Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Virtually

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.7.35, Purport:

The word brahma-bandhu is significant. A person who happens to take birth in the family of a brāhmaṇa but is not qualified to be called a brāhmaṇa is addressed as the relative of a brāhmaṇa, and not as a brāhmaṇa. The son of a high-court judge is not virtually a high-court judge, but there is no harm in addressing a high-court judge's son as a relative of the Honorable Justice. Therefore, as by birth only one does not become a high-court judge, so also one does not become a brāhmaṇa simply by birthright but by acquiring the necessary qualifications of a brāhmaṇa. As the high-court judgeship is a post for the qualified man, so also the post of a brāhmaṇa is attainable by qualification only. The śāstra enjoins that even if good qualifications are seen in a person born in a family other than that of a brāhmaṇa, the qualified man has to be accepted as a brāhmaṇa, and similarly if a person born in the family of a brāhmaṇa is void of brahminical qualification, then he must be treated as a non-brāhmaṇa or, in better terms, a relative of a brāhmaṇa.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.28.6, Purport:

One has to fix his mind and the circulation of the vital air and thus think of the transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Lord. It is never mentioned that one should concentrate on the impersonal or void. It is clearly stated, vaikuṇṭha-līlā. Līlā means "pastimes." Unless the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, has transcendental activities, where is the scope for thinking of these pastimes? It is through the processes of devotional service, chanting and hearing of the pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that one can achieve this concentration. As described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Lord appears and disappears according to His relationships with different devotees. The Vedic literatures contain many narrations of the Lord's pastimes, including the Battle of Kurukṣetra and historical facts relating to the life and precepts of devotees like Prahlāda Mahārāja, Dhruva Mahārāja and Ambarīṣa Mahārāja. One need only concentrate his mind on one such narration and become always absorbed in its thought. Then he will be in samādhi. Samādhi is not an artificial bodily state; it is the state achieved when the mind is virtually absorbed in thoughts of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.27.10, Translation:

These sons and grandsons were virtually plunderers of King Purañjana's riches, including his home, treasury, servants, secretaries and all other paraphernalia. Purañjana's attachment for these things was very deep-rooted.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.9.6, Purport:

"O son of Pṛthā, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth—women, vaiśyas (merchants), as well as śūdras (workers)—can approach the supreme destination."

On the strength of these verses from Bhagavad-gītā, it is evident that although Prahlāda Mahārāja was born in a demoniac family and although virtually demoniac blood flowed within his body, he was cleansed of all material bodily contamination because of his exalted position as a devotee. In other words, such impediments on the spiritual path could not stop him from progressing, for he was directly in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who are physically and mentally contaminated by atheism cannot be situated on the transcendental platform, but as soon as one is freed from material contamination he is immediately fit to be situated in devotional service.

SB Canto 9

SB 9.16.15, Translation:

Virtually bewildered by grief, anger, indignation, affliction and lamentation, the sons of Jamadagni cried, "O father, most religious, saintly person, you have left us and gone to the heavenly planets !"

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.7.30, Purport:

The demon fell flat from the sky, and Kṛṣṇa was playing on his chest very happily, uninjured and free from misfortune. Not at all disturbed because of being taken high in the sky by the demon, Kṛṣṇa was playing and enjoying. This is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-vigraha. In any condition, Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). He has no unhappiness. Others might have thought that He was in difficulty, but because the demon's chest was sufficiently broad to play on, the baby was happy in all respects. It was most astonishing that although the demon went so high in the sky, the child did not fall down. Therefore, the child had been saved virtually from the mouth of death. Now that He was saved, all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana were happy.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.51.7, Translation:

Appearing virtually within reach of Kālayavana's hands at every moment, Lord Hari led the King of the Yavanas far away to a mountain cave.

SB 11.3.19, Translation:

Wealth is a perpetual source of distress, it is most difficult to acquire, and it is virtual death for the soul. What satisfaction does one actually gain from his wealth? Similarly, how can one gain ultimate or permanent happiness from one's so-called home, children, relatives and domestic animals, which are all maintained by one's hard-earned money?

