Wings (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"wing" |"winged" |"wingless" |"wings"

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Bob: So you may follow God's wishes without knowing you are following God's wishes. Like somebody may be in the mode of...

Prabhupāda: No. Without knowing following, that is absurd. Without knowing following that is absurd. You must know that this is the order of God. And if you follow that, then that is honesty.

Bob: But somebody would not be honest without knowing God?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because God is the supreme proprietor. See... God is the supreme proprietor and He's the supreme enjoyer and He's the supreme friend. That is the statement in the Bhagavad-gītā. If anyone knows these three things, then he is in full knowledge. These three things only, that God is the proprietor of everything, God is friend of everyone, and God is the enjoyer of everything. Just like the same example, in your body... Everyone knows in the body the stomach is the enjoyer. Not the hands, legs, eyes, ears. They are simply to help the stomach. Eyes, the vulture goes seven miles up to see where is food for the stomach. Is it not?

Bob: That's so.

Prabhupāda: Then the wings fly there, and the jaws catch the food, and after all he puts into the mouth. Similarly, as in this body, this particular example, the stomach is the enjoyer, similarly, the central figure of whole cosmic manifestation, material or spiritual, the central figure is Kṛṣṇa, God. He's the enjoyer. We can understand. As in my this particular body, the body is also a creation. The body has got the same mechanism as you will find out in the whole universe. The same mechanical, anywhere you go, you find even in animals or human body or in the cosmic manifestation. Almost the same mechanism. So as you understand very easily that in this body, my body, your body, the stomach is the enjoyer. Or there is a central enjoyer. And the stomach is friend also of everyone. Because if we cannot digest food, you see, then all other limbs of the body they become weak. Therefore stomach is the friend. It is digesting and distribute the energy to all the limbs of the body. Is it not?

Bob: It is so.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: The ants also can walk.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Karandhara: The ants, thousands of them without colliding. But the cars, they're always colliding.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The living entities, when the soul is inside a body, they're much more flexible than the, the aeroplanes or cars that are made by the scientists?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The aeroplane wings, they're fixed up. But the bird wings, he can do like this. Even they can do like that, where is the credit? It is already there. Many millions and thousands.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That they have introduced a grade system just like here in the United States, and then there will be open books, so that they will be not be afraid of copying things. Open book examination.

Prabhupāda: Oh, common sense. (pause) (break) ...man's aeroplane. Just see. Immediately he goes up. And man's aeroplane, oh, you have to takes position, you have to go so many miles like this. Then you can... It is imitation. The aeroplane has also wings, but his wings is collapsed. But that wing you have to keep. Therefore you require so much space.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like, Śrīla Prabhupāda, a vulture. When the vulture wants to take off, he will run just like an aeroplane for a certain distance. They cannot just get up immediately. Vulture.

Prabhupāda: So you scientists, you are like vultures. (laughter) You have imitated vultures.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Gurukṛpa: But his family will have it for generations.

Prabhupāda: Well, family men... When you are diseased, you do not say, "My family is there. Don't call for a physician. I am happy." That you do not say. You call for a physician. Your family cannot help you. And what to speak of death? That is another foolishness. When you fly in the sky with your friends and family and when there is danger, nobody can save you. You will drop down. Everyone is flying. Even airplane, if there is some accident in the airplane, what the other airplane can do? If the ship is drowning, what other ship can do? You are drowning; you must drown. There is no question of "my friends and relatives." That is described in the Bhāgavatam. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣu ātma-śainyeṣu. He is thinking, "They are my soldiers. They will give me protection." Ātma-śainya. Śainya means soldier. Asatsv api. It is false, but he is thinking like that. That is foolishness. When you have to fly, you have to fly on the strength of your wings, own wings, not your son's wings or daughter's wings or... That will not help you. Svakarma-phala, phala-bhuk. You have to enjoy or suffer according to your own activities.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation With Radha-Damodara Sankirtana Party -- March 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Utsāhān.

utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt

tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt

saṅga-tyāgāt sato vṛtteḥ

ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati

(Upadeśāmṛta 3)

Utsāha is the basic principle, utsāhān and sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83), association of sādhu. Simply utsāhān and the association is not sādhu—then it is material. Utsāhān means association of sādhu. Sādhu means devotee. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). Who is sādhu? Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. One who has no other business than to serve Kṛṣṇa, he is sādhu. So the association of such sādhu.... Sādhu, sato vṛtteḥ sādhu-saṅge. Whatever a sādhu does, there is no fault. Everything is right. But still, because we are in this material world, we shall act in such a way that nobody can accuse us. Sato vṛtteḥ. Sādhu is above all this vṛtti, but still, you keep pace with the material world, otherwise your activities will be hampered. Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī has said sato vṛtti: "The dealings should be very honest." Sato vṛtteḥ sādhu saṅge, ṣaḍbhiḥ, six items. Utsāhān, enthusiasm; dhairyāt, patience. Utsāhān dhairyāt niścayāt, with confidence. So enthusiasm, patience, confidence. Tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. You have to act according to the prescribed way, and sato vṛtteḥ, and dealings very honest, and sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). Everything perfect. So where you all staying? In new quarters?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we have been very fortunate. They have given us.... Just as you have this wing, they have given us the whole wing on the next floor above.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's very nice.

