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Wander (Lectures)

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.2-3 -- London, July 9, 1973:

So the conclusion is if Kṛṣṇa saves, nobody can kill; and if Kṛṣṇa wants to kill, nobody can save. Therefore our conclusion should be that we should always be under the protection of Kṛṣṇa. Avaśya rakṣibe kṛṣṇa. This is śaraṇāgati. Śaraṇāgati, surrender. Surrender means that "I am surrendering to Kṛṣṇa with full faith that He is quite competent and able to give me protection." This is called surrender. Not that hesitation: "Oh, I will surrender to Kṛṣṇa, and in case of danger, He may not be able to give me protection." That is not surrender. With full faith, "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is so powerful, Kṛṣṇa is so great, that I am surrendering to Kṛṣṇa from this day: 'From this day... Kṛṣṇa, I was wandering throughout the universe life after life without knowing my relationship with you. Now, today, I surrender unto you. Kindly accept me and engage me in your service.' " This is called surrender. Thank you very much. (end)

Lecture on BG 1.23 -- London, July 19, 1973:

Let me engage my hands in worshiping Kṛṣṇa, in cleansing the temple, my hands. Let my legs be engaged in going to the temple." In this way all our senses should be engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa. That is our real business. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). Tasyaiva hetoḥ: "For that purpose only." Which purpose? Which we could not achieve after wandering the whole universe, up and down. The living entity is wandering by transmigration from one body to another up and down. Sometimes he is becoming Brahmā even. Brahmā, Indra, Candra. He can become. One can become. By pious activities, you can be raised to the position of Brahmā, Indra, Candra, demigods, big, big demigods. And by impious activities, you can go down to become the worm of a stool. This is going on. This is called bhramatām upary adhaḥ. Upari adhaḥ. Adhaḥ means down, and upari means up. So ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). Who are going to upper planetary system? Sattva-sthāḥ, those who are qualified brāhmaṇas, strictly following the principles.

Lecture on BG 1.43 -- London, July 30, 1973:

Simply just imagining, taking some whims from the Padma Purāṇa, Brahmā Vaivarta Purāṇa. Aṣitiṁś catvarāṁś caiva, jīva-jātiṣu, lakṣāṁs tān jīva-jātiṣu. There are 8,400,000 types of jīva-jātis. Aṣitiṁś catvarāṁś caiva lakṣāṁs tān jīva-jātiṣu. So this is already there. Brahmādbhiḥ. In this way the living entity is wandering in the cycle of transmigration of the soul. So from this, Mr. Darwin might have taken some hints, but he could not explain properly. He could not catch up that brahmādbhiḥ, who is wandering. So it is a chaos.

So anyway, why this living entity is wandering, not fixed up? So there must be some goal. He is hankering after that. There must be some goal of life. To achieve that goal of life that is called sādhya. Why we are struggling here for happiness or something else? We are struggling. So this question was raised by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that "What is the goal of life?" Unless there is goal of life, why there is struggle? Why... There must be some goal of life, sādhya.

Lecture on BG 2.1 -- Ahmedabad, December 6, 1972:

So any one of us, we, who is in this material world, having a material body, beginning from Brahmā down to the ant, a small ant, anyone of them... In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that yas tv indra-gopam athavendra-maho sva-karma-bandhānurūpa-phala-bhājanam atanoti (Bs. 5.54). Indra-gopa. There is a, there is a insect which is called in Sanskrit language as indra-gopa. It is a microbe. You cannot see with these naked eyes. So this microbe is called indra, and there is another Indra, the King of Heaven. So the Brahma-saṁhitā says, yas tu indra-gopa. And Mahendra, the King of Heaven... Beginning from this indra-gopa, up to the King of Heaven, everyone is subjected to enjoy or suffer the resultant action of his karma. By karma, by the resultant action of karma, one has become the King of Heaven, and by karma, resultant action of karma, one has become the microbic insect. This is the material world. There are 8,400,000 types or forms of this material body, and we are wandering, sarva-gata, in different planets, in different forms. This is material world. And in the material world, whatever form we may have, we have got attachment for this body. Not only attachment, we are under the impression that "I am this body." Everyone. That is material conception of life.

Lecture on BG 2.11 -- London, August 17, 1973:

Therefore Bhāgavata says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ. People are wandering within this material world, living entity, in different forms of life under different conditions of life. But they are not getting the information of Kṛṣṇa. That is their misfortune. So one who is fortunate during this period of continuous wandering in different species of life on different planets, he contacts another devotee. Guru-Kṛṣṇa. Or one who is actually anxious to unite with the Supreme Lord, how one gets this consciousness—by associating with devotees. Just like we are holding this class. Even those who are not devotee, outsider, if they come they can also understand, then he becomes, one becomes very seriously anxious how to understand God, how to go back to home, back to Godhead. Then Kṛṣṇa immediately helps. This is the process. Kṛṣṇa is there within your heart. As soon as you become little serious, immediately, Kṛṣṇa is ready.

Lecture on BG 2.12 -- London, August 18, 1973:

If you make some inconvenience to the soul, who has taken shelter in the womb, and you kill the body, then he'll have to search out another body. This is going on. Just see how the rascal civilization is going on. They're thinking they're killing. This way killed, that way killed. No. You, it is sinful because you create inconvenience to that particular soul. He was taking shelter, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). By his karma he was given shelter to develop a body, and if you kill that body, that means you go against the order of the Supreme. Daiva-netreṇa, suppose you are destined to occupy some room, and somebody does not allow you to enter that room, is it not criminal? It is criminal, unlawful detention, unlawful... It is unlawful, even in the state. Similarly, a living entity is developing one body, and if you kill that, you become immediately criminal, punishable. And the living entity who is checked to develop the body, he's put into inconvenience, he's also sinful. He's also sinful. Therefore it may be simply he's wandering from one womb to another, one womb to another. Because he committed that sinful activity abortion. Now the man who causes his abortion, he also being punished, that "You'll never see the light of this world. You'll simply have to live one womb to another, one womb to another. Go on." So nature's punishment is like that. But these foolish people they do not know.

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- Mexico, February 15, 1975:

So as human being, we should know that "Why I am wandering in so many places, in so many species of life and in so many planets? Why? Can it not be stopped for a permanent life?" This should be the consideration. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

The living entity in this way wandering in different species of life in different planetary platform, and therefore this is very disgusting, so if one is fortunate, then he comes in contact with a devotee. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for giving this opportunity to everyone. We are opening centers all over the world, inviting people to "Come in our place. Understand the philosophy. We have got so many books. And try to save yourself from this botheration of repetition of birth and death." In order to execute to this business, apparently there is little difficulty. Just like we prescribe to our members, "No intoxication."

Lecture on BG 2.20 -- Hyderabad, November 25, 1972:

Prabhupāda: If there is any philosophy, that is in India. And you are so, I mean to say, what can I say, that you say because the philosophy's not in America, therefore this philosophy is null and void.

Indian: But they say later there was no Lord Viṣṇu, because...

Prabhupāda: Why not? They do not know. Now they are knowing it.

Indian: But they say that that description that He has wandered there, He lives in there. That should be some reason.

Prabhupāda: Why you are so envious of America? (laughter)

Indian: No, no. God is distributed (?) everywhere.

Prabhupāda: God is everywhere. Therefore God's disciples or God's sons are everywhere.

Indian: Why you...

Prabhupāda: So if, in America, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is preached, why you are envious?

Indian: Why?

Prabhupāda: Why you are envious?

Indian: I didn't follow you.

Lecture on BG 2.21-22 -- London, August 26, 1973:

So where is the difficulty to understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Everything is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. If you diligently study and try to understand, you remain fully Kṛṣṇa conscious always. Everything is there. What is my position, how I am working, how I am dying, how I am getting body, how I am wandering. Everything is detail is there. Simply one has to become little intelligent. But we remain unintelligent, rascal, because we are associating with rascals. These rascal philosopher, religionists, avatāra, bhagavān, swami, yogis, and karmīs. Therefore we have become rascals. Sat-saṅga chāḍi kainu asate vilāsa. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura therefore regrets that "I gave up the association of the devotees. I simply associate with these all rascals." Asat, asat-saṅga. Te kāraṇe lāgile mora karma-bandha-phāṅsa: "Therefore I have become entangled in this repetition of birth and death."

Lecture on BG 2.25 -- Hyderabad, November 29, 1972:

Then gradually we can understand. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). If you associate with devotees, hear them, then gradually everything will be cleared, and you'll understand your position. Then you understand: "Oh, I am not this body." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is the beginning of knowledge. Otherwise, so long you are under the bodily concept of life, you are in the animal platform. That is the difference. (break) But bhakti's such a nice thing that kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī. Bhakti attract Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa attracts everything, but bhakti attracts Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we have to adopt the bhakti means. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti, yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ. (Hindi)

bhaktyā mām abhijānāti
yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ
tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā
viśate tad-anantaram
(BG 18.55)

If you want to know Kṛṣṇa in truth, then you have to take this devotional line. Then gradually Kṛṣṇa will be attracted by your devotion, and then you will know Kṛṣṇa and you'll be allowed to enter into Kṛṣṇa's place. Otherwise, sarva-gataḥ, sthāṇur acalo 'yam. Although we are eternal, we have to wander within so many forms of life within this brahmāṇḍa and waste our time. That's all.

Lecture on BG 3.17-20 -- New York, May 27, 1966:

Just like Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He was, as the other day we were narrating the story of Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he was passing on naked, sixteen-years-old boy, young boy, and very nice feature of the body, peaceful. And he was passing naked, and the girls who were taking bath, naked on the river, they saw that innocent person, so they did not cover their body. But when the father was passing, such a learned sage, old man, Vyāsadeva, who is the author of all Vedic literatures—he is not an ordinary man. But because he was a worldly man, a householder, the girls, after seeing him, covered their body. That story the other day we have narrated before you. So the stage of Śukadeva Gosvāmī is ātma-rati, self-satisfied, doesn't care for anything of the world. He is aloof from the world. We should not imitate Śukadeva Gosvāmī and become naked. (chuckles)

Simply by... There are many so-called mendicants in India. They, I mean to say, loiter in the street naked, and sometimes they are arrested by the police, like that. Imitation is not required. Imitation is not required. But there is a stage like that. Just like a madman. Sometimes a madman, he also, I mean to say, wanders the street naked. So he is also compact in some thought, but he is a madman. But similarly, a person who is completely compact in Kṛṣṇa thought, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is also a madman according to the calculation of this world.

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

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 3.27 -- Melbourne, June 27, 1974:

Just like you are the son of your father. So when you love your father, naturally you love your brothers also because you know, "My father will be pleased." So this is love. That universal love can be possible when you actually love God. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. In material platform that is not possible. But a devotee, a pure lover of God, he loves everyone. Just like we are. Because we have tried to love God, therefore we are wandering, touring all over the world, and the same message, "Please try to love God." We have no other message because we have understood to some extent that without love of God, they are suffering. So they will be happy when they begin to love God. This is our mission.

Lecture on BG 4.1 -- Bombay, March 21, 1974:

We have no exact idea even of the moon planet. And there are innumerable planets. Vasudhā. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣu vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam (Bs. 5.40). Each planet is of different type, different climate, different facilities, different standard of life. And there are ananta, innumerable planets. You cannot count even. So this is only one universe, and there are millions of universes. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). So Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, is creator of these all universes. Still, He does not come here. He comes occasionally. But He does not claim. You utilize. He has given to you. "You living entities, you wanted to enjoy this material world. All right, I give you. Enjoy." Beginning from Brahmā, down to the ant, they're enjoying, and they're creating their own karma-phala. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). And because he's creating his karma-phala, he's getting another body. Sometimes the ant's body, sometimes Brahmā's body, sometimes cat's body, sometimes American body, sometimes Indian body, sometimes monkey's body. In this way, we are wandering all over the universes. This is called disease, material disease. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19).

Lecture on BG 4.5 -- Bombay, March 25, 1974:

Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). In this way, we are wandering all over the universe as some body. Sometimes human being, sometimes demigods, sometimes cats, sometimes dogs, sometimes tree, sometimes plant, sometimes insect, sometimes Brahmā, sometimes ant, sometimes pig. Anything. There are 8,400,000 species of life. So this is our circulation. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that tava cārjuna. "As Paramātmā, I am with you always. And you are changing so many bodies."

Lecture on BG 4.10 -- Calcutta, September 23, 1974:

Similarly, this material enjoyment is not required because we are spiritual entity. We have nothing to do with this... Asaṅgo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ. We have no connection with this material world. But somehow or other, we are attached to this material enjoyment and we have forgotten Kṛṣṇa, we have forgotten our home, we have forgotten our real identity. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says here, vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhāḥ (BG 2.56). Vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ (BG 4.10). If somebody understands that "This is not my home. I am wandering in these foreign countries," that is knowledge. But those who have no knowledge, they think that they are this body.

yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ
yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
(SB 10.84.13)

This is animal conception of life. "I am this body." "I am Indian." "I am Hindu." "I am Muslim." "I am American." "I am Christian." "I am Hindu." Like that. This is all bodily conception. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). This conception of life is animal conception.

Lecture on BG 4.11 -- New York, July 27, 1966:

So living entity is... According to his work, he is wandering in this circle in the cycle of different species of life. But the Supreme Lord, He is so kind and so friendly with us that He is also with us. Suppose I am sitting in this bird. As soon as I fly to another... I am sitting in this tree, and as soon as I fly to another tree, the other bird, He also follows me. He also follows me, and sits again in that tree. He is so friendly. Just imagine how much kind and how much friendly is the Lord. He is always trying to call me back again to Him. We are trying to noncooperate with Him. We are trying to noncooperate, and He is trying to cooperate. He is sitting with me in the same branch, He is witnessing, He is observing, and He is waiting, simply waiting when we shall turn my face, when I shall turn my face towards Him. That is the whole thing.

Lecture on BG 4.14 -- Vrndavana, August 6, 1974:

In material world we are simply becoming contaminated. Therefore karmāṇi limpanti. In the... We are becoming entangled by the reaction of our karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapatti (SB 3.31.1). By karma, the jantu, means living entity, is getting different types of body one after another, one after another. In this way he's wandering 8,400,000 forms of bodies. This is karma. Therefore to the living entities, as we are... We are bound up by the laws of karma. But Kṛṣṇa is not like that. Na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti.

This is to be understood. Unless we understand Kṛṣṇa, that He is not bound up by the material laws, then we do not understand Kṛṣṇa. And if anyone understands it perfectly, then what is the result? The result: iti māṁ yo 'bhijānāti karmabhir na sa badhyate (BG 4.14). If one understands clearly that Kṛṣṇa is not under any material laws, then he also becomes not bound up by any material laws. Simply by knowing it. Karmāṇi nirdahati ca bhakti-bhājām.

Lecture on BG 4.23 -- Bombay, April 12, 1974:

Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). We are rotating, wandering, in different species of life, different planets, different forms. In this way we are transmigrating from one position to another position. This is going on. So.... But that is not a very nice business. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). You accept some type of body or some type of place. Suppose one has become American. So how long he will remain American? Say, for fifty years or utmost hundred years. Then again, next chapter. One does not know what is the next life. That will be decided, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). There is no guarantee that the next life again you become American or Indian or brāhmaṇa. You may become a cat and dog, because that is not in your hands. That is in the hand of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). That will be awarded to you by superior judgement, that "This man has done like this; he should get a body like this." That is not in your hand. That is not in your science.