SB 11.23.2, Translation:

Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: O disciple of Bṛhaspati, there is virtually no saintly man in this world capable of resettling his own mind after it has been disturbed by the insulting words of uncivilized men.

SB 12.1.6-8, Translation:

Ajaya will father a second Nandivardhana, whose son will be Mahānandi. O best of the Kurus, these ten kings of the Śiśunāga dynasty will rule the earth for a total of 360 years during the age of Kali. My dear Parīkṣit, King Mahānandi will father a very powerful son in the womb of a śūdra woman. He will be known as Nanda and will be the master of millions of soldiers and fabulous wealth. He will wreak havoc among the kṣatriyas, and from that time onward virtually all kings will be irreligious śūdras.

SB 12.8.21, Translation:

Springtime then appeared in Mārkaṇḍeya's āśrama. Indeed, the evening sky, glowing with the light of the rising moon, became the very face of spring, and sprouts and fresh blossoms virtually covered the multitude of trees and creepers.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 17.44, Purport:

When Lord Caitanya declares tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror iva sahiṣṇunā, He indicates that one must be above the material conception of life. When one thoroughly understands that he is not the material body but a spiritual soul, he is even humbler than a man of the lower castes, for he is spiritually elevated. Such humility, in which one thinks himself lower than the grass, is called su-nīcatva, and being more tolerant than a tree is called sahiṣṇutva, forbearance. Being situated in devotional service, not caring for the material conception of life, is called amānitva, indifference to material respect; yet a devotee thus situated is called māna-da, for he is prepared to give honor to others without hesitation.

Mahatma Gandhi started the hari-jana movement to purify the untouchables, but he was a failure because he thought that one could become a hari-jana, a personal associate of the Lord, through some kind of material adjustment. That is not possible. Unless one fully realizes that he is not the body but is a spiritual soul, there is no question of his becoming a hari-jana. Those who do not follow in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His disciplic succession cannot distinguish between matter and spirit, and therefore all their ideas are but a mixed-up hodgepodge of problems. They are virtually lost in the bewildering network of Māyādevī.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 15:

That is the gift of the Lord. On one side He takes away inauspicious things, and on the other side He awards the most auspicious things. That is the meaning of hari. When a person is developed in love of Godhead, his body, mind and everything else are attracted by the transcendental qualities of the Lord. Such is the power of Kṛṣṇa's merciful activities and transcendental qualities. He is so attractive that out of transcendental attachment to Him a devotee will give up all four principles of material success—religiosity, economic development, regulated sense gratification and salvation.

The words api and ca are adverbs and can be used for virtually any purpose. The word ca, or "and," can render seven different readings to the whole construction.

The Lord thus established the import of the eleven words in the ātmārāma verse, and then He began to further explain the verse as follows. The word brahman means "the greatest in all respects." The Lord is the greatest in all opulences. No one can excel Him in wealth, no one can excel Him in strength, no one can excel Him in fame, no one can excel Him in beauty, no one can excel Him in knowledge, and no one can excel Him in renunciation. Thus the word brahman actually indicates the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (1.12.57) the word brahman is said to indicate the greatest of all, the Supreme Lord, who as the greatest expands with no limit. One may conceive of Brahman's greatness, yet this greatness grows in such a way that no one can estimate how great He actually is.

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 1:

Being an unalloyed devotee of the Personality of Godhead, Marshal Arjuna was able to discuss the transcendental philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā even on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. We modern men have no time to get into the details of the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā, even in the midst of our much more ordinary daily duties. But just to teach us, Marshal Arjuna tried to understand the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā at a time when a moment was virtually impossible to spare. All this he did for the sake of people like us, and he fought the battle with full vigor once he had understood the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā.

