Quintessence

Expressions researched:
"quintessence" |"quintessential"

CC Madhya-lila

The spiritual energy, working as a maidservant, exhibits the rāsa dance, the quintessence of all pastimes.

CC Madhya 21.44, Translation:

Vṛndāvana is the storehouse of Kṛṣṇa's mercy and the sweet opulences of conjugal love. That is where the spiritual energy, working as a maidservant, exhibits the rāsa dance, the quintessence of all pastimes.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is full in all six opulences, including His attractive beauty, which engages Him in conjugal love with the gopīs. Such sweetness is the quintessence of His qualities.

CC Madhya 21.110, Translation:

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is full in all six opulences, including His attractive beauty, which engages Him in conjugal love with the gopīs. Such sweetness is the quintessence of His qualities. Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the son of Vyāsadeva, has described these pastimes of Kṛṣṇa throughout Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Hearing the descriptions, the devotees become mad with love of God."

The quintessence of Kṛṣṇa's sweet bodily luster is so perfect that there is no perfection above it.

CC Madhya 21.118, Translation:

The quintessence of Kṛṣṇa's sweet bodily luster is so perfect that there is no perfection above it. He is the immutable mine of all transcendental qualities. In His other manifestations and personal expansions, there is only a partial exhibition of such qualities. We understand all His personal expansions in this way.

Madhya 21.118

Renunciation Through Wisdom

The more intelligent among the grossly materialistics carry this discussion a little further and postulate that impersonalism is the quintessence of everything.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.3:

The grossly materialistic demons are so completely bereft of spiritual knowledge that although at every moment they perceive the transience of the material body, all their activities center on the body. They are unable to understand that the soul within the body is the permanent and essential substance and that the body is mutable and temporary. Becoming first enamoured of then deluded by vivartavāda (the theory of evolution), they conclude that the entire cosmic body also lacks a Soul. Since the fallacious theory they apply to their own physical existence leads them to reject any research into the existence of a soul residing within the body, they fail to perceive the presence of the Supersoul within the gigantic body of the cosmic manifestation. They falsely conclude that the body is everything, that there is nothing beyond it; similarly, they think that the material creation, which is the universal body, is factually governed only by the laws of nature. Any discussion on this subject is invariably put to premature death by their insistence that nature is the be—all and end—all. The more intelligent among them carry this discussion a little further and postulate that impersonalism is the quintessence of everything. But far beyond this realm of manifest and unmanifest material nature is the transcendental and eternal state. The atheists, however, are characteristically unable to believe in its existence.

The gigantic universal form that Lord Kṛṣṇa exhibited to Arjuna is certainly not the quintessence of the Lord's divine mood.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 4.4:

The gigantic universal form that Lord Kṛṣṇa exhibited to Arjuna is certainly not the quintessence of the Lord's divine mood. In fact, the two-handed human form of Kṛṣṇa playing the flute is the superexcellent manifestation of the Lord. But one must not make the mistake of thinking that because Lord Kṛṣṇa appears as a human, He is human. His form is eternal and full of knowledge and bliss, unlike an ordinary mortal's. He is not even an extraordinary human being. The human form may be a facsimile of the Supreme Lord's transcendental form, but that does not make God a man, or vice versa. The Bible and other scriptures state that man was made according to the form of God, but that does not imply that God is a man.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

If you want to taste Bhagavad-gītā, then you'll relish and you'll get the benefit. By reading of Bhagavad-gītā, or the essence knowledge, quintessence of all Vedic literature, if you want to taste, just read Bhagavad-gītā as it is and you will be benefited.

Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Montreal, June 3, 1968:

In this way, in different books you'll find different kind of interpretations. Why? The Bhagavad-gītā is very popular book, and if one has got some nonsense idea, he wants to put forward that nonsense idea through Bhagavad-gītā. This is going on. But if you want to taste Bhagavad-gītā, then you'll relish and you'll get the benefit. By reading of Bhagavad-gītā, or the essence knowledge, quintessence of all Vedic literature, if you want to taste, just read Bhagavad-gītā as it is and you will be benefited.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Nigama means the Vedic literature. Nigama. So the essence, the quintessence of Vedic literature, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam...