Lecture on BG 6.25-29 -- Los Angeles, February 18, 1969:
Viṣṇujana: Verse twenty-six: "From whatever and wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self (BG 6.26)."

Prabhupāda: This is the process. This is yoga system. Suppose you are trying to concentrate your mind on Kṛṣṇa, and your mind is diverted, going somewhere, in some cinema house. So you should withdraw, "Not there, please, here." This is practice of yoga. Not to allow the mind to go away from Kṛṣṇa. If you can practice this simply. Don't allow the mind to go away from Kṛṣṇa and because we cannot fix up our mind sitting in one place in Kṛṣṇa, that requires very high training. To sit down in a place and always fix up in Kṛṣṇa the mind, that is not very easy job. One who is not practiced to it, if he simply imitates, then he will be confused. We have to engage ourself always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everything we do must be dovetailed in Kṛṣṇa. Our usual activities should be molded that it has to do everything for Kṛṣṇa. Then your mind will be fixed up in Kṛṣṇa. Artificially when you are not advanced if you try to fix up your mind in Kṛṣṇa, that yoga practice as it is recommended here, that you have to sit down in this way, straight, you have to concentrate your eyesight on the tip of the nose in a secluded sacred place. But where are these chances? At the present moment, where is the chance of all these facilities?

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Calcutta, January 27, 1973:

So to practice this yoga, any yoga, you have to take shelter of somebody who knows how to practice this yoga. Mad-āśrayaḥ. Then the result will be asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu (BG 7.1). Then, without any doubt and in complete awareness, you'll understand the process. And in complete awareness of Kṛṣṇa, your life is successful. Simply if you know Kṛṣṇa, if you try to understand Kṛṣṇa, and fortunately if you know Kṛṣṇa, then your life is successful.

What is the success of life? The success of life is that we are wandering throughout the universe.

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

We are transmigrating from different bodies. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa viṁśati, kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ. In Padma Purāṇa, the gradual process of evolution is there. This evolution theory put forwarded by Darwin, that is nonsense. Because the Darwin's theory is evolution of this body. In one sense, it is... But it is incomplete. Actually we are getting different types of body according to our association with the different modes of material nature.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975:

So actually, to approach God does not mean that we shall ask him for our bread. Bread He is supplying. You ask or do not ask, the arrangement is there. Therefore the Bhāgavata says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ: "Anyone who is expert, he should try to achieve that thing..." Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). We have, or we are wandering, upary adhaḥ. Upary means up, and adhaḥ means down. There are higher planetary system; there are lower planetary system; there are middle planetary system. Therefore it is called tri-loka, three worlds. So we living entities, according to our different desires and different activities, we are being promoted to the higher, to the lower, or keeping ourself in the middle. This is going on perpetually. But we are not getting information what is the aim of life. Therefore śāstra says that we have traveled so many times—not only once—life after life, in so many forms of life, in so many different planets. But still, we haven't got the information what is the aim of life. We are simply changing one body to another and searching after something, happiness. But we have not received it. Simply we are wandering. So in this human form of life we should try to achieve that thing which we did not get, wandering so many times throughout the whole universe. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18).

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- London, August 4, 1971:

We have got about three thousand followers. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that it is not attractive for everyone. But if one is attracted, his life is successful. His life is successful. Lord Caitanya also said the same thing. Brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva. There are many, innumerable living entities. They are wandering within this universe in different forms of body and different planets, transmigrating from one body to another, one planet to another. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa, kona... Out of them, if one is fortunate enough to associate with a bona fide spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa, his life is becomes successful.

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

Bīja means seed. As from the seed a big tree come out, similarly, if one is injected with this Kṛṣṇa consciousness understanding, then, gradually, it will grow into a big tree. And when the fruits will be there, he'll enjoy life.

Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Bombay, February 18, 1974:

So one who tries to understand Kṛṣṇa in truth, tattvataḥ, he is very very fortunate; therefore he's called manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). The fortune does not come to everyone and anyone. Out of millions of persons. Therefore, who have taken Kṛṣṇa, who have understood Kṛṣṇa in tattvataḥ, as far as his knowledge is concerned, he is very, very fortunate. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that we are wandering throughout the universe in many species of life, and when we come to this human form of life, if we are fortunate, or if we are fortunate to meet another fortunate devotee, then we can understand what is Kṛṣṇa. That is the saying, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Simply for a time endeavoring like cats and dogs, that will not help us. We have to approach such a person... That is stated in the beginning of Seventh Chapter, mad-āśrayaḥ. What is that first version?

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

Deva means in the upper worlds there are demigods. In the middle we human beings, and lower than this, the animals. So we are in different forms of life. Soul is one—that is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa—but according to karma, according to desire for material enjoyment, we have taken different dresses, and we are wandering all over the universe, according to our karma. Sometimes we are becoming demigods, sometimes we are becoming dogs—according to karma. Therefore Caitanya-caritāmṛta-kar, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, says,

ei rūpe bhramāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

We are wandering all over the universe. When you are doing some pious activities, you are elevated to the higher planetary system, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā (BG 14.18). When we are not very much pious, but not impious also—ordinary, following moral principles—then madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. And jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. So in this way, up and down, we are wandering by transmigration of the soul. This is our position.

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 -- Calcutta, March 8, 1972:

Just like foolish person suffering from some disease, he wants to kill himself, sometimes commit suicide, because he does not know that after suicide, the policy, there is no stoppage; he will have to become a ghost because you have disobeyed. God has given you certain type of body. You have to stay in that body for certain period. That is obedience to God. If you untimely kill this body, then it is sinful. Just like you are put into prison house for a certain number of months or years. Before that period, if you flee away, then you are again punished. Is it not? Because you did not fulfill the terms of your prison life, then again you become criminal. Similarly, those who kills another body, or those who kill another body, or those who make suicide, they become again criminal. Again criminal. This is the law of nature, but they do not know. Therefore one who does not know the laws of nature, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). The prakṛtiḥ, the laws of nature, is going on under the direction of Kṛṣṇa. One who does not know, aśraddadhānaḥ, one who has no faith, puruṣā dharmasyāsya parantapa aprāpya mām: the result is he does not go back to home, back to Godhead. Then what is? Nivartante: he wanders, he travels within this material world, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. Because you cannot avoid mṛtyu.

Lecture on BG 10.4 -- New York, January 3, 1967:

So jñāna, knowledge, means distinguishing between spirit and matter. And this knowledge should be cultivated and taken full advantage in this life. That is successful life. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is stated, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). Now, a living entity, a spiritual spark, is wandering, wandering from, not only from one country to another country or from one body to another, but one planet to another. The qualification of a living entity is called sarva-ga. Sarva-ga. Sarva means all, and ga means one can go. You can go anywhere.

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

Similarly all these varieties of bodies are there according to my desire. Kṛṣṇa... That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, you know: yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati, The Lord is situated in everyone's heart. Arjuna tiṣṭhati. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Bhrāmayan. He is causing to wander all over the universe all living entities, riding on a car or machine. This machine is this body. Now I am walking, I am going here, preaching. What is the machine? The machine, first machine is my body. So who has given me this body? Māyayā. Māyā, the illusory energy, has given me this body. My real body's spiritual body. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). These are ver, Vedic versions. We are not speaking unauthorized. Karmaṇā. As you are working, or as you desire to work, then similar type of body will be given to you. By nature. You are, you have got this body by nature. Māyayā, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.

Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, September 25, 1973:

Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. So Kṛṣṇa has given us this body through the agency of material nature. So this is a body. This body is just like yantra. So we are seated in this yantra and we are traveling. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā, under the influence of māyā, seated on this car, this yantra, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni (BG 18.61), we are wandering throughout the whole creation.

Sometimes we are getting this body of human form, sometimes we are getting the body of a demigod's, sometimes we are getting the body of a rich man, sometimes we are getting the body of a poor man, sometimes we are getting the body of a cat, sometimes of a dog, sometimes so many things, trees, plants, aquatics. There are eight million four hundred... This is our position. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). As we are changing our body every moment, from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youth-hood, similarly, by changing this body we get another body. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. But we do not know what kind of body we are going to get next life. We are blind. This is called ignorance.

Generally, they are thinking this body is all in all there is no rebirth. No. The example is given here in the Bhagavad-gītā. Just like a child has his future, another body, boyhood body. The boy has got his future, another body, young man's body. The young man has got another future, old man's body. Similarly the old man has got another body after death. Tatha dehāntara-praptiḥ.

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

Similarly ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ (BG 14.18). Those who are associating with the qualities of passion, they remain within this middle planetary system, Bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ. And then... Jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. And if we associate with tāmasika qualities, then we degraded to a lower species of life, lower planetary system, dark planetary system. There are many planets, they are dark. As we have got a part of this planet, also, six months dark, six months light. There are so many different varieties of planets. This is the... We are wandering from different planetary systems... Different... This way. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya.

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

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. There are millions and trillions of planets. And there are eight million, four hundred thousand species of life. In this way, we are wandering. this is our position.

Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Bombay, September 27, 1973:

Because we are all sons of Kṛṣṇa... We are wandering in this material world as mad chap. Just like a rich man's son has become mad. He leaves his home and loitering in the street and eating in the garbage. That is our position. We are the sons of the richest person. Aiśvaryasya samāgrasya. Bhagavān means who is the proprietor of all riches. So we are sons of such a rich man. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanā... But we have become mad. We have become mad. We want to enjoy... Just like there are many sons. Although the father is... In America we find many. Although father is rich, millionaire, he has become a hippie, out of frustration, confusion, or some other reason. So our condition, like that. We are the sons of the richest person. Not only richest, the wisest. Aiśvaryasya samāgrasya vīryasya. The most powerful, Kṛṣṇa. The most powerful, the richest, the wisest, the most beautiful. Everything, supreme degree. We are sons of such a father, but we have become mad after this material enjoyment. This is our madness.

Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Bombay, September 27, 1973:

So dry grass means although he has fallen, he has no material desire. That is sattva-guṇa. There are men, who... Just like devotees. The devotees are also wandering, moving in Bombay, but they have no such desire to enjoy Bombay. That desire is dried up. They're not walking in the Bombay street for going to the cinema or to the restaurant or to the meathouse or that or that, no. Don't consider they are on the same position like others. There are many persons loitering in the street, but they are different person. They are not in touch with anything of Bombay, material facilities.

Similarly, there are persons who are via media—half this side, half that side. And there are persons who are fully in Bombay life. Or Bombay... Any city life. We don't speak only Bombay. Suppose we are in London. We are wandering, traveling in many, many nice cities better than Bombay. What is Bombay? Bombay is nothing in comparison to New York or Chicago or Tokyo. Very, very big, big cities.

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

You will find even an ant. He has got all the propensities, just like human being. You can study how they are struggling, how they have organized their society, how they are eating, how they are sleeping, how they are begetting children. Everything is there in every life. The four principles of bodily demands, namely eating. sleeping, sex and defense, you will find in the insect, smallest insect, like full stop. I sometimes see at night. They wander on the page of the book, very small. But they have got all the propensities. All the propensities. You can study. Anyone, minute study, you can see. So these things are there everywhere, even to the ant or even to the elephant or to the demigod or any Brahmā or in everything. That's all. That is clear.

So when we get by evolutionary process, come to this human form of life by God's grace, nature's mercy, we can understand what is what. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is explaining to Arjuna, a human being, not to a cat and dog. Therefore He says, tat kṣetram, "That body," how it has become varieties, what is the ingredients. The ingredients are the same. This material body, the ingredients are the four primary gross elements, means earth, water, air, fire and ether or sky, the mind, intelligence and ego. This is the composition of this body. And beyond this composition, I am there, soul. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhuḥ.

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

Then why does He give sanction for our sinful activities? Because we want to do it. Because we want to do it. God does not want that you become implicated in sinful life. Therefore thief, he steals very stealthily. God says from within, "Don't steal. You will be implicated. You will be punished. Why you are stealing?" But he will do. He will do. That is ajñāna. That is ignorance. God is always helping us, but we do not care for God. That is our disease. Therefore we are getting different types of bodies and suffering. This is the philosophy, real philosophy, that God is there with me in the same bird, in the same, exactly the same, that the driver is there and the proprietor is there in the same car. The car is a machine. Similarly, this body is a machine.

It is stated in the Bhagavad..., machine. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
(BG 18.61)

"Īśvara, the Supreme Lord, God, is situated in everyone's heart, and He is directing the travel, or wandering, of the living entity."

Lecture on BG 13.5 -- Bombay, September 28, 1973:

Basic principle of spiritual knowledge is to understand that "I am not this body, I am spirit soul. I am now fallen in this material condition, and therefore, according to my different desires, I am accepting different types of bodies and wandering throughout the whole universe, sometimes this body, sometimes that body, sometimes in this planet, sometimes in other planet. This has become my unfortunate condition of life."

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). We are wandering in this cycle of birth and death and wandering in the universe. In this way, in the process of our wandering, some way or other, if we become fortunate by association of devotees, by understanding the Vedic knowledge... Jñāna-vairāgya-yuktāya (SB 1.2.12). Human life is meant for achieving knowledge and vairāgya, not that to increase the animal propensities even up to the point of death. That is not human life. Human life is meant for tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1).

Lecture on BG 13.6-7 -- Bombay, September 29, 1973:

Therefore human life is simply meant for inquiring about the Absolute Truth, not for engaging oneself for this so-called economic development. That is already there by God's arrangement. Actually, I am wandering all over the world. There are immense space in this planet also. In Africa, in Australia, ten times of the population can be accommodated, and they can produce their food. But the īśāvāsya... We have forgotten that everything belongs to God. We are thinking "It is my land. You cannot come here. It is my land. You cannot come here." This mismanagement of the human society is the cause of all troubles, all problems. Therefore the human society must have Kṛṣṇa consciousness to solve all the problems of life. Thank you very much. (end)

Lecture on BG 13.21 -- Bombay, October 15, 1973:

Everything is controlled. The ultimate controller is the Supreme Personality of Godhead because īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61), bhrāmayan, bhrāmayan, the passive. He is causing to move or wander sarva-bhūtāni, all living entities under different condition of the body. So how much foolish we are that we are getting a particular type of body and the sukha-duḥkha, happiness and distress, is already fixed up. That is called destiny. As soon as I get a particular type of body, my happiness and sufferings are all destined. This is our position.

Lecture on BG 13.21 -- Bombay, October 15, 1973:

So we are trying to make the situation improved because, after all, as soon as you get this material body, it is suffering. There is no question of happiness. But by the illusory energy, by illusion we are thinking we are enjoying. That is called illusion, māyā. Just like the same example, a hog is eating stool, but he is thinking he is enjoying. This is called prakṣepātmikā-śakti. Not only hog, even in human society, somebody eats the most abominable, most rotten fish; still, he's thinking he's enjoying. We have seen it. Unless he thinks like that, how... If he thinks that, "This is most rotten thing," then he cannot live. The māyā must make him forget that he is eating the most rotten thing. He'll think, "It is very nice." Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. So this is the consequence of all forgetfulness.

There are varieties of living entities, bodies. As Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura therefore says,

karma-kāṇḍa jñāna-kāṇḍa, kebala viṣera bhāṇḍa,

amṛta boliyā jebā khāya

nānā joni sadā phire, kadarya bhakṣana kore,

tāra janma adhahpāte jāya

Nānā joni sadā phire. We are wandering in different species of life. There are cockroaches in the commode. They are also thinking, "I am enjoying." A tree is standing for seven thousands of years, and he's also thinking, "I am enjoying life." So this is going on.