Affinity for family relations, which Marshal Arjuna displayed overwhelmingly in the manner of the typical modern man, is the sign of our lack of transcendental knowledge. But attaining transcendental knowledge does not necessarily mean renouncing the duties of our ordinary life. After Arjuna had understood the spirit of the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā, the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, never advised him to give up his seemingly ordinary duties. On the contrary, Arjuna fought the battle with even greater energy and vigor after he had obtained the transcendental knowledge imparted by Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The real spirit we attain through transcendental knowledge is self-negation and the determination to render transcendental service unto the Personality of Godhead. The purport of Bhagavad-gītā is this and nothing else.

Message of Godhead 2:

The vaiśyas are the third social order. They imbibe mixed qualities, namely creative passion as well as the darkness of ignorance, and generally they are engaged as farmers and merchants. The śūdras are the lowest social order, inasmuch as they imbibe the modes of darkness, or ignorance, and generally take up the service of the other three social orders. As a class, the śūdras are servitors of the whole mundane social body. In the present age of darkness, which is known as the Kali-yuga, the age of quarrel, hypocrisy, and ignorance, virtually everyone is born a śūdra.

If we examine human affairs in the light of the caste system as created by the Personality of Godhead, surely we can visualize the four social orders functioning in every part of the world. In every part of the globe, wherever there is human habitation, there are some persons who have the qualifications of brāhmaṇas, and there are others who have the qualifications of kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and śūdras. The various modes of nature are persistent in every corner of the universe, and since brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, and so forth are simply products of the modes of nature, how can one say that the four castes do not exist in a particular part of the world? This is absurd. In every country and at all times there have been, there are, and there will be the four social orders, according to the modes of nature.

Message of Godhead 2:

The spiritual knowledge acquired by the sannyāsīs and the eightfold perfections achieved by the mystics are all within easy reach of the transcendentalist. Therefore, the transcendentalist does not desire to achieve any profit, adoration, or distinction. He desires no gain whatever, except to be engaged in the transcendental service of Godhead—because simply by such service, he gains all. Once one achieves the supreme gain, which encompasses all other gains, what is there still to be achieved?

The mystic, who virtually ceases his various bodily functions according to Patañjali's system of mysticism, tries to attain trance by these systematic modes of meditation and so forth. Thus, the mystic tolerates all sorts of tribulations in order to visualize the localized aspect of the Supreme Spirit. In other words, he does not care about what it may take, even if it means meeting with death, to realize his ideal, which has no equal in the universe. To underscore the validity of such mystics or devotees, the Personality of Godhead says in Bhagavad-gītā (6.22) that He does not consider anything more valuable than the attainment of that transcendental state: "It is the greatest gain. To be in that state means not to be perturbed by any distress, however heavy and intolerable it may be."

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

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

"What I can do more?" This is going on. This is material civilization, Mad. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). And what for they're doing? Yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti. The aim is how to satisfy senses. Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. That's all. I get money, go to the restaurant, go to the liquor house, go to the prostitute house, and nightclub, and so on, so on, so on. Because they have no other business. They do not know anything more than that. Indriya-prītaya. A little sense gratification.

So they are all mad. So nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). And they are implicating so many sinful activities. Legally and virtually, they are becoming implicated. 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. Nobody is free from kleśa. There was a very big rich man in Calcutta. So he could not eat. His appetite, there was no appetite. So he's rich man. So he was given sufficient foodstuff, and simply show, he could not eat.

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

Devotee (3): Prabhupāda, are all one's efforts to serve Kṛṣṇa virtually useless...?

Prabhupāda: That I have already explained, that you are coming here. Even though you are not initiated, that is also service. So if you deposit one cent daily, one day it may become a hundred dollars. So when you get the hundred dollars, you can get the business. (laughter) So you come here daily, one cent, one cent... When it will be hundred dollars, you will become a devotee.

Devotees: Jaya! Hari bol!

Prabhupāda: So this is not wasted. It is... That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ (SB 10.12.11). Kṛta-puṇya. Kṛta means done. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is describing when Kṛṣṇa was playing with His cowherd boys friends, so he was describing that "These cowherd boys who are playing with Kṛṣṇa, they have not come to this position in one day." Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ. "After life after life, having performed pious activities, now they have come to this position that they are allowed to play with the Supreme." So kṛta-puṇyaḥ-puñjāḥ. Any pious activities done for the sake of Kṛṣṇa, that is your permanent asset. It will never be lost. So go on increasing the asset. One day it will so help you that you will be able to play with Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So give them this... You use your technology.