Room Conversation -- May 1, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: ...The Lord then said, (Hindi:) ...bhagavān diya(?). This.... (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke (BG 15.7). 15.7.

Guru-kṛpā: "The living entities in this conditional world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind."

Prabhupāda: So with this instrument he's manipulating this machine, as exactly the pilot, with so many electronics, machine, he's working the flying of the plane. Where is the difficulty to understand? And this is, body is a machine. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhū.... Bhrāmayan, wandering. The aeroplane is wandering. This machine is wandering. It is also going. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ. Sometimes up, sometimes down. Huh? Find out this. (devotees look for verse) Same aeroplane, going up and down. Two wings, this hand, like this.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: And nature supplies the body, that's all. Simple thing.

Rāmeśvara: But they do not put a limit, 8,400,000. They think that it can keep going on increasing, increasing.

Prabhupāda: Then let it go on. That's all right. What is wrong?

Candanācārya: By their theory, though, a human being would be able to generate wings or a beak like a bird.

Prabhupāda: Yes, there are human beings who can fly in the sky. Siddhaloka, Siddhaloka. There is a planet called Siddhaloka. There the human beings from one planet to another go.

Hari-śauri: They have wings?

Prabhupāda: No wings.

Rāmeśvara: The Gandharvas have wings.

Candanācārya: Why do you need wings if you can fly? Also Garuḍa has a beak. Where are we going now?

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda said in Hawaii there's no.... (pause)

Prabhupāda: The old man, her father?

Hari-śauri: I hope so. (pause) (break)...

Prabhupāda: Send to Svarūpa Dāmodara, he has got also.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: ...to avoid the taxes. So the government is simply training the people how to cheat.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: And then you wrote that one day the people will..., the taxes will become so great that the people will revolt, refuse to pay, and then the government will be finished. There will be chaos. You're giving all these warnings, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You've also warned them about taking the oil from the earth.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Yes. I think of these things. No, there is analogy, just like when you fly in the sky, you take sufficient petrol in the wings, sufficient, so many thousands of gallons. And if there is no petrol, then you'll fall down. So I theorize these things, (laughs) that these planets are floating in the air on account of petrol. If you finish the petrol stock, then we drop. Analogy. Indirectly, my desire is that "Why you are wasting your time in this way? Your life is short here. Then utilize it for self-realization. What is the use of this civilization, civilization that for artificial necessities of life you waste your whole duration of life and next life you become a cat or dog? Suppose you are successful in this life manufacturing these big, big skyscrapers. Next life, if you become a cockroach in the same house, toilet room.... There is possibility." Kṛṣṇa..., tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to change your body, and there is no guarantee that you'll have to change in this type of body. Any body. The cockroach is also a body. Therefore they don't believe in the next life.

Morning Walk -- July 9, 1976, Washington D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But if we accept this catastrophism, this can explain many facts.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's a fact.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The rocks also have offspring, if they're living?

Prabhupāda: That offspring is mouse. (laughter) There is information the rocks were flying.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Mountains, some mountains are flying.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In the..., cut off their wings. (break)

Devotee (1): ...it's true that people are getting disease and sicknesses as the result of their past activities, pious or sinful. Why is it that it appears that when there is a flu many people are inflicted with that flu? Practically everyone, indiscriminately.

Prabhupāda: All of them? Hm. "Birds of the same feather, flock together, see."

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes, as far as possible. There is Siddhaloka, they can go from one planet to another without any machine, without any vehicle. Siddhaloka means, just like the yogis, they can go.

Rāmeśvara: Their body have..., they have wings?

Prabhupāda: No wings. We think only our ideas, that without wings nobody can fly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That picture wasn't accurate.

Rāmeśvara: That was Gandharvaloka.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda said they don't have wings either.

Rāmeśvara: I know.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation Gaurasundara, Dr. Kapoor -- July 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...without any venue. That is something. "And what is this? This is Vedas?"(?) Sarcastically, humorously... Why people have become so rascal?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not better than any cockroach.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Less than a cockroach.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cockroach is born in the toilet.

Prabhupāda: That is it. And when it has got some wings, it flies.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Doesn't have to pay any thousand pounds sterling.

Prabhupāda: Or meditate. It is humorously liked. Handpaper, it was published by the Times. (break) ...for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You've never demanded any money for it.

Prabhupāda: No. And all others, bring the money. And still, they're ludicrous. And here big, big scholars, professors, universities, they are welcoming our books.

Room Conversation With Madhudvisa and others -- August 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dr. Kovoor has responded, and now Haṁsadūta has booked a hall and challenged him in all the newspapers to produce a mosquito. Free admission. They're serving halavā prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Actually, in mosquito you'll find the same arrangement like a big airplane, that wings, the body... But see the wonderful thing that not only there is mechanism but there is a pilot also. But your, this 747, it is big, there is mechanism, but pilot you have to bring outside. This is our challenge. And millions of such planes are born without your scientific knowledge. You produce one, then come to combat with God. This is our challenge. Simply jugglery of words, "We have manufactured this element, that element. Now, in future, we are going to...," this nonsense we shall not allow. Do it now. Hm? What do you think?

Śrutakīrti: Also, flying over here, that 747 I was flying on was three hours late because of some mechanical difficulty. So even they make it, they don't make it very nicely.

Prabhupāda: Imperfect.