Lecture on BG 13.22 -- Bombay, October 20, 1973:

So our business is, this human form of life, to get out of this cycle of birth and death and wandering in different species of life. This is the mission of human life. Human life, advanced consciousness, it is meant for getting out of the cycle of birth and death. And wandering in different species of life. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

In this way the living entities, puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ, within this material world, he is wandering in different species of life, in different planets.

Lecture on BG 15.1 -- Calcutta, February 26, 1974:

The entanglement of this material world is compared here to a banyan tree. For one who is engaged in fruitive activities, there is no end to the banyan tree. He wanders from one branch to another, to another, to another. The tree of this material world has no end, and for one who is attached to this tree, there is no possibility of liberation. The Vedic hymns, meant for elevating oneself, are called the leaves of this tree. This tree's roots grow upward because they begin from where Brahmā is located, the topmost planet of this universe. If one can understand this indestructible tree of illusion, then one can get out of it.

Lecture on BG 16.6 -- South Africa, October 18, 1975:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (3): Does he know when... "The Supreme Lord sits in anyone's heart, O Arjuna, and He's directing the wandering of all living entities." Does He know when the living entities are going to surrender unto Him?

Prabhupāda: So?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The question is: if Kṛṣṇa is sitting in everyone's heart and He knows the wanderings of all living entities—He's directing the wandering of all living entities—then does Kṛṣṇa know the time, or does He direct the living entity at some certain time to surrender or is this the will of the living entity?

Prabhupāda: He knows. Yes, He knows. What is your...? Is there any doubt?

Devotee (3): No, it wasn't a doubt, but...

Prabhupāda: So what is the time He knows, do you know that? He knows that he will surrender, but when he will surrender... Then? That question must be there. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). He knows that "He'll be happy provided he surrenders unto Me, otherwise not." That He knows also. Is it all right? He knows that "As soon as he is surrendered unto Me he'll be free from the clutches of māyā," and He knows it also, "If he does not know do so, then he'll never be free from māyā." Both things He knows. Is it clear or not?

Lecture on BG 16.6 -- South Africa, October 18, 1975:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is given to him. He knows that "I have given him the independence," so you can use your choice. That He knows also. Yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63). He knows.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is understanding things in proper light.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (3): See, the argument could come that "If He is directing the wanderings of all living entities then I don't have to worry about surrendering. He will direct me to it."

Prabhupāda: Yes. But ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). Why don't you see other verse? He is directing according to your desire—unless you surrender. There are two kinds of direction. One kind of direction is when you do not surrender, and one kind of direction, when you have surrendered, because these things are there. My position is either surrender or not surrender. So the not surrender will get one kind of direction and the surrender will get another kind of direction. Both ways, there is direction. Without His direction he cannot act. Is it clear or not? He gives direction to both of them, but this both, one who is surrendered is a different person from the person who is surrendered. So they, both of them, get different direction in different position, but without His direction he cannot act, either the surrendered or not the surrendered. He has to give direction. So if you think, "My Lord, send me to the hell. I will be very much satisfied," "All right, you go to hell in this way. This is the path." And if you say "My lord, kindly take me to Your shelter," then He will give you direction, "You come in this way."

Lecture on BG 18.67 -- Ahmedabad, December 10, 1972:

So one has to understand all these things by little tapasya. Because to go back to home, back go Godhead is not very easy thing. Because we are so much entangled with this gross material body and subtle material body. And the subtle material body is creating... Just like a spool, creating another body, another body, desires. Material desires. So we have to change these material desires into spiritual desires. Then we get spiritual body. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). There... This is the function of the laws of nature.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
(BG 3.27)

Prakṛti. So long we are in this material world, we are associating with different modes of material nature. And prakṛti is giving me different types of bodies. In this way, we are rolling, we are wandering. Now, this, this human form of life is meant for understanding that there is spiritual life, there is eternal life, there is blissful life, and prepare for that. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Do not waste your time.

Lecture on BG Lecture -- Ahmedabad, December 8, 1972:

So this Kṛṣṇa philosophy means to understand Kṛṣṇa as He is, without any interpretation. And if we actually understand Kṛṣṇa, then our life is successful. What is the mission of our life? The mission of life is to get out of the cycle of birth and death and old age and disease. That means to cease accepting material body, one after another. That is going on. We are wandering throughout the whole universe in different planets and different species of life. We are spirit souls. We don't require to accept this material body. But we have accepted it, somehow or other.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

In this way, we are wandering throughout the whole universe. But if want to stop it, if we want to become again originally situated in our constitutional position, then we must understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is. We must try to understand Kṛṣṇa as He is. Then our life will be successful. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Go back to home, go back to Godhead. This is very simple philosophy. And everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. If we are fortunate enough, we should study Bhagavad-gītā as it is. And then we become successful in the mission of our life.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.1 -- Caracas, February 20, 1975:

So far sex is concerned, that is also guaranteed. The birds, when they are in the eggs, there are two eggs, one male, one female. And you will find these birds, beasts, they are in pair. Just about two months before, when I was in Māyāpur, the two snakes, not very big, small, were found in the lavatory, and they were also two, in pair. That means this pair in birds and beasts, in animals, in snakes, they are found. The tiger, the elephant, there are two. So there is no scarcity of sex also. And so far defense is concerned, everyone is provided with nails, jaws, and wings, and everything. According to their capacity, they can defend also. So in this way, so far our four necessities of life required, it is already arranged by the laws of nature. So we, means the living entity, or the soul, we are wandering throughout the whole universe in different types of bodies. And because we are part and parcel of God, our four necessities of life, namely the food, shelter, sex and defense, that is already provided. So for these four things we need not work very hard.

Lecture on SB 1.1.2 -- London, August 18, 1971:

Therefore śāstra says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). In these different species of life we are wandering in different planets. So trying to solve the economic problem, so many leaders came to solve the economic problem and they went away. The problems remained where it was there. But they are coming and going. Kata catur-anana mari mari yavata.(?) The so-called leaders are coming and going, but because there is no God consciousness, the problems are there. In our country, big leaders like Gandhi and others, they came and went away. They thought "If the Britishers go away, then our problems will be solved," but actually there is no solution of problem. There is Pakistan problem, this problem, that problem. So many problems. So in this way we cannot solve our problems. The problems can be solved if we endeavor for developing our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then problems will be solved. Otherwise there is no problem. Read next line.

Lecture on SB 1.2.2 -- Rome, May 26, 1974:

Yaṁ pravrajantam. Pravrajantam means to leave home in renounced order of life. That is called pravrajantam. Therefore a sannyāsī is called parivrājakācārya. A sannyāsī is supposed to be wandering without any shelter. That is called pravrajya. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he remained sixteen years within the womb of his mother. He did not come out. He was hearing his father within the womb. So this is called paramahaṁsa. So a paramahaṁsa does not require any reformatory process, because they are already reformed. Yaṁ pravrajantam anupetam (SB 1.2.2). Anu. Ana means without. Upeta. Upeta means taking shelter of guru or being offered the sacred... Upanayanam. The sacred thread ceremony is called upanayanam. That means he did not undergo the regulative principles because he was within the womb. Without any saṁskāra, he was going immediately, taking birth. Dvaipāyano viraha-kātaraḥ. The father certainly was expecting the son to remain at home. Every father expects. But he, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, immediately after his birth, he began to go away. He was simply just waiting, "When I shall be fit to immediately go out of home, I shall take my birth."

Lecture on SB 1.2.3 -- London, August 24, 1971:

So anyone who is very serious... Atititīrṣatāṁ tamo 'ndham. Those who are actually serious to go out of this darkness to light, for them this is the lamp. Just like in darkness, if you are helped with a lamp, "Please come this way. Come this way," so you can come out of the darkness. Similarly, atititīrṣatām, one who wants to get liberation from this darkness, for them this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is given by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Saṁsāriṇām... Karuṇayā. This is the business of the saintly persons. They are very much compassionate to these materialistic men, saṁsāriṇām. Saṁsārī means they are perpetually rotating, wandering, within this darkness in different forms of life. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

We are wandering. The modern education system has no knowledge. They simply know that "This life is everything. Waste this life by sense gratification, because after death everything is void. Now I have got this body. Body means the senses. So enjoy my senses." This is the materialistic way of life. They have no knowledge that there is life after death. We should prepare ourself, what kind of body we shall have next life. Instead of, they are being washed off. Not washed off, carried away by the waves of material nature.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972:

So this body is a bag of the three elements, yasyātmā-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). (baby cries) That baby. So Bhāgavata says yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke, I am not this body. This is a vehicle. Just like we ride on a car, drive car, so I am not this car. Similarly, this is a yantra, car, mechanical car. Kṛṣṇa or God has given me this car, I wanted it. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). "My dear Arjuna, the Lord as Paramātmā is sitting in everyone's heart," bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61), "and He is giving chance to the living entity to travel, to wander," sarva-bhūtāni, "all over the universe." Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā, riding on a car, driving a car given by the material nature. So actual our position is that I am soul, I have been given a nice car—it is not a nice car but as soon as we get a car, however rotten it may be, we think that it is very nice, (laughter) and identify with that car. "I have got this car, I have got that car." One forgets if one drives a very costly car, he forgets himself that he is a poor man. He thinks that "I am this car." This is identification.

Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Delhi, November 18, 1973:

So Kṛṣṇa is father for all living entities. They are simply struggling here in this material world under different desires, and therefore they are getting transmigrating from one body to another, and in this way they are wandering within this material world. That is their real disadvantageous position. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says the real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is the real problem. Whole spiritual process should be executed to get out of this entanglement of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. That is real problem. So Kṛṣṇa therefore comes, that "Why you are rotting in this material world?" Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhāni indriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. "Why you are struggling so hard?" For ānanda. Everyone is struggling for ānanda, but he does not know whether ānanda is there. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Absolute Truth, He is the reservoir of ānanda Therefore you will see Kṛṣṇa's picture always in ānanda. Wherever you see Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa is in the battlefield, still, He is smiling, ānanda. He is not morose. Arjuna is morose. But He is not morose. Because he is ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt.

Lecture on SB 1.2.23 -- Vrndavana, November 3, 1972:

So these things, śāstra says, viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. These necessities of life, they can be obtained in any form of life. There is no scarcity. But the human form of life, if it is wasted only for these facilities of life—eating, sleeping, mating and defending—then what is the credit of getting a human form of life? The śāstra therefore says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. In human form of life one should try to achieve that perfection which was not obtained in previous lives after wandering heaven and hell and all species of life. Bhramatām upary adhaḥ. Upari adhaḥ means upwards and downwards. And we are wandering: sometimes downwards, sometimes outwards, sometimes poor, sometimes rich, sometimes man, sometimes dog, sometimes tree, sometimes demigod. In this way, we are wandering. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). We are wandering in this way in different species of life, in different planets, but somehow or other, if one is fortunate, he comes in contact with a devotee by the grace of Kṛṣṇa. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151).

Lecture on SB 1.4.25 -- Montreal, June 20, 1968:

So Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he was not a fool. He was a learned king. So all the great sages and saintly persons assembled there. He asked them, "My dear sirs, you are so kind that you have come here at the time of my death. So kindly let me know what is my duty at the present moment." So there were different kinds of authorities. Different kinds of authorities means some were in favor of fruitive activities, karma-kāṇḍa, pious activities; some were in favor of yoga principles; some were in favor of philosophical speculation; and some were in favor of devotional service of bhakti. So fortunately, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, a boy of sixteen years old, but he was highly elevated in spiritual knowledge, the son of Vyāsadeva, he was wandering all over the world, naked and without any care for his body or social convention. Of course, he did not come into the cities, but he heard that Parīkṣit Mahārāja was going to die. "He is in need of some spiritual instruction." So he also came there in that meeting.

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

So Nārada Muni is advising Vyāsadeva, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Kovida means intelligent, expert. One who knows things as they are, he's called kovida. So one who is intelligent, he should try to achieve that thing which is not available—na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ—which is not available even by wandering up and down. This we have already explained in the last meeting, that according to our karma, we are being sometimes elevated to the very high position, and sometimes we are being degraded to become an insignificant creature like ant. This is going on. (baby crying in background) (aside:) This boy... She, she can go to the... Yes. This is very disturbing child.

Lecture on SB 1.7.23 -- Vrndavana, September 20, 1976:

The finger is important so long it is with the body. Similarly, we are always with Kṛṣṇa indirectly or directly. But here Arjuna sees sākṣāt, directly. But we are forced to accept Kṛṣṇa indirectly, māyā. Arjuna is māyāṁ vyudasya. He has no intervention by māyā. And we have got intervention by māyā. Therefore we cannot see Kṛṣṇa. But Kṛṣṇa is always there. Kṛṣṇa is always there.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
yantrārūḍhāni māyayā
(BG 18.61)

This rascal, he wants to wander within this material world in different capacities. Sometime he's demigod, sometime he's dog, sometime he's tree, sometime he's fish, sometime he is president, sometime he's a nonsense. In this way, in different ways, he is suffering in this material world, and Kṛṣṇa is with him, trying to get him back. And whenever there is opportunity, He's asking, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam: (BG 18.66) "You rascal, why you are suffering in this way? You give up all this nonsense business. You simply surrender to Me." That is Kṛṣṇa's ambition, that "This rascal is suffering, so better give him good instruction."

Lecture on SB 1.10.5 -- Mayapura, June 20, 1973:

We each can simply be servitor; that is our natural position. Just like a dog, when it serves a nice master, he's happy. Otherwise, it is street dog. Nobody cares for it. Street dog. A street dog has no position. Sometimes they are killed. Similarly, when we live under the full protection of the Supreme Lord, that is our healthy condition, that is our real life. And as soon as we give up this position to be subordinate, to be predominated by the Supreme Lord, then we are bewildered. We are thrown into this, under the control of this material nature, and according to our work we get different bodies. There are 8,400,000 forms of bodies and we get one body after another. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). This is called ever conditioned. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). In this way, we are wandering from one species of life to another, one planet to another. In this way the brahmāṇḍa, this universe is very very big and there is immense opportunity. You become sometimes demigod, sometimes dog, sometimes cat, sometimes tree. In this way, we are wandering.

Lecture on SB 1.15.22-23 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1973:

So the hellish condition. So we create our hellish condition. Wherefrom the hog comes? The hog comes also... He is also living entity. By process of transmigration of the soul, one is accepting sometimes as a hog, sometimes a dog, sometimes a demigod, sometimes rich man, sometimes poor man, sometimes tree. That they do not know. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). We are spoiling our time in this way, transmigrating from one type of body to another, and there are 8,400,000 types of body. So in the human form of life, if one is actually fortunate, then guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). By the mercy of guru and by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa one gets the opportunity of understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Otherwise they are entrapped by māyā, intoxication, and wandering through out the whole universe in different types of body.

Lecture on SB 1.15.22-23 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1973:

So without understanding our real identification, if we remain intoxicated and wander within this wonderful universe... You cannot live. It is not that because you have settled up, "Now I am in America or India. Let me live here comfortably. I have got very good arrangement." But you will not be allowed to live, sir. You must have to change. You may make very good arrangement, but who is allowing to stay here. You will not be allowed to stay here. But they do not know. Intoxicated, because intoxicated. Everyone is thinking that "I shall stay forever. Let there be very big iron skyscraper building. I will be able to stay." But because intoxicated, he cannot understand that he will not be allowed to stay. You may simply spoil your energy. That's all. The energy which was given to you to understand God, you are spoiling that energy in skyscraper building, but you will not be allowed to stay. This is nature's law.