David Lawrence: Thank you. You know, I think that later on it may well happen, you know. (eating) Our boys don't eat meat, anyway. They eat baked beans the whole time. We have a generation in our country who could eat virtually anything, but they insist on sugar drinks and baked beans. Have you come across these strange English things? Baked beans? Most peculiar.

Prabhupāda: Baked beans?

Śyāmasundara: Baked beans.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Śyāmasundara: Beans...

David Lawrence: Haricot beans, put them in a tomato sauce.

David Lawrence: Haricot beans.

Śyāmasundara: In the oven.

David Lawrence: This is one of the English spiritual journeys. You know, they believe this is one of the greatest things to do, don't they.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes invite them all and give them prasādam. Nice boys.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Reporter -- March 9, 1975, London:

Reporter: Will they be virtually living outside...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Outside also you can live. Simply you must know how to live. At the present moment you do not know how to live. That's all. And there is no education how to live. All of us being sent to the slaughterhouse, that's all. They do not know how to live. In the Vedic civilization you will find the first proposition is how to live. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). How to live... First the human society is divided into four: the brāhmaṇa, the kṣatriya, the vaiśya, or the śūdra. The first-class intelligent man, they are educated as brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa means satya śama dama titikṣa ārjava, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). Just like we are training engineer, similarly, a class of men, those who are very intelligent, they should be trained up as brāhmaṇa. They should be trained up how to speak truth any circumstance. Even to the enemy he will speak truth. This requires training, not that foolishly, a cats' and dogs' life. What is the value of this life? The modern civilization, they do not know how to live. They are simply interested in eating, and that's also any nonsense eating. But according to Vedic civilization, "This eating is first class. This eating is second class. This eating is third class. This eating is fourth class." So many things required to correct the mistaken way of civilization. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: The aborigines lived in almost perfect harmony with their environment for thirty thousand years, thirty to forty thousand recorded years—that's how far our research can take us back—whereas in a little over a hundred years, European man in Australia has done in places irreparable damage to not only the vegetation but also the soils of arid Australia. It's damage that will probably never, ever be repaired because the environment is so delicate in central Australia that as soon as our cloven-footed animals, our sheep and our cattle, for example, are brought into the arid areas, they eat, they trample, they remove vegetation. This loosens the soil; the soil is very thin. It's very unfertile, and it blows away. And virtually all you have left is rock. And nothing grows, of course, on rock. That's an over-simplification and perhaps an over-dramatization, but this has happened in Australia. It didn't happen when the aborigines lived here, undisturbed by us. It has happened since European man has come.

In Perth, in this city, around this city, since Europeans have come, we have removed forests, we've cut down trees, we've tilled the soil, we have changed the natural order of things, we have increased the amount of water from rain that flows through the soil. It's getting more and more salty. We are affecting our coastal wetlands, as we call them, the lagoons and the lakes and the marshes, so that they are becoming both more salty and more clogged with silt and soil and debris. Water birds can, in some areas, no longer live there. Fish are dying. A lot of migratory fish and crabs, for example, are no longer migrating to their traditional breeding grounds.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: No, in the Bhagavad-gītā everything is clearly explained.

Guest: That's right. Our scriptures are interpreted, and we've been taught to interpret them in a certain way, and it hasn't been very clear.

Prabhupāda: What scripture you are... Bible?

Guest: Well, the Bible. But we only know the Bible as we've been told it, and it's been told to us by unrealized men, and we ended up being virtually atheistically inclined, until that led to...

Prabhupāda: So in Bible what is the conception of God?

Guest: It's very unclear.

Prabhupāda: That I was speaking. In every religion...

Woman: To identify with it.

Prabhupāda: There is no clear conception.

