimited and we are limited. Our knowledge, our perception, all of them are very limited. So how we can understand the unlimited? But if we accept the version of the unlimited, that He is like this, like that, then we can understand. That is perfect knowledge. Speculative knowledge of God has no value.

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Atlanta, March 2, 1975:

If in the law court you say, "My lord, I did not know that by stealing one is punished," that, the magistrate or the judge, will not excuse you. The law, even this material law, is so strict, and you can imagine how much strict are stringent laws of the nature. So this is the material life, that knowingly or unknowingly we are infecting a particular type of modes of material nature, and our next body is being created. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Sad-asad life, there are different varieties of life, 8,400,000 varieties of forms. So why there are different forms of life, different standard of life? Why? The answer is in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kāraṇam, the reason, is guṇa-saṅgaḥ, his particular infection with a particular quality of material nature. This is going on perpetually. "Perpetually" means we do not know when this process of life began and when it will be ended; therefore it is perpetual. So our this privilege, to possess a human form of life, is great advantage in this sense, that we can study all these things—what is the living entity, how he is being infected and how he is taking different types of bodies, and account of the body, the standard of life, nice or bad, is going on. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, in the very beginning of His teaching of the Bhagavad-gītā, He is trying to impress that "I am not this body, or we are not this body. I am the owner or occupier of the body." This is the first instruction.

Tenth Anniversary Address -- Washington, D.C., July 6, 1976:

God is for everyone. He is for animals, trees, plants, aquatics, insects, everyone. Because He claims, Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā,

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya

sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ

tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir

ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā

(BG 14.4)

Kṛṣṇa is claiming. Actually, that is the fact. If you study only this verse, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ. There are so many forms of life, beginning from grass. That is also life. The grass is coming from the earth, the trees are coming from the earth, the animals, four-legged animals, they are eating grass, they are forming semina, they are discharging the semina, and the animal species of life are coming. We are eating, either eating the animal or the vegetable, we are also begetting children. The origin is from the earth. Tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir. Mahat-tattva. So we can see practically that these things are there, so many different varieties of life. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ. They are all living entities. Aquatics, nine hundred thousand forms of life within the water, jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi, everything accurate. Sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati, the trees, plants, they are standing, sthavara. That is very great punishment. Those who are very, very sinful, they have to take birth as trees and plants and stand up for thousands of years. Material nature's punishment. A small ant, it can move, but a big tree cannot move. That is punishment. Just like in our childhood we were being punished by the teachers, "Stand up on the bench." So it is like that.

Lecture -- Bhuvanesvara, January 29, 1977, (with Oriyan translator):

There are different types of body, and we can see that all types of living entities, they are coming from the earth. So everything is coming out of the earth, beginning from the grass to the big, big animals or other thing. Therefore this pṛthivī, or the earth, is our mother. Everything is coming from the earth. So mātā is there, mother is there, and the offsprings or children are there—there must be father. Without father, mother cannot beget any children. So when you see so many varieties of life, the mother is the... We say dhātrī-mātā. We have got seven mothers. One of them is the earth.

ādau-mātā guroḥ patnī

brāhmaṇī rāja-patnikā

dhenur dhātrī tathā pṛthvī

saptaitā mātaraḥ smṛtāḥ

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Everything is determined; therefore we should not try for improving our economic condition because already it is decided. This sort of... Otherwise why you see so many varieties of standard of life? One is born rich and one born, he is working so hard, he cannot get even two morsel of bread. So everything is determined. Therefore Bhāgavata says that "For this material happiness, you don't try. That will come automatically as distress comes automatically." You don't try for distress, but it comes upon you. Similarly, whatever happiness is due to you, it will also come to you. You try for developing your Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is your business.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Henry Huxley:

Prabhupāda: ...everyone has his language. It does not mean that the animals have no language. They have got their own language. The birds have their own language, the Englishmen have their own language, the Indians have their own language. So there are different varieties of life, and each one has his own language.