Lecture on SB 1.15.31 -- Los Angeles, December 9, 1973:

Just like the child is sitting on the lap of the father. So the child is confident that "I'm secure." So it has no more any second desire. In the material world, because we have not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa we are always wandering helpless. Everyone here feeling helpless. Even though one is millionaire, even though one is president, but he's feeling helpless. This is the position, material conditional life.

bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ
praśānta-niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaraḥ
kadāham aikāntika-nitya-kiṅkaraḥ
praharṣayiṣyāmi sanātha-jīvitam

This is a prayer by Yāmunācārya. He's aspiring, bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ: "I shall always live in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Bhavantam. He's addressing the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, bhavantam. Bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ. Nirantara means without any stop, continually. "When I shall live in Kṛṣṇa consciousness without any stop?" Bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ. Praśānta-niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaraḥ. Manas means mind here on the chariot, and the mind is the driver and the senses are the horses. So we are being driven here and there by the... This chariot is this body. The mind is the coat-man or the chariot driver, and the senses are the horses. So, in this way, we are being forced to wander in so many planets, in so many species of life. This is our material condition. Bhrāmayan yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. Bhrāmayan yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.

Lecture on SB 1.15.50 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1973:

Why we should depend on others? Kṛṣṇa saves. Kṛṣṇa says that "Anyone who is completely dependent upon Me," yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22), "I personally bring whatever his necessity is." That is the promise of Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā. So renounced order means no more dependence on father, mother, husband, daughter. No. Completely dependent on Kṛṣṇa. Ekānta. That is perfection. One who is fully convinced that "Kṛṣṇa is with me..." Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61)—"I will not have to search out Kṛṣṇa anywhere. He is within me, within my heart." There are so many instances.

So cirāṇi kiṁ pathi na santi diśanti bhikṣām. Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he was wandering all over the world alone, naked, even no cloth. Simply while walking on the street early in the morning, he would stand anywhere, because in those days, every house, they had cows, and the time for milking is early in the morning. We are also milking cows in London, in our Letchmore Heath, early in the morning. That is the time. Here also the same system?

Lecture on SB 2.1.1 -- New York, April 10, 1969:

So here Śukadeva Gosvāmī sent by Kṛṣṇa on the verge of his death. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). This opportunity is obtained by a very fortunate person. Because the living entities are wandering within this universe, packed up, from one planet to another, from one species life to another species of life. In this way, he is wandering. He is not fixed up. Today I am American or Indian, tomorrow or next birth, I do not know what is going to happen to me. But this body for good will be finished. I'll never get this body. I'll get another body. Maybe a demigod's body or a tree's body or a plant's body or animal's body—I must get another body. So the living entity is wandering in this way, vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni. Just like we change our dress from one dress to another, similarly we are changing different positions by the influence of māyā. Māyā is forcing me. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). As soon as I am desiring something, immediately my body is formed.

Lecture on SB 2.2.5 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1968:

So anyway, qualitatively, we are one with God. Therefore our business is how to again unite with God qualitatively. That is the highest perfection of human life. And this chance of realization, how we can unite again with God or Kṛṣṇa, is given only in the human form of life. We are wandering in so many species of life, transmigration of the soul. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Just we change our dress, similarly we are changing our body every moment, and finally we are changing to other body. Not only we are changing or transmigrating from one body to another, but we are transmigrating from one planet to another. These things are all explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. How we are changing our planets also, that is explained:

ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā
madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ
jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā
adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ
(BG 14.18)

Those who are developing the modes of good qualities, they are gradually being promoted to the higher planetary system, heavenly planet-Satyaloka, Janaloka, Maharloka. In those planets the duration of life is very long, the possibilities of sense enjoyment is very nice.

Lecture on SB 2.2.5 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1968:

So this is going on. I do not know how long, since what time we have begun this wandering, changing. Lord Caitanya says that ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). He said that the living entities are wandering in such a way, in different species of life, in different planets, lower and higher. In this way, if he is fortunate enough, he comes in contact with a bona fide spiritual master under the grace of Lord Kṛṣṇa. That means if anyone is fortunate, he comes in contact with guru and Kṛṣṇa, a bona fide spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa. And what is the benefit? The benefit is guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). The benediction from the bona fide spiritual master and Lord is that his sense of devotional service is invoked. That is the gift. He does not give anything material opulence. Of course, if one is advanced in spiritual consciousness, material happiness is not very rare for him. That is automatically there. But the gift of Kṛṣṇa and spiritual master is to inject him. Not inject him... The devotional service, love of Godhead is there, but to invoke it. This devotional service is not artificial. In every one of you there is dormant devotional service, as I have already explained, but they are exhibited in a different way. Instead of loving God, that devotional service is diverted in loving a dog. But the love is there. Love is there.

Lecture on SB 2.3.19 -- Los Angeles, June 15, 1972:

So aśītim means eighty. Aśītiṁ caturaḥ. Caturaḥ means four. So eighty-four. Eighty plus four means eighty-four. Lakṣāṁs. Lakṣāṁs means hundreds of thousand. So eighty-four hundreds of thousands. Aśītiṁ caturaś caiva lakṣāṁs tāñ jīva-jātiṣu. Jīva-jāti. This is different species of living entities. Jīva-jāti. The hog species, the ass species, the dog species, just like they have got species. Jīva-jātiṣu. So in different species of living entities, they are counted, eighty-four hundreds of thousands, or 8,400,000. Bhramadbhiḥ. Bhramadbhiḥ means transmigrating, wandering one after another. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. There are 900,000 species within the water.

Lecture on SB 2.3.19 -- Los Angeles, June 15, 1972:

Similarly, one should not become father. The father and mother should have determination that "The child I produce, I give birth, if I cannot teach him Kṛṣṇa conscious, surrender to Kṛṣṇa, I shall not beget any child."

This is real contraceptive method. Not to beget child like cats and dogs. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-khara. So Bhāgavata says, "One should not become father, one should not become mother, one should not become relative, one should not become king, one should not become guru, if they cannot save their dependants from this cycle of birth and death." This is the meaning of this verse. Anāśritya govinda-caraṇa-dvayam, varākāṇām ātmābhimāninām. So after wandering through these so many species of life and so dangerous... There are two million species of plant life, tree's life. Just see. You have to stand for so many years. A great opportunity, this human form of life. Don't waste. Don't become dogs and hogs and asses and camels. Become devotee. Just surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Make your life successful. Thank you. (end)

Lecture on SB 2.4.1 -- Los Angeles, June 24, 1972:

Who knows the tattva? Athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-prasāda-leśānugṛhīta. "One person who has got a slight benediction from Your lotus feet." Not that all. A slight. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. If you get a slight, a glance, then your life is perfect, immediately. Not that you have to get all the mercies of the Lord. Even little, very insignificant part. That means, insignificant part, that is, Kṛṣṇa is teaching Himself, "Just surrender." So this much mercy every one of us we can take. How? "Kṛṣṇa, I was wandering throughout the whole universe in so many lives. I did not know that You are my supreme master. Now, from this day, I surrender unto You." Kṛṣṇa is ready: ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). "Yes, you do it. I shall give you protection from all sinful resultant action. Immediately." A simple process. So this much mercy we can take, if we will. But we are not willing.

Lecture on SB 3.25.2 -- Bombay, November 2, 1974:

Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). (aside:) Let them sit down. Upary adhaḥ. Upari adhaḥ. Upari means higher planetary system. There are seven planetary system. This is in the middle. We are in the Bhūrloka. Those who are chanting gāyatrī-mantra, oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya dhīmahi... So there are fourteen planetary systems within one universe. So we living entities, we are wandering in different types of forms of body and in different planets. That we are... According to our karma, sometimes down, sometimes up, in this way we are wandering. Therefore śāstra says, "Just like you are wandering in this way, your business is how to become materially happy, how to satisfy your senses. But don't do that. Don't do that." Then? What shall I do? Tasyaiva hetoḥ. "How to understand Kṛṣṇa—for that purpose you should endeavor." Then how shall I eat? "No, that eating and sleeping, the business of the body, that is already arranged. That is already arranged. You don't have to work for it." Kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā. Tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukham. Our endeavor is to achieve happiness. That is our struggle for existence.

Lecture on SB 3.25.2 -- Bombay, November 2, 1974:

So śāstra says that "Which you do not pray for, still, it comes, duḥkhavat, without your invitation, similarly, whatever happiness you'll have to enjoy, that will also come." Tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukham. Therefore the conclusion is that "Don't try for your so-called happiness or so-called distress. Try to achieve that position where you can understand Kṛṣṇa and get shelter at His lotus feet." This is human endeavor. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). Upary adhaḥ.

Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says to Rūpa Gosvāmī,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

We are wandering in this way, up and down, brahmāṇḍa bhramite. Brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva. If one is fortunate, he can get the information of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. He gets this information. So this assembly, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is an attempt to make people fortunate. From the unfortunate position, to become fortunate. Everyone is unfortunate, at least in this age. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyāḥ (SB 1.1.10). Now see everyone. Everywhere, there is simply problems. There is simply problem. One problem in one country, another problem in another country. There is strife, there is government... There is... Even the president, and he is also, has to meet so many problems. At the end he has to be dragged down. Now he's going to die in the hospital. What to speak of others. The problem, only problem. Therefore everyone is unfortunate. This is the conclusion. You may think that "I am very fortunate." President Nixon was thinking, "I am very fortunate. I have become the President of United States." But now he's realizing, "I am the most unfortunate."

Lecture on SB 3.25.19 -- Bombay, November 19, 1974:

Now, when there is question of jijñāsā, brahma-jijñāsā, then we inquire from a person who knows. Therefore it is said that tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam: (SB 11.3.21) "If you are actually interested in inquiring about Brahman, then you must go to guru who knows Brahman." Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta. You cannot understand Brahman realization alone. Therefore, according to Vaiṣṇava philosophy, ādau gurvāśrayam. The first business is to take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master. If you want... Not only brahma-jijñāsā—any. You must go to the perfect person who knows things. If you wandering on some street you do not know, you ask somebody, "Where shall I go? In this way or that way?" So this is natural. So about Brahman, jijñāsuḥ... Brahma-jijñāsā means... That is not ordinary jijñāsā. It is called uttamam. Uttamam means transcendental to this material world, which is full of darkness, ignorance. That is called ut. Ud-gata tama yasmād iti uttama. There is no more darkness, simply light. If you, at night, you inquire about something, then it is very difficult. But if you go in the daytime... And at night if you got up on your roof and want to see where is Bombay or where is Santa Cruz, it is very difficult. But daytime, you can see. Similarly, uttamam. You must go out of this darkness, come to the light, and then you will see.

Lecture on SB 3.25.22 -- Bombay, November 22, 1974:

Caitanya Mahāprabhu says to Rūpa Gosvāmī that we are wandering in this way, brahmāṇḍa, whole universe. There are different types, or forms, of body, 8,400,000. And there are millions and trillions of planets, up and down. Oṁ bhūr... Bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ. Bhūrloka, Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, Janaloka, Maharloka, Tapoloka. Then Tala, Atala, Vitala, Pātāla, Rasātala... There are so many planetary systems. Caturdaśa-bhuvana. This universe is called fourteen different planetary systems, and we are wandering in these different planetary systems. If we are pious, then we are promoted to the higher planetary system, Svargaloka, Janaloka, Maharloka, Tapoloka, Brahmaloka, Satyaloka. There are so many... Siddhaloka. And if we are impious, then we are downtrodden. We go down more and more. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). If you are situated in sattva-guṇa, then you are promoted to the higher planetary system: adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ.

Lecture on SB 3.25.41 -- Bombay, December 9, 1974:

Some way or other, I have fallen down in this ocean of birth and death." Bhavāmbudhau. Bhava. Bhava means you become and again vanish. That is bhava. And that is ambudhi. Ambudhi means a sea. You do not know how long you are taking this business, accepting one body and again dying, again accepting, and... Not only here, throughout the whole universe, many planets, many species of life, this is going on.

Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

In this way we are wandering one life after another, one planet to another, in this way, millions, millions of years. We don't care for it because we are not afraid. We are so proud and, I mean to say, brave that tīvraṁ bhayam, we don't care for it. Tīvraṁ bhayam. That is tīvram. Just like after a few years I will enter again the tīvraṁ bhayam, but we are careless. This is foolishness. This is a fool's... "Where angels dare not, fools rush in."

Lecture on SB 3.26.6 -- Bombay, December 18, 1974:

So we are nitya-baddha, eternally bound up, by these laws of material nature, and we are wandering throughout the universe according to karma. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). If we work on the sattva-guṇa... Guṇaiḥ karmāṇi... We... Vicitra: there are so many varieties. So we may go sometimes up to Brahmaloka. That is not very difficult. But ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Either you go to Brahmaloka or Pātālaloka or any loka, this form or that body, you will have to go through these four principles of material condition: birth, death, old age and disease. That is not possible to overcome. That you can overcome only—mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). Therefore the conclusion is that instead of serving under the spell of material nature, let us immediately transfer our position to become the original. Original means eternal servant of God, Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). That is our constitutional position. We are eternal servant of God, Kṛṣṇa. So if we take to it immediately... Kṛṣṇa says also, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). The spell of māyā we can overcome if we immediately take the instruction of Kṛṣṇa, that He says, "You surrender unto Me, and I shall give you all protection from the sinful reaction of your life."

Lecture on SB 3.26.7 -- Bombay, December 19, 1974:

Therefore śāstra says that don't bother about these thing. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). For that reason, one should work, which is not obtainable by wandering, bhramatām upary adhaḥ. Upary adhaḥ. What is that? That thing is that purifying your existence. Tasyaiva hetoḥ, for that reason. Purifying means, as we have discussed many ślokas, we are now covered by this material nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, and our endeavor should be how to purify. Tapo divyam. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Just to purify our existence. And as soon as we purify our existence, yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam. Brahma-sukha. Brahman means the largest or eternal. Here the sukha, or happiness, is not brahma-sukha; that is material sukha. Therefore, in another place it is said, ramante yoginaḥ anante (CC Madhya 9.29). The yogis, those who are yogis... Yogi especially means bhakta-yogī. They also enjoy. Ramante yoginaḥ anante. That is unlimited enjoyment, without any stoppage.

Lecture on SB 3.26.8 -- Bombay, December 20, 1974:

This should be our endeavor. Don't try to elevate yourself materially. That will not make you happy. Just try to get out of these material clutches and begin your spiritual life. That will make you happy. That is the only source of happiness. Otherwise it is not. The same example, that if you are put into the ocean, you may be very good swimmer—it will be great struggle. You can keep yourself floating, but that is not happiness. Happiness is different thing. If you want happiness, then you have to give up the association of prakṛti. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). Because as so long you will be in the material world, you will have to associate with some of the modes of material nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. By association with the sattva-guṇa material modes of nature, ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18), you can be elevated to the higher planetary system, or by jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ, by associate in the tamo-guṇa, you will be put downwards either in the animal forms of life or lower planetary system. In this way you are wandering up and down. Give up this business. Kṛṣṇa says, "Surrender unto Me." You surrender to Kṛṣṇa and be happy.