Guest: That's right. And I think this is the reason that leads you away. We've been led away from the Bible because of that. There is nothing clear, and everybody who has read it to us has read it to us in a different way. But I would say that the finest book we have read is Bhagavad-gītā. There's no question.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes, they published one big article, Nava Bharata Time, and the heading was, (Hindi). This was the heading. Actually they gave the photograph of our Deity and activities, everything. You can find out November issue of Nava Bharata in 1974.

Reporter (2): But you've virtually given up India as a dead loss, Swamiji.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Reporter (2): You've given up India as a dead loss, isn't it, in the sense...

Prabhupāda: Dead loss? Dead loss.... But the leaders are dead loss. Misleaders. They have given up their own culture, and they are trying to imitate others.

Reporter (8): Swamiji, when there was discussion in Parliament about the fabulous money that the movement has, society has, then who provided the answers?

Prabhupāda: The Home Member.

Reporter (8): The Minister.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We have a copy of this in Bombay, the question number and.... It was about two, three years ago.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, I remember. He has got any questions?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Terry, do you have any questions?

Terry: I have a question about this particular age. The world seems to be dividing itself between two kinds of materialists, the one which pays lip service to spiritual precedents but really devotes itself to self-aggrandizement, and the other which establishes an atheistic doctrine in the name of moral struggle with that greedy self-aggrandizement. In fact this atheistic moral doctrine has now taken over virtually the entire Sinic world—China, Tibet, Indochina. Is there some way that, the question is, what is the cosmic purpose for this and how should one come to terms with this prevailing, this increasingly prevailing notion that justice can be established in a material state or a material dimension?

Prabhupāda: In the material world there cannot be any peace, justice, morality. It is not possible. You may try to make some adjustment, but it will never be possible. So, by their concocted imagination, they are thinking, "This way will be beneficial," but unless they come to the spiritual platform, there is no question of peace, prosperity, justice. It is not possible.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Bhakti-caitanya Swami-New GBC -- June 30, 1977, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No, he has given me personally.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think I follow. Mr. Bal Subhramanya from Indian Overseas Bank?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. He... (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Virtually half gone. His wife and his father-in-law have...

Prabhupāda: Where is Mr. Nair?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where is Mr. Nair?

Akṣayānanda: Oh, he is (indistinct) just now. He is here.

Prabhupāda: So what he is doing?

Akṣayānanda: He's been looking at all our management and giving very good advice. The first day he was helping me on the devotee side. Then, for the last couple of days he was looking in the guesthouse side, and...

Prabhupāda: The guesthouse is filled up with these women and children?

Akṣayānanda: No.

Prabhupāda: Then? It should be...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many women live in the guesthouse?

Correspondence

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Ekayani -- Los Angeles 3 May, 1970:

I am so glad to learn that there are two very nice women devotees now coming to the Temple regularly, and please offer them by blessings for advancing in Krsna Consciousness. Take care of them nicely so that they may learn our program of Krsna Conscious life very nicely. Let them chant regularly and follow the four basic principles and they will become firm in their faith in Krsna. If you recommend, I shall initiate them, so you can send sets of new beads with their letters and some donation for the book fund. The standard form is that the initiate collects some alms by begging and offers it to the Spiritual Master as daksina or presentation.

That is nice if you get that land in Miami and open a center there. You are intelligent and eager devotee, ready to spread Lord Krsna's teachings, so do it. That will be very good, it is an excellent proposal.

So as you say the deep Southern part of this country is virtually untouched, but I think Kirtanananda Maharaja has gone to several places there, and he has been very successful. So try to attract the students, they are our great future hope, and they will take up this matter very quickly because the students are not very contaminated.

The first two lines of the song "Haraye Namah Krsna" were sung by Lord Caitanya and His followers, but the other lines of song were composed later on by Srila Narottama Das Thakura.

Page Title:Virtually
Compiler:Rishab, RupaManjari, Mayapur
Created:23 of Sep, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=11, CC=1, OB=4, Lec=2, Con=7, Let=1
No. of Quotes:26