Lecture on SB 1.9.49 -- Mayapura, June 15, 1973:

So in the Bhāgavata you will find everything, politics, sociology, religion, culture, philosophy, science, everything you will find. It is not that simply dogmatic, something saying, some miracles. No, it is not like that. It is a great science, scientific. Therefore in the beginning it is said, nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalam idam (SB 1.1.3). Nigama. Nigama means the Vedic literature. Nigama. So the essence, the quintessence of Vedic literature, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam... Veda means knowledge, I have several times explained. So Veda contains all kinds of knowledge. Āyur-veda, the knowledge about medical science. Dhanur-veda, the military science. Āyur-veda, Dhanur-veda, Yajur-veda. Veda means knowledge.

Expansion of the quintessence of spiritual energy, ānanda-cinmaya.

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

Rādhā is always manifest constantly, but because we want to say that Kṛṣṇa is the source of everything, so He is also source of Rādhā. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). And another meaning is... That is explained by Gosvāmī, that Rādhā is not an ordinary woman. If somebody thinks, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, They're side by side just like a boy and girl." No. If Kṛṣṇa is transcendental whole spirit, similarly the Rādhā or His expansion, Her expansion... It is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā, ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). This is expansion of the quintessence of spiritual energy, ānanda-cinmaya. Ānanda means blissful, and cinmaya means spiritual. So all kṛṣṇa-līlā, all Kṛṣṇa's activities, they are manifestation of His spiritual internal potency. You understand this?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Do you realize that the modern civilization is misguided? (break) ...is the quintessence of Bhagavad-gītā. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7).

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Do you realize that the modern civilization is misguided? (break) ...is the quintessence of Bhagavad-gītā. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7). Glāniḥ. The people are misguided. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. He's Dr. Patel. He's Mr. Gupta, a railway officer. He arranged for our tickets.

1968 Correspondence

Durga is expansion of internal energy and Radharani is the quintessence of Internal Energy.

Letter to Uddhava -- Allston, Mass 28 May, 1968:

My Dear Uddhava,

Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of May 24, 1968, and have noted the contents carefully. Sambhu is the principle by which the Lord impregnates the material Nature with the seeds of living entities. Durga is expansion of internal energy and Radharani is the quintessence of Internal Energy. In that sense Durga is expansion of Radharani. Brahma is the father of Rudra or Sambhu, therefore Brahma is the original creature for creation. Generally Sambhu is the creator of many many demons. Demons are therefore mostly worshippers of Lord Siva.

1970 Correspondence

The position of BTG should be more important than any mundane magazine because it contains the quintessence of human necessities.

Letter to Gurudasa -- Los Angeles 16 April, 1970:

My ambition was that I would publish BTG in huge quantity so that people may understand transcendental blessings of Lord Caitanya.

Now, since I have come to your country, I have entrusted the matter to my beloved American boys and girls, and I wish to see that this magazine is published and distributed in the American way like "Readers Digest", "Life" etc., published in millions and distributed all over the world. Actually the position of BTG should be more important than any mundane magazine because it contains the quintessence of human necessities.

1974 Correspondence

In human life intelligence is better than animals therefore they should know what is the aim of life and to educate human society there is the whole Vedic literature, of which the Bhagavad gita is the quintessence.

Letter to Rupanuga -- Tirupati 28 April, 1974:

Our students who are making this political program must be fixed in one point that human society unless divided into the four classes and divisions is animal society. Among the animals there is no intelligence for self realization or how to make life successful. In human life intelligence is better than animals therefore they should know what is the aim of life and to educate human society there is the whole Vedic literature, of which the Bhagavad gita is the quintessence.