Lecture on SB 3.26.20 -- Bombay, December 29, 1974:

So these universes are also coming like a small seed. Therefore innumerable universes: yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya (Bs. 5.48). From the breathing of Mahā-Viṣṇu, the small particles are coming, and they are developing into big manifestation of universal form. Similarly, our desire is also very small. We are very small, one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. Still, we have got desires and everything. And according to the desire, as soon as there is creation, everything fructifies, everything comes out. It is called suptotthita-nyāya. Suptotthita-nyāya means just like one man is sleeping, and in the morning, when he is awakened... In the sleeping stage he forgot himself. He is wandering in dream, some other part of the world. He forgot this body and the bodily circumstances, everything. But as soon as he is awakened, he remembers everything. That darkness of ignorance, covering, is immediately gone, and he remembers that "I will have to do this. I will have to do that. I will have to go to my office or my business place." But when sleeping, he forgot everything.

Lecture on SB 3.26.22 -- Bombay, December 31, 1974:

So we should utilize the result of pious activities to become more pure. That is called svaccha. We have discussed this verse, svaccha. Yat tat sattva-guṇaṁ svaccham. That is... Just like you have got by, on account of pious activities you have got very nice surroundings, aristocratic family, wealth, beauty, education, but it may be polluted again by the other two qualities, means tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa. Then you are finished again. Naturally they become polluted. But they do not know that "By dint of pious activities, I have got this position" and misuse the position by tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa, and therefore they again go to hell. This way we are wandering all over the universes, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite (CC Madhya 19.151). We are sometimes rich man, sometimes poor man, sometimes demigod, sometimes dog, sometimes this, sometimes that. This is going on. That is called māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). They do not know the ultimate happiness is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but wandering in this way.

Lecture on SB 3.26.29 -- Bombay, January 6, 1975:

Soul has not developed from the body, but the body has developed from the soul. Just the opposite. The material scientists, they think that combination of these physical elements creates a situation where is..., when there is living, life symptoms. No. That is not. The real is that, fact is, that the spirit soul is there. They are wandering all over the universe. Brahmāṇḍa brahman. Brahmāṇḍa means all over the universe. The spirit soul is sometimes in one species of life; sometimes he's another species of life. Sometimes he is in this planet; sometimes another planet. In this way, according to his karma, he is wandering. That is his material life. So ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite (CC Madhya 19.151). He is loitering, wandering without any aim. "What is the aim of life? Why I have put into this condition, accepting this material body, the source of all miseries?"—these questions should be asked. This is called brahma-jijñāsā. And that should be answered properly. Then our life will be successful. Otherwise it is as useless as the body of a cat or a dog—no understanding, mūḍha. Mūḍha.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1-2 -- London (Tittenhurst), September 13, 1969:

Because spiritual perfection means to stop the transmigration of the soul from one body to another. That is real spiritual perfection. Stopping. Stopping the soul, the spirit soul, transmigrating. This process is going on. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). Lord Caitanya says that each and every spirit soul is just wandering throughout the whole universe from one planet to another, one body to another. This business is going on. But the basic principle of that continued transmigration is sex life or sense gratification. Anyway, as long we have got a pinch of sense gratification we have to take birth in any form or any shape within this material world. That is the whole process. Therefore if we are at all interested... And that interest must be there in human life; otherwise it is spoiling. That is the problem, that no more transmigration from one body to another. That problem can be solved in this human form of life. Therefore Ṛṣabhadeva advises His sons, "My dear sons, to work very, very hard simply for sense gratification is not the business of human form of life." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke.

Lecture on SB 5.5.2 -- Hyderabad, April 11, 1975:

Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ. And if you are in the karma-kāṇḍīya, then you can go to the pitṛ-loka. And bhūtejyā yānti bhūtāni: and if you remain a materialistic person, you remain here. And mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām: and if you worship Kṛṣṇa, if you become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, then you go to Kṛṣṇaloka. So why should we waste our time? Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Even if you go, promoted to the Brahmaloka, still, you have to wander within these so many planets, so many bodies. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

In this way we are wandering, different 8,400,000 species of life in different planets. Out of many, many millions of living entities wandering in this way, if one is fortunate, he gets the seed of bhakti-yoga. Then his life is successful.

Lecture on SB 5.5.5 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:

These are activities in devotional service that will save us from this repetition of birth and death. Otherwise we are doomed. We have to continue this repetition of birth and death. Avidyayā eva manuṣyadan.(?) This is avidyā. By avidyā, by misunderstanding, without knowledge, being in ignorance, manuṣya, sometimes we are human being, sometimes cat, sometimes dog, sometimes demigod. This is going on. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona: (CC Madhya 19.151) "We are wandering throughout the whole universe, from one body to another, one planet to another, but somehow or other, if we are fortunate..." This fortune is made in this way. "Man is the architect of his own fortune." If somebody comes to our contact, if he tries to understand what is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is fortunate. He is fortunate. Because he'll be saved from the repetition of birth and death.

Lecture on SB 5.5.15 -- Vrndavana, November 3, 1976:

So don't waste your time making material plan, big, big plan. "Big, big monkey, big, big belly, Ceylon jumping, melancholy." One European gentleman, he translated this Bengali proverb. Baro baro badare, baro baro pet, lanka dingake mata kare het.(?) There are many monkeys. The one monkey, he jumped over the Indian Ocean, went to the other side. So there were other monkeys also. They were asked, "Can you do it?" And mata kare het:(?) "He simply bowed down." So this plan is meant for how to, by chanting "Jaya Rāma," I'll jump over the other part of the material world. That is required. Not to work hard to improve your material condition. That will never be possible. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). You cannot get happiness within this material world. Bhramatām upary adhaḥ. Upary adhaḥ means, upari, in the higher planetary system, and down, lower planetary system. We are wandering like this, sometimes in the Svargaloka, sometimes in the Patalaloka, sometimes in naraka, sometimes in heaven. This is going on. Ei rupe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva, guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpa pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). So try to take bhakti-latā-bīja by the mercy of guru, by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, and make your life successful. Don't engage yourself in the material fruitive activities for improving your material condition. That will never be successful.

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

So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for showing mercy to the innocent who are suffering in this material world. That is wanted. It is not daridra-nārāyaṇa seva, that "I am very rich man. I am rich Nārāyaṇa, and therefore I can serve the daridra-nārāyaṇa." There is no question of serving. That is not. No. The fact is everyone is suffering. There is nobody... Because asad-grahāt. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). Anyone within this material..., he is suffering, full of anxieties. Even the birds and beasts, you'll find, they are full of anxiety. Why? Asad-grahāt. Because he accepted this material body, which is asat, which is temporary. Asato mā sad gamaḥ. Therefore Vedic injunction is, "Don't stay in this material existence. Come to the spiritual existence, sat." Oṁ tat sat. This is the civilization, not to keep the people in ignorance and flatter them that "You are making very good advance." There is no advance unless one is interested in spiritual life. There is no... Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). In this way we are wandering within this universe in different forms of life, in different planets, in different social positions, in so many varieties.

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

Everyone is suffering. That should be the motto. Do not sit idly, eat and sleep. No. Either loitering, wandering... I know, our men in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are bold enough. They have sometimes been, I mean to say, beaten in the airport. But still, they are so straightforward, suffering from the police, from the public. And Ṛṣabhadeva was sometimes bitten on his body, urine, pass urine on his body, so much. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Ṛṣabhadeva. So He is teaching us that for the ultimate benefit of life you prepare yourself to suffer all kinds of tribulations. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given this instruction:

tṛṇād api sunīcena
taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā...

You should not give up your preaching work. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). If there are tribulations, as Ṛṣabhadeva He is Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vaikuṇṭha, and He has no suffering.

Lecture on SB 5.5.34 -- Vrndavana, November 21, 1976:

So anyone who can maintain like this himself, his children, with wife and eating, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam, then he is expert. And if he becomes a sannyāsī, brahmacārī, does not take part in these stereotyped activities, then he is useless, escaping from the world, escaping. They do not take the responsibility. But that is not the fact. If one can maintain himself as brahmacārī, he is escaping all the tribulations of this material world, escaping certainly, but he is escaping all the tribulations of the ma..., so much botheration. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham (SB 7.9.45). Kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham. Duḥkha-duḥkham, misery after misery. So kaṇḍūtivan manasijaṁ viṣaheta dhīraḥ. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhajaḥ. So these dīna-cetasām, mahad-vicalanam... Those who are mahātmās, their, I mean to say, wandering here and there is to enlighten these poor-hearted gṛhi. Gṛheṣu gṛhamedhinām. Apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛhamedhinām (SB 2.1.2). Gṛhamedhi, they have no interest in the spiritual advancement of life. They think that "This is meant for the useless person who could not improve in this materialistic way of life. They have taken this dress as a token for maintaining their body and soul together. Useless person." They think like that. Gṛheṣu gṛhamedhinām. Because they think, "This is our only interest," gṛheṣu gṛhamedhinām. Śrotavyādīni rājendra nṛṇāṁ santi sahasraśaḥ (SB 2.1.2).

Lecture on SB 5.6.7 -- Vrndavana, November 29, 1976:

Pradyumna: "Actually Lord Ṛṣabhadeva had no material body, but due to yogamāyā, He considered His body material, and therefore, because He played like an ordinary human being, He gave up the mentality of identifying with it. Following this principle, He began to wander all over the world. While traveling, He came to the province of Karṇāṭa in South India and passed through Koṇka, Veṅka and Kuṭaka. He had no plan to travel this way, but He arrived near Kuṭakācala and entered a forest there. He placed stones within His mouth and began to wander through the forest, naked and with His hair disheveled like a madman."

Prabhupāda:

Tasya ha vā evaṁ mukta-liṅgasya bhagavata ṛṣabhasya.
(SB 5.6.7)

Bhagavān, in His any form, He is mukta-liṅga. As we have got liṅga, deha, liṅga, this material body, and we have got our spiritual body also... The spiritual body is covered by the material coating. This is not our actual body. But in the case of Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no such difference. Deha, dehī. As we have got difference... Dehino 'smin yathā deha. Deha and dehī. Dehī means the owner of the body. Just like I say, "It is my body." I don't say, "It is I body." Everyone has got this experience. Even a child, ask him, pointing out to the finger. He will say, "It is my finger." Nobody says, "I finger," because there is difference between the body and the spirit soul. This is to be understood.

Lecture on SB 5.6.8 -- Vrndavana, November 30, 1976:

Pradyumna: "While He was wandering about, a wild forest fire began. This fire was caused by the friction of bamboos, which were being blown by the wind. In that fire, the entire forest near Kuṭakācala and the body of Lord Ṛṣabhādeva were burned to ashes."

Prabhupāda:

atha samīra-vega-vidhūta-veṇu-vikarṣaṇa-jāta dāvānalas tad
vanam ālelihānaḥ saha tena dadāha
(SB 5.6.8)

So dāvānala. We have got some description of dāvānala in our daily prayer, saṁsāra dāvānala-līḍha-loka **. The dāvānala is explained here, what is that dāvānala. Nobody goes to set anala, fire, in the forest. I saw dāvānala first in my experience at Nainital Station. Very high hill, and there was fire, blazing fire upon the hill. Nobody went there to set fire, but there was fire. So how that fire takes place, that is explained here, samīra-vega-vidhūta-veṇu-vikarṣaṇam. In the big jungles there are bamboo trees, and they are very densely situated. When there is wind, very forceful, the friction causes fire.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1 -- Melbourne, May 21, 1975:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (5): But we have the case of the four Kumaras who were wandering in the Vaikuṇṭha planets, and yet they had not become fully God-realized at that point, and yet they were allowed to enter...

Prabhupāda: Those who are going to Vaikuṇṭha planets, they are not fully realized of God? What does he say?

Madhudvīṣa: He was citing the instance of the four Kumaras who were traveling through the gates of the Vaikuṇṭha world, but actually they were not completely God-realized...

Prabhupāda: Therefore they are on the gates of Vaikuṇṭha, not within. You cannot enter the kingdom of God without full understanding. So you have to be trained up. This is the life. You become trained up to understand God, and you will enter the kingdom of God. Hmm?

Devotee (6): Śrīla Prabhupāda, how does one associate with the devotees?

Prabhupāda: Hmm? What is that?

Madhudvīṣa: How does one associate with the devotees?

Prabhupāda: Oh, you do not understand? You can come and live with these devotees. Where is the difficulty? You can live here, you can take prasādam, and without any charge. Still, you are asking? This is the way. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). You have to make your association with the devotees. Then you will learn. Hmm.

Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1970:

So the Vaiṣṇava, I mean to say, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, he was very much distressed when he heard about the hellish punishment of the criminals. So he's asking him, mahā-bhāga, "My dear fortunate." He's asking Śukadeva Gosvāmī... Śukadeva Gosvāmī was naked. He was so renounced that after his birth, he left his home. And he was traveling, wandering, and when he met Mahārāja Parīkṣit he was only sixteen years old and naked, but he is accepted as the spiritual master of this great king because he was full of knowledge. It is a question of knowledge. It is not the question of age. He was only sixteen years old and he was not even properly dressed, but God kindly sent him for instructing this king. So he is asking, "Mahā-bhāga, can you explain how these suffering men can be delivered from this hellish suffering?" So he was feeling. This is the sentiment of Vaiṣṇava. They cannot see the suffering humanity. They always try to reform them and to get them as... Not only the devotees; the Lord also, He is so compassionate He sends His son, His most confidential son, Jesus Christ. He comes Himself, He sends His incarnation, He sends His knowledge. Just like this Bhagavad-gītā is knowledge. He speaks Himself about this knowledge. His representatives are there by disciplic succession. So we can take advantage of all these things. Still, there is Kṛṣṇa. Still there is speaking Kṛṣṇa and His representative, and everything is there. Simply we have to take advantage. That's all. But the spell of māyā is so strong that it does not allow.

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

So here Parīkṣit Mahārāja is asking, adhunā, now, iha mahā-bhāga. A Vaiṣṇava is addressed as mahā-bhāga. Bhāga means fortunate. One who becomes Vaiṣṇava, God conscious, he is to be understood as great fortunate. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, therefore, has said that ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa kono bhāgyavān jīva, guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). 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. Out of them, one who is fortunate... Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāga... (CC Madhya 19.151). Kono, not all.

Lecture on SB 6.1.27 -- Indore, December 15, 1970:

So why should bother about my food? That is śaraṇāgati. When a man becomes śaraṇāgata, he knows perfectly well that "Somehow or other there is my food." A sannyāsī... sannyāsī means sat nyāsa, to fully surrender to Kṛṣṇa. But the sannyāsīs, they misuse in another way. Actually sannyāsa means to fully surrender. Nowadays in India there are so many sannyāsīs, some three million sannyāsīs. They are wandering all over the country. They have no food problem. Still, although India is considered to be poverty-stricken. Either sannyāsī or gṛhastha, nobody has to have problem. You have created such... Simply artificially you have created such problem. Bhāgavata says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). One should try for that thing which is not obtainable either in the higher planetary system or lower planetary system. Because everywhere the food, shelter, sex life, and protection is there, in every planet. But the only want is that one is not Kṛṣṇa conscious. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that "There is no scarcity in the world. The only scarcity is that people are not Kṛṣṇa conscious. That's all.

Lecture on SB 6.1.30 -- Philadelphia, July 14, 1975:

So he was calling his son, Nārāyaṇa. So the pārṣadāḥ, viṣṇu-pārṣadāḥ-pārṣadāḥ means associates or attendants—they immediately came. Just like in your city, the police is wandering in the car, and if somebody calls for police, immediately he is present, similarly, the attendants of Lord Viṣṇu, they are also wandering throughout the universe and searching out somebody who is engaged in chanting the holy name of the Lord. So if you chant holy name of the Lord, they are very much pleased and they immediately come. That happened to Ajāmila. He did not mean Nārāyaṇa. Maybe or may not be, but he was calling his son. But the attendants of Hari, or the order carriers, they took notice of the chanting only. That's all. They did not care to know by "Nārāyaṇa," Ajāmila, what he was meaning. No. Because they heard bhartur nāma, their master's name, they immediately appeared. This is clear.

Lecture on SB 6.1.31 -- San Francisco, July 16, 1975:

So he can stay three days, four days. So there is no scarcity. Still they will invite you, "Please come. Take prasādam." So because... Why this system? Because sannyāsī means he will give good instruction, spiritual knowledge. But that is his business, parivrājakācārya, wandering all over the world and giving good instruction. Therefore parivrājaka. Parivrājaka means wandering, and ācārya means teacher. Parivrājakācārya. This is sannyāsī's business. So they must be well received. At the present moment, if a sannyāsī is trying to enter in some householder's house, immediately the doorman, "Please get out. Get out. Get out." Because some of the sannyāsīs, they have taken this dress as a means of livelihood. But still in the village, any sannyāsī—he may be a cheater, still he is welcome. In the cities, of course, in India, they are now doubtful, "Whether he is actually sannyāsī or to fill up his belly he has taken this dress?" So this is the formula. So very learned men, the... generally, the sannyāsī and brāhmaṇas, they should be worshiped, not the fools and rascals.

Lecture on SB 6.1.37 -- San Francisco, July 19, 1975:

So therefore, as they are challenging, that first of all, "You are claiming to be servant of Dharmarāja, so let us know what do you know about dharma?" so similarly, we should also challenge, "If you are human being, you must know how to live like human being. Otherwise you are animal. If you eat like animal, sleep like animal and have sex like animal and defend like animal, then you are animal." They say that "It is very good to become dog because there is no restriction of sex life. We can have it on the street." They think like that. "This is advancement." The animals wander naked, so man is also trying to become naked, nudism. This is life. So their extra intelligence is being used like that—very, very abominable condition of the human society. You are the only hope to save them. Otherwise it is doomed.

Lecture on SB 6.1.43 -- Los Angeles, July 24, 1975:

Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati: (BG 18.61) "My dear Arjuna, the Lord is situated in everyone's heart." Why He is situated there? Because He is the suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 5.29). We are sons of God. He is very sorry that unnecessarily we are wandering within this universe and suffering in different types of bodies, and this is going on. So īśvara, He is very well-wisher, friend. He is simply trying to turn His face towards you. That's it. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 18.61). He has given little freedom, so do whatever you like. But He is simply taking the chance, "When this rascal will turn towards Me?" That is His business. That is stated in the Vedic śāstra, that two birds are sitting in the same tree. One is eating the fruit and the other is simple witnessing. So the eating bird is the jīvātmā, individual soul, and the witness bird is God, Paramātmā. So He is giving us the facility. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna ti..., bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni (BG 18.61). You cannot, out of your own power, you can go to the higher planetary, lower planetary, anywhere.

Lecture on SB 6.1.52 -- Detroit, August 5, 1975:

So in this way, life after life, we are changing the body. In this planet, in other planet, in this variety, in that variety, we are wandering. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa brahmite kono bhāgyavān jīva
guru kṛṣṇa kṛpa pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

In this way we are wandering, life after life. But somehow or other, if he becomes fortunate, fortunate Unless one becomes fortunate, one cannot take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is not possible. So we are trying to make this fallen soul fortunate. Be fortunate and take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 6.2.5-6 -- Vrndavana, September 9, 1975:

So when we realize this, that is called brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54), when we understand that "I am simply instrumental." That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhramāyan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Actually we are under the direction of Kṛṣṇa, and he has given us this machine, this body, and we are wandering throughout the whole universe. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva. This is our position. We have got this machine, and we are wandering throughout the universe in different planets and different forms of life, and we do not know what is the aim of life.

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva
guru kṛṣṇa kṛpa pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

In this wandering, wandering, wandering, when we come in contact with a bona fide guru, we get the seed of devotional service. That is the aim of life, how to get that. Therefore the Vedic injunction is tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). You must go. Otherwise your life is useless.

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. (end)

Lecture on SB 6.2.17 -- Vrndavana, September 20, 1975:

You can get only what is destined to you, not more than that. You cannot get more than that. Therefore śāstra says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta kovido. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (1.5.18). We are, by the impelling of the material nature—prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27)—we are wandering throughout the whole universe in different types of bodies, in different planets, but we are not getting released. Therefore our only business is to get released from this repetition of birth and death. Śāstra... Tapo... Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta kovido. You have become the inhabitants of the higher planets, and you have become an ant, a small insect. This is going on. But you haven't got that release. Now you have got sense; you are human being. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). Now you engage yourself in that tapasya. Yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-kriya na tyājyaṁ kāryam eva tat. Yajña, dāna and tapasya. Kṛṣṇa says, "These things are not to be given up." That is human civilization. Yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-kriya na tyājyaṁ kāryam eva tat: "It must be done." So if we do not do that, then you are not human being. We are not... We are losing the chance of becoming purified, and again implicated in the cycle of birth and death.

Lecture on SB 6.3.18-19 -- Gorakhpur, February 12, 1971:

So the devotees are protected by the Viṣṇudūta always, constantly. They are invisibly wandering all over the universe. We may see or not see because we cannot see spiritual body with these material eyes. So even we do not see, the Viṣṇudūta is always protecting the devotees from the enemies.

As I have explained yesterday, devotees will have enemies. Kṛṣṇa had enemies. This world is such, envious. Ordinarily, they are envious. The whole world is full of enviousness. Even the greatest personalities like Indra, he is also envious. If somebody is undergoing great austerities, thus Indra becomes envious. Just like Viśvāmitra. Viśvāmitra was meditating by the yoga process. Immediately Indra became disturbed: "Oh, this man is practicing so much severe austerities. He may capture my post some day. So this man must be curbed down immediately." Just like in political party, everyone is thinking, "Oh, this man is becoming greater than me. So he should be curbed down; he should be checked.

Lecture on SB 6.3.18-19 -- Gorakhpur, February 12, 1971:

Devotee means a pure devotee. Contaminated devotee is different. Dvidha(?)-bhakta and śuddha-bhakta. Those who are contaminated with material desires, with fruitive activities and mental speculation, they are contaminated devotees. They are not pure devotees. Pure devotees means anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11), no material desires, no action and fruitive activities, no mental speculation. So he is pure devotee. So that pure devotee in transcendental position is always protected by the Lord. And His Viṣṇudūta is wandering everywhere. Just like Ajāmila. As soon as he was arrested by the Yamadūtas, immediately they approached. So as there are different police department, military police department, civil police department, similarly, there is transcendental police department. Don't be afraid. Yes, here it is stated. So simply we have to be sincere devotee, and all protection will be given by Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture on SB 7.6.3 -- Montreal, June 16, 1968:

So old man is always neglected in the society, and therefore I have come out of my home. I have taken your shelter. You see? (laughter) It is actually a fact. You see? So in this way we are wasting our time. Śaṅkarācārya, he was walking on the street and he was lamenting because he has got the eyes to see. What he said? He said, "Oh," bālas tāvad kridāsaktaḥ, "oh, all the boys I see in the street, they are very nicely playing. They do not know anything except play." Bālas tāvad kridāsaktas taruṇas tāvad taruṇī raktaḥ: "And the young, youngsters, they are after young girls, embracing, kissing. That's all." So taruṇas tāvad taruṇī raktaḥ. And vṛddhas tāvad cintā-magnaḥ: "And the old men, they are thinking, 'How to pull on? What to do? How to adjust family affairs?' " Parame brāhmaṇe ko 'pi lagnaḥ: "Oh, it is very lamentable. Nobody is interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." He is lamenting because he has got to... He was seeing practically. A sannyāsī is supposed to wander from one country, one village to another. So he is lamenting, bālas tāvad kridāsaktaḥ: "Oh, boys are playing. They are not being trained in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The youths, they are very much enjoying. So the old men, they are thinking, deep, thoughtful, the same thing. But nobody is interested."

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Seattle, October 21, 1968:

Actually, it so happened in Benares. There was a swami. His name was Trailuṅga Swami. Trailuṅga Swami, he was wandering in the street naked. Government... It is not very old story, say about 150 years ago this happened in Benares. So he was naked yogi, and government will not allow, police will not allow. So he was thrice arrested and put into the custody, and thrice he came out. Then he became very famous man, simply by exhibiting one perfection of yoga. That means a yogi can come out. Not only Trailuṅga Swami, but we have seen one Mr. Chakravarti in our childhood in a circus, he was playing this part. He was packed up. First of all, his hands and legs were tightly knotted with seal. Then he was put into a bag and the bag was also sealed. Then with this bag he was put in a box. The box was locked and sealed. And he came out from that box—in everyone's presence. We have seen it. And again, he was seen that he was packed up in that way.

So yoga siddhi, these wonderful things are there. Similarly, one can walk on the water.

Lecture on SB 7.9.17 -- Mayapur, February 24, 1976:

Duḥkhauṣadhaṁ tad api duḥkham atad-dhiyāham. Atat. Atat means untruth, flickering, not... Atad-dhiyāham. We do not know what is our identification. Misunderstanding. Dehātma-buddhi. Asad-grahāt. Atat, asat, the same thing. We have accepted this body, identifying this body, on account of this. If you are on the spiritual platform, then there is no trouble, there is no misunderstanding. If we understand properly by education or knowledge that "You are also part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. I am also part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Our real position is to serve the Lord," so if we serve that, then there is no misunderstanding. If we be engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, there cannot be any misunderstanding. Otherwise, if we work on the platform of this body, material body, there must be misunderstanding. Atad-dhiyāham. Bhūman: "My Lord, the great," bhramāmi, "in this way I am wandering life after life, changing the body, changing the situation, and in different situation, different mentality, but there is no peace. There is no happiness, simply changing the body." Bhūman bhramāmi vada me tava dāsya-yogam: "In this way I am wandering throughout the whole universe. Now please engage me in Your service."

Lecture on SB 7.9.17 -- Mayapur, February 24, 1976:

So it requires to become fortunate. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpayā pāya bhakti-lātā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

In this way we are wandering throughout the universe, because unless we become Kṛṣṇa conscious, unless we have taken fully shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, there is no stoppage of this repetition of birth and death, neither there is any peace or happiness. We must know this from all angles of vision and stick to Kṛṣṇa consciousness very rigidly. Then we shall be happy. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja requests Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva that "I have tried life after life to get peace and become happy and friendly, but I have failed. Now, Kṛṣṇa..." Prahlāda Mahārāja says, vada me tava dāsya-yogam: "Because I am now convinced that without Your becoming servant, there is no more chance for peace and prosperity of this troublesome world."

Lecture on SB 7.9.44 -- Delhi, March 26, 1976:

Prabhupāda: Tvad? Where it is? Maunaṁ caranti vijane na parārtha, naitān vihāya... Where is tvad asya?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Tvad asya, the translation was not typed in.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Nānyaṁ tvad asya śaraṇaṁ bhramato 'nupaśye: "Except Yourself, I don't find he has got any hope who'll deliver him."

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Śaraṇam—to take shelter of; bhramataḥ—the living entities rotating and wandering throughout the universe; anupaśye—I can see actually from authorized evidence. Translation: My dear Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva, I see there are many saintly persons indeed, but they are simply interested for their own deliverance, and thus, without caring for big, big cities and towns, they go to the Himalayan forest for meditating, taking mauna-vrata, the vow of silence. They are not interested to deliver others. So far I am concerned, I do not wish to be liberated alone and leave aside all these poor fools and rascals. I know that without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, without taking shelter of Your lotus feet, nobody can be happy, and therefore I wish to bring them to You, to the shelter of Your lotus feet."

Lecture on SB 7.9.54 -- Vrndavana, April 9, 1976:

That is preyas-kāmāḥ. But if you want to reach the goal of life, then go to Kṛṣṇa conscious movement. There are two kinds of men, sreyas-kāmāḥ, preyas-kāmāḥ, so two things are there. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is for the śreyas-kāmāḥ. And who becomes śreyas-kāmāḥ? Mahā-bhāga, with great fortune. Not ordinary person. Unfortunate or misfortunate, they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Mahā-bhāga. Very, very great fortunate person.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu confirms this in His teaching to Rūpa Gosvāmī. He said,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

They are traveling, wandering. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). These rascals who are not dhīra, they are thinking independent, rascals. Not a single moment you are independent. You are controlled. Even if we are dropping our eyelids, there is regulative principles. Some demigod is controlling. Breathing. Breathing, there is control. You can breathe for so many years, that's all, and live.

Lecture on SB Excerpt -- Los Angeles, July 3, 1972:

Aśītim means eighty. Aśītiṁ caturas. Caturas means four. So eighty-four. Eighty plus four means eighty-four. Lakṣam. Lakṣam means hundreds of thousands. So eighty-four hundreds of thousands. Aśītiṁ caturāṁś caiva lakṣāṁs tān jīva-jātiṣu. Jīva-jāti, this is different species of living entities, jīva-jāti, the horse species, the ass species, the dog species. Just like they have got species, jīva-jātiṣu. So in different species of living entities they are counted eighty-four hundreds of thousands, or 8,400,000. Bhramadbhiḥ. Bhramadbhiḥ means transmigrating, wandering, one after another. Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. There are 900,000 species within the water, then trees, plants... In this way passing through different species of life, the living entity, jīva-jāt

Lecture on SB Excerpt -- Los Angeles, July 3, 1972:

That is cheating. Similarly, one should not become father. The father and mother should have determination that "The child I produce, I give birth, if I cannot teach him Kṛṣṇa conscious, surrender to Kṛṣṇa, I shall not beget any child." This is real contraceptive method, not to beget child like cats and dogs. Sva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-khara. So Bhāgavata says, "One should not become father, one should not become mother, one should not become relative, one should not become king, one should not become guru if they cannot save their dependents from this cycle of birth and death." This is the meaning of this verse. Anāśritya govinda-caraṇa-dvayaṁ varākhānām ātma-vimāninaḥ.

So after wandering through these, so many species of life and so dangerous... There are two millions' species of plant life, trees' life. Just see. You have to stand for so many years. A great opportunity, this human form of life. Don't waste. Don't become dogs and hogs and asses and camels. Becomes devotees. Just surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Make your life successful.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 19, 1972:

Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ. We are wandering upary-adaḥ. Upary-adhaḥ. Upary means sometimes we are going in the higher planetary systems, Brahmaloka, Janaloka, Satyaloka, sometimes going downward, Tala, Atala, Vitala, Pātāla, Rasātala. Or sometimes higher species of life, sometimes lower species of life. In this way, we are wandering according to our karma. This is material existence. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says,

ei rūpe bhramāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

A living entity is wandering in this way, sometimes on the higher level, sometimes on the lower level, but he's changing one chapter, another, one chapter, another. That is not very good, to repetition of birth and death. So a living entity if he's very fortunately, fortunately he meets some good association, good devotees, then his life changes.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 27, 1972:

If he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is his actual life. Otherwise, he's in the dreamland. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). This is called māyā, illusion. Nighttime dreaming and daytime dreaming. The nighttime dream... In this way, we are dreaming life after life. As human being, as animal, as tree, as aquatics. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. This evolutionary process is going on.

Therefore, therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍo bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

The living entity is wandering in this way, life after life—sometimes as human being, sometimes as demigod, sometimes as brāhmaṇa, sometimes as śūdra, sometimes as tree, sometimes as insect, sometimes as fish, so many. Sometimes as birds. And in different planets also, not only in this planet. Brahmāṇḍo. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, brahmāṇḍo. Within the universe, he is traveling according to his karma.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 27, 1972:

Those who are in goodness of material nature, they're being promoted to the higher planetary systems. Those who are in passion, they are left within this Bhūr, Bhuvarloka. And those who are in ignorance, jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti, they, one who has no systematic life, living like animal, so eating, sleeping like animal, jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ, they go down. This is going on. Out of many millions of living entities, in this way, wandering all over the universe, one who is fortunate, he comes in contact with guru and Kṛṣṇa. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151). Beginning of devotional service, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 28, 1972:

As soon as your assets of pious activities is finished, then you come back again. Instead of going back to home, you come back again on this Earth. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Going back. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: ei rūpe brahmāṇḍo bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva. In this way, we are wandering from one life to another, one planet to another. If one is fortunate, he gets the clue of devotional service and makes his life perfect and goes back to home, back to... Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). "One who goes to My abode, he never comes back." This is the perfection. Doctor, Sir you are a scientist. So how do you think our explanation? Does it tally with your scientific...?

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 4, 1973:

They're, this secret, they do not know. But factually that is the fact. Just like we are in this old age, we are wandering all over the world to see that "Let everyone become happy by Kṛṣṇa consciousness." It is not that we love only our countrymen, only Hindus, or Bengalis, or Madrasis, or... No. We love everyone, even the animals. But because human beings can understand the Kṛṣṇa philosophy, therefore we hold meetings of the human beings. But still, whenever we get opportunity, we give protection to the animals. We give them prasādam. We do not prohibit even some animal comes to hear. They also hear some, sometimes. The hear, hearing is there. Everyone can hear. Even they do not understand what is Hare Kṛṣṇa, if you chant loudly Hare Kṛṣṇa, even the ants and insect who is hearing, he'll be delivered, because it is spiritual vibration. It will act for everyone. We... Just like fire. The fire will act, either you are human being or insect.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 29, 1972:
Yes. This is the statement in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

We are wandering in different species of life in different planets. Brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva. Not all, fortunate. One must be very much fortunate to come in contact with Kṛṣṇa and guru. So how that fortunate becomes possible? It is called ajñāta-sukṛti. Sukṛti and duṣkṛti, these two words are used in Bhagavad-gītā. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). There is the word, duṣkṛti. And sukṛti. Catur-vidhā bhajanti māṁ sukṛti 'rjuna. So this sukṛti, this fortune, there is a chance which is called ajñāta-sukṛti. Ajñāta-sukṛti means just like Kṛṣṇa's representative is preaching all over the world, and if somebody comes in contact with that representative of Kṛṣṇa, and satisfies him, he acquires some ajñāta-sukṛti. This is called ajñāta-sukṛti. He does not know what spiritual benefit he's achieving by serving the representative of Kṛṣṇa. He does not know. But he acquires it imperceptibly. This is called ajñāta-sukṛti. So when ajñāta-sukṛti is accumulated, then he becomes fortunate. That is called kono bhāgyavān jīva.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 2, 1972:

It is limited. As soon as the limited span of life is finished, either in this world, either in this planet, or in other planets... Suppose I go to the heavenly planet, I occupy the post of Indra. What is that? It is also limited. Kṣīne puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti (BG 9.21). So long you have got assets of pious activities, you can occupy such post; then again come down. Ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). So in this way we are wandering from up, down, down, up. In this way. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore said,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍe kono bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC Madhya 19.151)

We are wandering, life after life, in different species of life, different forms of life, in different planetary system. And that is going on. This is not progress. Where is progress? You are conditioned within this universe. Where is your progress? Suppose you... Just like if I jump with a limited space, where is my progress? Real progress is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). If we actually want to make progress, then we must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that after leaving this body there is no more coming down to accept a material body. That is real progress. Otherwise, there is no progress. It is simply wandering with a limited space. That is not progress at all. But because we are in illusion, we are thinking it is progress. It is not progress.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 4, 1972:

We should not take either to karma, karma-kāṇḍa, fruitive activities for elevating to the heavenly planets; jñāna-kāṇḍa, for stopping birth and death and merge into the impersonal Brahman... That is jñāna-kāṇḍa. So karma-kāṇḍa jñāna-kāṇḍa. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says everything is viṣa bhāṇḍa, the poison pot. Why poison pot? Karma-kāṇḍa amṛta yeba baliyā khāya. If we drink poison pot, thinking it as nectar, then the result will be that we have to accept another body and we have to be under the tribulation of material nature. And sometimes we get the body of the King of Heaven, and sometimes we get the body of a hog for eating stool. This is going on. Nānā yoni brahman kare. We have to wander in different species of life and we have to eat all abominable things. Tāra janma adhah-pāte yāya.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 6, 1972:

It is not imagination. If we believe in the words of Kṛṣṇa, then there is no question of denying this fact. Kṛṣṇa personally says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣa... Sarva-pāpebhyo (BG 18.66). The kūṭa-stha, phalonmukha, prārabdha, everything, it become immediately nullified, simply by this process, by surrendering: "Kṛṣṇa, I, I was mistaken. I got..., forgot your mastership; You are my eternal Lord. So I was bewildered. I was wandering. Now I have come to my senses. I surrender unto You sincerely. You accept me." This very thing will give you immediately protection from all sinful activities. Kṛṣṇa says,

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi...
(BG 18.66)

So where is the difficulty? Let us surrender to Kṛṣṇa and execute His will, whatever He... Surrender means I must be prepared to execute the will of Kṛṣṇa; not my whims, but Kṛṣṇa's will. The Kṛṣṇa's will is that you become Kṛṣṇa's devotee. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). Where is the difficulty? You surrender unto Him, and He assures, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). Immediately he becomes relieved from the effects of illusory energy.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.119 -- Gorakhpur, February 17, 1971:

That is the real picture of God. The Vṛndāvana-līlā of Kṛṣṇa is the perfect presentation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He's simply enjoying. And all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, the gopīs, the cowherd boys, Mahārāja Nanda, Yaśodā, everyone is simply anxious how to make Kṛṣṇa happy. They have no other business. The inhabitants of Vṛndāvana has no other business than to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa has no other business. Yaśodā-nandana brajajana-rañjana. He's acting as the little son of Yaśodā, and His only business is how to please the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. Yaśodā-nandana brajajana-rañjana. And yāmuna-tīra-vana-cārī. And He's wandering in the forest of Vṛndāvana on the bank of the Yamunā. This is the actual picture of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But Brahmā, Indra, big, big demigods, they are also bewildered. They are sometimes mistaken, that "How this cowherd boy can become the Supreme Personality of Godhead?" Just like some of us think like that. But those who are thinking like that, for them also, there is manifestation of Kṛṣṇa's supremacy. Brajajana-ballabha giri-vara-dhārī. Although he's engaged in pleasing the inhabitants of Vraja, but when there is need, He can lift up the Govardhana Hill—at the age of seven years. Or He can kill the Pūtanā at the age of three months. And so many demons used to visit daily. Kṛṣṇa used to go with the calves and cows, with His friends in the forest, and every day Kaṁsa used to send one kind of demon to kill them—Aghāsura, Bakāsura, Dhenukāsura, so many.

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

So this is anitya, this body, daiva-netrena, by the order, prakṛti, prakṛti. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati, bhrāmāyān sarva-bhūtāni (BG 18.61). Sarva-bhūtāni, all living entities, are wandering, wandering not only here. There are so many planets, so many up and down situation. So we are wandering within this universe, within this material world, sometimes in good body, sometimes in bad body, and this is our life. Avidyā-karma-saṁjñā anyā. Under the influence of this material energy, on account of our ignorance, we have submitted to the laws of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍha (BG 3.27). He is thinking, "I am independent. I am now this. I am now that." Avidyā-karma-saṁjñā. Bhramāyān sarva-bhūtāni. Everything you will find this. So prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. This ahaṅkāra, that "I am independent," this ahaṅkāra is making you obliged to accept different types of body in different condition of life within the universe. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu is mahā-vadānyāvatāra. He is very, very kind incarnation. Rūpa Gosvāmī accepted Him, namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te (CC Madhya 19.53). So He teaches, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). Under this avidyā-karma-saṁjñā trītīyā śakti, material energy, we are wandering throughout the whole universe. (aside:) This child should be moved. So ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.124-125 -- New York, November 26, 1966:

Now, ramyā kācid upāsanā vraja-vadhū-vargeṇa yā-kalpitā: "The highest kind of worship is as demonstrated by the damsels of Vṛndāvana, the girlfriends of Kṛṣṇa." Yes. They had no adulteration. Simply they were always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is going outside of the village, and they were thinking at home, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa's," I mean to say, "sole is so soft. How He's wandering in the jungle? There are so many particles of stone. Must be pricking." In this way. Kṛṣṇa is there; they are at home, but they are thinking of Kṛṣṇa, how He's walking, how His soft foot is suffering. In this way they are always absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are not Vedantists. They are not brāhmaṇas. They are not educated. They were cowherds girls. But their love of Kṛṣṇa was so intense that Lord Caitanya recommends, "Oh, there is no better worship than, than it was being demonstrated by the damsels of Vṛndāvana." Ramyā kācid upāsanā vraja-vadhū-vargeṇa yā kalpitā. Then what is the source of understanding Kṛṣṇa? Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Amalaṁ purāṇam. If you study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then you attain all these things. Śrī-caitanya-mahaprabhor matam idam. And premā pumartho mahān.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.31-38 -- San Francisco, January 22, 1967:

So such persons, in spite of their austerity, in spite of their severe penances... Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ (SB 10.2.32). Although they realize that "Here is the Absolute Truth," or "Here is the light," or "Here is the essence," but because they do not engage in the devotional service of the Lord, or because they have no shelter under the lotus feet of the Lord, they fall down. Surely they fall down. The same example: you may go very high on a sputnik, ten thousand miles off from this earth, but if you have no shelter there, then naturally, you have to come back again here. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ (SB 10.2.32). You may go high, very high. That's all right. But if you don't approach the moon planet or the Venus planet, or any other planet for which you started But these people, they are so foolish they are taking simply clap by wandering in the space a few thousand miles. They think, "This is our perfection. Because I have come so high, and 20,000 miles off from the earth planet, and there is clapping, 'Oh, sputnik has gone...' " But where is your result? The result must be you must reach to the moon planet. Then That is minus. Similarly, all these exercises, all this cultivation of knowledge, if they do not reach to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, they are sure to come down again to these material activities. They are sure. Because they have no taste for Kṛṣṇa, they have to They will come again for opening hospitals and so on, so many activities, material activities.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.40-50 -- San Francisco, January 24, 1967:

It is about 150 miles from Delhi. And people go there for pilgrimage. Therefore it is dharmakṣetra, a place of religious rites. And in the Vedas, Sāma-Veda, I think... I don't exactly remember. But one of the Vedas it is written that kurukṣetre dharma yajayet. In the Kurukṣetra, that place, if anyone wants to perform religious rites, he should go to Kurukṣetra and perform there. It will have better effect. This is the indication in the Vedic literatures. Therefore Kurukṣetra is still accepted. Those who travel, wander in pilgrimages, they go to Kurukṣetra still. The system is going on. If there is a lunar eclipse, they go to Kurukṣetra to make some charities. So Kurukṣetra is accepted from the very, very long period in the Vedic age as the place of pilgrimage. So it is stated there, dharmakṣetra. How can I interpret that this Kurukṣetra means this body? In which dictionary he finds this meaning? But people are so foolish, because Mahatma Gandhi has interpreted, "Oh, it is right." So this is going on.

Festival Lectures

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

So Kṛṣṇa comes personally to canvass, that "This is not your proper order of life. You are misusing your independence for sense gratification and wandering through various types of transmigration of bodies, sometimes human body, sometimes dog's body, sometimes cat's body, sometimes demigod's body, sometimes rich body, sometimes poor body." "So you stop this business," Kṛṣṇa says. Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). "You have manufactured so many duties. That duties means you are manufacturing so many bodies. That's all." Why you have got different types of bodies? We have manufactured it. God has given us facility. I wanted to become such and such. He has given us facilities, "All right, you become such and such." If I want to become a tiger, God will give me all the facilities to become a tiger. He will give me facilities, paws and nails and teeth so that immediately I can capture any animal, and with the instruments which He has provided within my body, I can immediately scratch it into pieces and eat. Similarly, you will find... You see the cranes. They have got big beaks. Why? Because they have to catch fish from within the water, so the beak must be very long. So there is facility. The hog has different mouth because he has to eat stool. So a different kind of body.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Disappearance Day, Lecture -- Hyderabad, December 10, 1976:

So therefore his birthplace is mentioned, "the holy place, my lord and master, His Divine Grace." "O my master, the evangelic angel, give us thy light, light up thy candle. Struggle for existence, a human race, the only hope, His Divine Grace." So actually we are in a very precarious condition, the modern civilization, I mean to say, manipulated by the Western people. It is a soul-killing civilization, this civilization. By nature the chance is given after many, many evolutionary process. Jalajā nava lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣā viṁśati. The evolutionary theory is there in the Padma Purāṇa. It is not Darwin's theory. Darwin stolen it from Padma Purāṇa, and he presented in a distorted way of his own imagination. Otherwise the Darwin's theory is not the original. The theory... It is not theory-fact. Jīva-jātiṣu. It is wandering within the cycle of jīva-jāti, different species of life. Tathā dehāntara prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). This is Vedic knowledge, this evolutionary process. It is not Darwin's theory.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation Lecture -- London, August 22, 1971:

Every one of us, anyone who has come to this material world, beginning from Lord Brahmā, what to speak of ourselves, down to the small ant, everyone is, to some extent we have committed sinful activities; therefore we are in this material world. This is a fact. Now, in this materialist world there are different stages, different species of life. That you know, that there are 8,400,000 species of life, and we are passing through all the species of life. And according to our sinful position we are placed in different kinds of places also in God's creation. There are different kinds of places also. So this is going on. We are traveling, wandering throughout the universe, through many species of life and in many planets. This is going on. So Caitanya-caritāmṛta says, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). In this way, the living entities while wandering throughout the whole universe... Sometimes in nice place, nice life, nice society... There is no nice place, but we accept, "This is good, this is bad." That is our mental concoction.

Sannyasa Initiation -- Bombay, November 18, 1975:

The first of all, the brahmacārī is trained up. Brahmacārī guru-kule vasan dānto guror hitam (SB 7.12.1). Brahmacārī is trained up to live at the place of guru for the benefit of guru. The same principle, when it is matured and when one dedicates his life for the benefit of Kṛṣṇa... Benefit of Kṛṣṇa means benefit of the whole world. Kṛṣṇa wants sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). A sannyāsī should go door to door. Mahad-vicalanaṁ nṛṇāṁ grhiṇāṁ dīna-cetasām. A sannyāsī is called mahātmā. Why he is mahātmā? Because his ātmā is now broader. Gṛhiṇāṁ dīna-cetasām. Mahad-vicalanam. Mahātmā travels or wanders country to country, door to door—mahad-vicalanaṁ nṛṇāṁ gṛhiṇām—especially for the householders, dīna-cetasām, whose consciousness or mind is very crippled. They are dīna-cetasām. All these materialistic person, they are simply interested how to enjoy senses; therefore they are called dīna-cetasām, cripple minded. They have no other idea. So to enlighten them it is the duty of the sannyāsī to go from door to door, country to country, just to teach them about the aim of life. That is still going on in India. Still, if a sannyāsī goes in a village, people will come to invite him, try to hear from him.

Initiation Lecture Excerpt -- Melbourne, April 23, 1976:

The living entities, they are transmigrating from one form of life to another and wandering from one planet to another, sometimes low-grade life, sometimes high-grade life. This is going on. This is called saṁsāra-cakra-vartmani. Last night we were explaining, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. This very word is used, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. Very difficult ways of life, to die. Everyone is afraid of dying because after death nobody knows what is going to happen. Those who are foolish, they are animals. Just like animals are being slaughtered, the other animal is thinking that "I am safe." So any person with little intelligence will never like to die and accept another body. And we do not know what kind of body we are going to get. So this initiation by the grace of guru and Kṛṣṇa, do not take it very leniently. Take it very seriously. It is a great opportunity. Bīja means seed, seed of bhakti.

General Lectures

Lecture at Engagement -- Boston, May 8, 1968:

To understand this consciousness, to understand the spirit soul and how it is fallen into this material conditional life, how they are transforming or transmigrating in different species of life. There are 8,400,000's of species of life, and we are wandering in so many species of life. And this is the opportunity, when we have got this human form of life, to understand "What I am." If we do not understand "What I am," then I am missing the opportunity. If I simply waste my time in the propensities of animal life—the same thing: eating, sleeping, defending, and mating—and if you do not inquire that "I do not wish to die. Why death is enforced upon me? I do not want to be diseased. Why disease is enforced upon me?" They do not inquire. They simply think, "All right, I am diseased. Let me go to the doctor and have some medicine." But from innermost part of his heart, he doesn't want to be diseased, or doesn't want to be dead. Why? Because he is eternal. His real position is eternal life, blissful life, without any death, without any birth, without any disease.

Lecture at Engagement -- Boston, May 8, 1968:

So this is the opportunity. This human form of life is the opportunity to achieve that highest perfection of life. If we do not make progress with that vision of life, then we are simply spoiling our, this opportunity of human civilized life. Especially I mean this civilized form of life with developed consciousness, developed education. If you do not take care "What I am? Why I am meeting death? I do not wish to die. Why calamities are enforced upon me?" Nobody wants to meet calamities. In your country, especially I see in every city, the fire brigade, ambulance car is always wandering in the street. That means who wants that his house should be set in fire? Who wants that he should meet an accident? But these things are being enforced, but there is no question that "Why these things are enforced? I do not want this. Why this...?" This is self-realization. As soon as we become inquisitive that "I do not want all these miserable condition of life. Why they are enforced...?" They are trying to solve these problems by so-called scientific research or so-called philosophical research, but actually the solution is to reform or to purify your consciousness. If you purify your consciousness, as by impure consciousness we are transmigrating from... Now this time, you may be very happy that you have got a very nice body, American body, or you are enjoying life. But do you know what is the next life? That you do not know. Either you do not believe in the next life or you do not know. But you should know that life is continuity. This platform is a flash only. Why there are so many species of life if it is not a flash? You are changing. So these questions are there.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 2, 1968:

Prabhupāda: Well, sound can be vibrated in any language. It doesn't matter that Hare Kṛṣṇa can be sounded in Sanskrit only. You can sound it in English tone also: "Hare Kṛṣṇa." Is there any difficulty? These boys, they are also sounding in Hare Kṛṣṇa. So there is no difficulty. It is the sound that matters. It doesn't matter who is sounding. Just like in piano, if you touch, there is "dung." It doesn't matter whether an American is striking or an Indian striking or a Hindu striking or Muslim striking, the sound is sound. Similarly, this piano, Hare Kṛṣṇa, you just touch it and it will sound. That's all. Yes?

Young man (2): Do you sit and meditate alone? What do you do with your mind as it wanders? Do you think of something? Do you put it on something or do you let it wander by itself?

Prabhupāda: First of all let me know what do you mean by meditation?

Young man (2): Sitting alone quietly.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Young man (2): Sitting alone quietly.

Prabhupāda: Sitting alone quiet. Is it possible? Do you think it is possible?

Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968:

Young man (4): The sādhus in India who have long hair and wander in the woods and stuff, I guess, do they have spiritual teachers? The sādhus in India. The ones who live in the forest and places like that? You know? Wander around...

Prabhupāda: Of course, those who are living in the forest, there is no barber. Naturally they have got long hairs. But why the sādhus in the city imitate them? There is no meaning. If a man is living in the forest, there is no facility of the barber. So he can keep long hairs. Why in the city?

Young man (4): No, I didn't mean the hair. I meant does a sādhu who lives in the woods, does he have a spiritual master or...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Pandal Lecture -- Delhi, November 13, 1971:

So our position at the present moment is we are desiring something. We know, every one of us know we have got different desires. Not that everyone has got the same desire. Why you have got different desires? And that different desires means different consciousness. That is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā,

vyavasāyātmikā buddhir
ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca
buddhayo 'vyavasāyinām
(BG 2.41)

Those who are not fixed up, they have got different desires. And because they have got different desires, they are getting different types of body. And because they are getting different types of body, they are rolling on, wandering in different situation, in different planets. But one who has come to the right conclusion of life, he is called vyavasāyātmikā buddhir eka. Eka means that Lord Viṣṇu. When our desire will becomes fixed up in Lord Viṣṇu, then our life is perfect. But that we do not know.

Lecture at Christian Monastery -- Melbourne, April 6, 1972:

Guest (7): Swamijī, an old guest has been wandering around. He's called Fred Robinson. He's been forecasting doom to happen very shortly for the human race and says that it is far too hopeless to try and grab for the spiritual plane until one goes back to the land, back to simple living and where one just makes one's task to supply food for the children, the new children of the new age. And then yoga and the spiritual disciplines will flow much easier. What would you say to that?

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are also distributing food. Yes. In our Māyāpur daily we are distributing food to two thousand, three thousand. So that is one of our program, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and distributing prasādam. We are distributing... When I started this movement I was cooking myself and distributing prasāda. But we do not discriminate that "He is needy..." Everyone is needy. So actually, everyone is in need of spiritual understanding. So by distributing food, the spiritual food, simply by eating, he will be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even if he does not do anything. But actually, we are inviting persons to come, sit down, chant with us Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and take prasādam and go home. That's all. This is our program. So prasādam is already included. And there is the question of needy men. So we invite any needy man to come and join with us, and we shall feed him. That's all. We invite anyone. But they do not like to come to us to chant. That is the difficulty. "Oh, we'll have to go there and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Lecture at Indo-American Society 'East and West' -- Calcutta, January 31, 1973:

Thank you. Mister Allen, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kindly inviting me to speak something about East and West. Of course, I have got considerable experience now because I am wandering East and West, not only once, at least twice, thrice in a year. So far Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is concerned, we have no such thing, East and West. Just like the sun rises from the Eastern horizon and sets on the Western horizon, but the sun is the same. You cannot say that Eastern sun and the Western sun. That is not possible. The planet, this Earthly planet is moving and we are considering that the sun is moving from East and West. The sun, sun is in his position. Similarly, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has no such distinction between East and West. If there is such distinction, it is due to lack of knowledge.

Lecture on Gurvastakam at Upsala University -- Stockholm, September 9, 1973:

The living entities, they are wandering throughout the universe, changing bodies, transmigrating from one body to another, one place to another, one planet to another, but they are rotating within this universe, material universe, brahmāṇḍo bhramite. This science is unknown to the modern education department, how the spirit soul is transmigrating from one body to another and how he's being transferred from one planet to another. We have got our book, Easy Journey to Other Planets. So guru can help you to transmigrate from this planet directly to the spiritual sky, where there are innumerable spiritual planets. They are known as Vaikuṇṭhaloka. And the topmost planet in the spiritual sky, that is called Goloka Vṛndāvana. That is Kṛṣṇa's planet. By Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we are trying to give information how one can be transferred directly to the Goloka Vṛndāvana planet, Kṛṣṇaloka. That is our mission.

Lecture on Gurvastakam at Upsala University -- Stockholm, September 9, 1973:

The purport is that those who are going, trying to be elevated to the higher planetary system, which is called Devaloka, or the planets of the demigods... There the standard of living, duration of life, is very, very large. Or if you want to be transferred to the Pitṛlokas, or in the lokas of the ghosts, bhūtejyā, or if you want to be transferred to the loka where Kṛṣṇa lives—mad-yājino 'pi mām—now it depends on your practice. But the rotating, wandering within this material world from one body to another or from one planet to another, that is not advised. That is called saṁsāra. Saṁsāra means material existence. That is called saṁsāra. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). You take your birth once in some form of body. You live for some time. Then you have to give up this body. Then you have to accept another body. Then again live for some time. Then give up that body. Again accept another body. In this way, it is going on. That is called saṁsāra, rotating within this material world.

Pandal Speech and Question Session -- Delhi, November 10, 1973:

So everywhere this is going on; therefore there is necessity of awakening this God consciousness of the people. It is not a childish thing or sentimental fanaticism. It is real science. Because this human life is meant for understanding "What I am," ahaṁ brahmāsmi. "I am not this body; I am spirit soul." Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). If you can educate people to become brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20), then prasannātmā, he becomes happy, jolly. Just like these American boys, American girls, they were many, many times in better condition of life. Now they are wandering with me. What can I give them? I cannot give them nice food. I cannot give them nice shelter. Neither I have money. They are coming. They are all rich men's sons, but they are after me. Why? Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. They have got something. They are feeling obliged that "Bhaktivedanta Swami has given us something." That is... Therefore they are after me. So this is the Brahmā cond..., brahma-bhūta ātmā. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. That is the sign. "I have become Brahman. I have become Nārāyaṇa." No. If you are prasanna, if you are always joyful, then it is to be understood that you have realized Brahman. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati. There is no śocana. Here in the material world I have got something. If I lose it, I cry, "I have lost, I have lost, I have lost." And if I do not possess, then kāṅkṣati, "I must get it. I must." These two businesses are going on. But when you become brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā, these two things will go away. Na kāṅkṣati na śocati.

City Hall Lecture -- Durban, October 7, 1975:

Yantrārūḍhāni. Yantra means machine. So Kṛṣṇa is situated in everyone's heart. That is all-pervading. And He knows what the soul wants, so He is given the opportunity. As he wants to work, he is given a particular type of body, machine, yantra. Yantra means machine. And he is seated there, and in this way he is wandering in different species of life and different planets for different times. That is going on. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). So if we stop this business, if we hear Kṛṣṇa-sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66)—then our life is successful. Otherwise we shall continue to change this yantra, one yantra to another, another, another. This is going on. So practically the soul is not locked up, but intentionally he wants some position. And Kṛṣṇa is very kind. God is very kind. He is giving the opportunity: "All right, you want like this? Do it like that."

Lecture -- Nellore, January 4, 1976:

Bhārata-bhūmi, those who are born in India, their business is to do welfare activities throughout the whole world, because the whole world is in darkness about understanding the Supreme Person with whom we have got very intimate relationship because we are part and parcel. Just like your son is part and parcel of your body. Somehow or other, if he forgets and goes out of home, you are anxious to see that your son comes back. A son may have become mad. So similarly, Kṛṣṇa, He is the son of... Kṛṣṇa is the father of all living entities. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrt..., ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā: (BG 14.4) "I am the seed-giving father." So Kṛṣṇa is very, very anxious to take us back to home, back to Godhead. This is Kṛṣṇa's desire. Therefore He comes personally, He sends His representative, He leaves behind Him Bhagavad-gītā, so we can take advantage and go back to home, back to Godhead. That is our real happiness. Any man who is wandering in the foreign countries without any shelter, without any security, his happiness is when he goes back to home, back to Godhead.

Departure Talks

Departure Lecture -- Mexico City, February 18, 1975:

We left our home and father, and we are in this fallen material world, and we are suffering too much. It is exactly like a very rich man's son leaves home for independence and wanders all over the world, unnecessarily taking trouble. A rich man's son has nothing to do. His father's property is sufficient for his comfortable life. Still, as we have got examples now in the Western countries, many rich man's son becomes hippie, leaves home and unnecessarily takes trouble. Our position, our needs, we all living entities who are within this material world, is exactly like that. We have voluntarily come into this material world for sense enjoyment, and in sense enjoyment we have forgotten our supreme father, God. The material nature's duty is to give us simply miserable condition of life.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Jacques Maritain:

Śyāmasundara: He says that sense activity occurs on an immediate level of experience, without any conscious awareness of itself, but that true knowledge of reality comes through intuition, and that this reality is called being.

Prabhupāda: Intuity, also past experience. What you call intuition is past experience. Just like when a child is born, by intuition it seeks mother's breast. Because the child does not know where is food, but by intuition, as soon as the mother's breast is given, pushed in its mouth, he is satisfied immediately. So by..., this is called by intuition. But actually it is its past experience. The same child, as the soul, may have taken something else in a different body. So the fact is that the soul is wandering in different types of bodies, and when he comes to a particular type of body, he remembers everything from his past experience. Just like fifty years ago, when I was a businessman, so at that Gauḍīya Math, as soon as I go there, I remember all those things; I am again fifty years back. That is actual... So this, suppose if I say I am going, I do not require to be directed that "Here is this thing, here is that thing." Immediately I enter that town I will understand that if I have to go to the toilet, "Here it is." If I go to the kitchen, "Here it is." So you may call it intuition, but actually it is experience, past experience. There is no, nothing such thing as intuition. That is a vague expression. Actually it is past experience.

Philosophy Discussion on Thomas Aquinas:

Hayagrīva: Well that..., well then maybe this is saying the same thing. "By its nature the form of the soul is the form of the body. It is that form incorruptible."

Prabhupāda: No. The form..., material body is imitation, is false. Real body is the spiritual body. Because the spiritual body has form, the coating of the spiritual body by matter takes a form, as I have already explained, that the shirt and coat originally has no form, but when the shirt and coat is cut by the tailor according the form of the man, it takes a form. So actually this material form is illusion. It is not form. It, it takes the form, and when it is old enough, no more use, it again comes to the original position, earth. "Dust thou art, dust thou beist." This form is made by the material nature. It is just like a machine. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). The soul has its own form, but he is given a machine, a particular machine, which is this body, and therefore he enjoys by wandering throughout the whole universe in different conditions of life.

Purports to Songs

Purport to Jaya Radha-Madhava -- New York, July 20, 1971:

If Kṛṣṇa takes pleasure being chastised, so the responsibility is taken by a devotee: "All right, I shall become Your father and chastise You." When Kṛṣṇa wants to fight, one of His devotees becomes Hiraṇyakaśipu and fights with Him. So all activities of Kṛṣṇa is with His devotees. He is... Therefore, to become associate of Kṛṣṇa, to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Yaśodā-nandana vraja-jana-vallabha, vraja-jana-rañjana. His only business is how to satisfy... As braja-jana's business is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, similarly, Kṛṣṇa's business is how to satisfy braja-jana. This is reciprocation of love. Yamunā-tīra-vana-cārī. Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is wandering on the banks of Yamunā to please the gopīs, the cowherd boys, the birds, beasts, calves. They are not ordinary birds, beasts, calves or men. They are on the top of self-realization. Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ (SB 10.12.11). After many, many lives they got that position, to play with Kṛṣṇa.

Page Title:Wander (Lectures)
Compiler:Mayapur
Created:09 of Oct, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=144, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:144