Śīta means

Expressions researched:
"Sita means"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Śīta means cold. Just like in winter we suffer.

Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:

Our original position is sac-cid-ānanda, means eternity, knowledge, and blissfulness. The Supreme Being, Kṛṣṇa, or God, is also sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). He has His transcendental form of eternity, knowledge and blissfulness. So the Supreme Lord or Supreme Being is also vigraha. Vigraha means form. As you are form, I am form, similarly, God is also form. He is not formless. So that is described in the Vedic literatures.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

(Bs. 5.1)

"The Supreme Being, who is called Kṛṣṇa, or all-attractive, He has His body of eternity, full of knowledge and blissfulness." Now, compare your this body. This body is not eternal; it is temporary. It is born at a certain date and it will be finished at a certain date. Therefore it is not eternal. Neither this body is full of knowledge. It is full of ignorance. If I ask you how many hairs you have got on your head, you do not know. Similarly, we have got this body. I am claiming my body, but I am not in full knowledge of my own body. And what to speak of knowing your body or other's body? Not only body, the mind, intelligence, and ego. What is going on in your mind, I do not know. Neither you know what is going on in my mind. We are so ignorant. Therefore this body is temporary and full of ignorance. And what to speak of blissfulness? It is always miserable. Here, because we have got this body, we suffer the pains of cold and heat. This is only one example. It is given in the Bhagavad-gītā, mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. Śīta means cold. Just like in winter we suffer. In summer also, we suffer. Both seasons, we suffer. So why we suffer? Because we have got this temporary material body.

We have got in this material world duality. Just like this is now summer season; then again we will have winter season, snowfall. Śīta uṣṇa. Śīta means winter season, and uṣṇa means summer season.

Lecture on BG 6.4-12 -- New York, September 4, 1966:

Śītoṣṇa-sukha... Duality. Duality. We have got in this material world duality. Just like this is now summer season; then again we will have winter season, snowfall. Śīta uṣṇa. Śīta means winter season, and uṣṇa means summer season. Śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkheṣu. Similarly, happiness and distress. Happiness and distress. Tathā mānāpamānayoḥ. Similarly, honor and dishonor. Because in this world, the world of duality, dual world, everything is to be understood by duality. We cannot understand what is honor if there is no dishonor. If I am not insulted, I cannot understand what is honor. So mānāpamānayoḥ. Similarly, I cannot understand what is misery if I have not tasted happiness. Or I cannot understand what is happiness if I have not understood misery. So similarly... I cannot understand what is cold if I have not tasted hot. This world is, world is of duality. So one has to transcend. So long this body is there, this duality feeling will continue.

So because I am trying to get out of this body, bodily conception—not exactly out of the body, but bodily conception—so I will have to practice to tolerate these dualities. As in the Second Chapter we have, Kṛṣṇa has advised Arjuna, mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). This duality of distress and happiness, this is due to the skin. This is skin disease. Just like itching, itching of the skin. So because there is itching, I should not be mad after it. I should tolerate. There are so many. Nowadays mosquito bite is going on. So we should not be mad. We should not give up our duty because mosquito is biting or some bed bug is biting. So so many dualities that we have to tolerate.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Śīta means winter, and uṣṇa means summer, warm and cold, cool.

Lecture on SB 7.9.20 -- Mayapur, February 27, 1976:

Everything existing on Kṛṣṇa. This material energy—earth, water, fire, air, sky—that is Kṛṣṇa's energy. Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. They are also Kṛṣṇa's energies. Opposite elements also. Just like heat and cold. So they are opposite. Śītoṣṇa. Śīta means winter, and uṣṇa means summer, warm and cold, cool. We see practically that the expert electrician by the same electric energy is running on the heater and the cooler. The cooler is also working under electric energy, and the heater is also working. So ephemerally heat is opposite to coolness, and coolness is opposite to heat. But both of them are working under the same energy; simply it is a question of adjustment by the expert electrician. So God is one, and His energy is also one, and there is no separation of energy from the energetic. Just like fire and heat. Heat cannot be separated from fire. But still, heat is not fire. I may be heated by high temperature, but if there is fire, then I will be burned—different action—although both of them are the same, heat and fire. Therefore the conclusion should be sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat parasya brahmaṇaḥ śakti. Parasya. Parasya means "of the Supreme Brahman." Supreme Brahman is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). And Arjuna also accepts Kṛṣṇa as Para-brahman. So everything is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā: (BG 9.4) "I am spread all over the creation.' Avyakta-mūrtinā. But you cannot see Kṛṣṇa. Here we know there is air, there is ether, there is light, there is heat—everything is here. We can see it, experience it, but avyakta-mūrtinā—Kṛṣṇa is invisible, imperson. That is the difference between person and imperson. There are philosophers who think that the Absolute Truth is person, and there are other philosophers, they think the Absolute Truth is imperson. But we followers of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we accept both. He is person and imperson also at the same time, simultaneously. Acintya-bhedābheda-tattva.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Śīta means severe cold, winter season, snow falling. That is called śīta.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.101 -- Washington, D.C., July 6, 1976:

There is a song, the devotee is singing that śīta ātapa bāta variṣaṇa. Śīta means severe cold, winter season, snow falling. That is called śīta. And scorching heat. You have no experience of scorching heat. In India we have got 110, 120, and I think Middle East, there is 135. Here you have got less, 50 in winter. So some way or other there is always trouble. This material world means we must suffer trouble. Either scorching heat or pinching cold or blast or ādhidaivika, ādhyātmika. These things should be discussed. But still we got to work, why? Only for love. That is the only cause. I love my children, I love my wife, or I love my country, my society. Love is there. But this love is not giving me satisfaction. We are disappointed. As I, yesterday I cited the example of Mahatma Gandhi. For his country's love, he did so much. He wanted Hindu-Muslim unity, and he wanted nonviolence. In this way he was organizing. But the world is so ungrateful that instead of unity of Hindu-Muslim, in India we experienced complete partition, Hindustan and Pakistan. So he was baffled. And so far nonviolence was concerned, he was killed by violence. So he died very disappointed. So everyone... This is giving the best example, typical example. Everyone. We are attached to the love of this material world, but we are all disappointed. From everyone's experience, you'll find. Everyone is disappointed. Both sides, the lover and the beloved, both sides. You have got very good experience in this country. They marry, again they are divorced, because disappointed. So this is going on. Therefore our love has to be reposed to Kṛṣṇa. That is the recommendation of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Purports to Songs

Śīta means winter.

Purport to Bhajahu Re Mana -- San Francisco, March 16, 1967:

Then he is pointing out the frustration of life. What is that? Śīta ātapa bāta bariṣaṇa e dina jāminī jāgi re. Śīta means winter. Ātapa means summer, when there is scorching sunshine. Śīta ātapa bāta, cold, bariṣaṇa, torrents of rain. So these disturbances are always there. Sometimes it is severe cold. Sometimes it is scorching heat. Sometimes there is torrents of rain. Sometimes this or that is going on. So he says, śīta ātapa bāta bariṣaṇa e dina jāminī jāgi re. Whole day and night, people are working very hard without caring, severe cold, severe heat, and torrents of rain, and keeping night, going to the desert, going underneath the sea—everywhere they are so busy. Śīta ātapa bāta bariṣaṇa e dina jāminī jāgi re. There is night duty and so many other engagements. So he says,

śīta ātapa bāta bariṣaṇa

e dina jāminī jāgi re

biphale sevinu kṛpaṇa durajana

capala sukha-laba lāgi' re

"Now, with all this hard labor, what I have done? I have served some persons who are not at all favorable to my Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And why I have served them?" Capala sukha-laba lāgi' re: "Capala, very flickering happiness. I think if my small child smiles, I will be happy. I think if my wife is pleased, I think I am happy. But all this temporary smiling or feeling of happiness, they are all flickering." That one has to realize. There are many other poets also, similarly have sung that this is..., this mind is just like a desert, and it is hankering after oceans of water. In a desert, if a ocean is transferred, then it can be inundated. And what benefit can be achieved there if drop of water is there? Similarly, our mind, our consciousness, is hankering after ocean of happiness. And this temporary happiness in family life, in society life, they are just like drop of water. So those who are philosophers, those who have actually studied the world situation, they can understand that "This flickering happiness cannot make me happy."

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Śīta means winter and uṣṇa means summer.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: If one is engaged in his cultivation of spiritual life, then he should tolerate all these bodily pains and pleasure. Because they come and go. Just like you are medical man, you treat, some patient. Suppose he's attacked with fever. Everyone knows that fever has come; after some time, it will go away. So the one who is cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he's not very much disturbed with fever. He knows that it has come, it will go automatically. If we fast for few days. There is a Bengali proverb, jvaranpar ketanadali palab...(?) If you receive one unwanted guest and fever, you don't give him eat. Then it will go away. Unwanted guest, if you do not give him food, he'll go away. Even a fever also, if you don't eat, it will go automatically. So after all, these things come and go. The example is given, śīta-uṣṇa. Śīta means winter and uṣṇa means summer. As the summer comes and go, winter comes and go, so these kinds of sufferings, they come and go. So Kṛṣṇa is advising, tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. Therefore a brāhmaṇa's qualification is titikṣa. Śamo damaḥ śaucaṁ titikṣa, toleration. They're not very much bothered with the bodily pains and pleasure. They come and go. They're engaged in real business, how to realize Brahman. So if one is engaged in the prime business of life, Brahman understanding, athāto brahma jijñāsā, for him these bodily pains and pleasure becomes minor things. Therefore, we see such examples, that one saintly person is living in the Himalayan mountain. There is snowfall, there is no proper place, still they live. Still, there are many. But nowadays it is not possible. Voluntarily, they used to go to the forest, to the Himalaya, just to tolerate these pains and pleasure of the body equally and engage in their own business of spiritual understanding. That is human civilization. Human civilization, that is described, tapo divyam. For the supreme spiritual realization one should undergo tapasya.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Uṣṇa means hot, and śīta means cold.

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Haṁsadūta: He's one of the happiest, jolliest looking children I've ever seen.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: I think he's extraordinary.

Jayatīrtha: New Dvārakā is leading the society in child production.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. But make them devotees. That is the real father and mother, who begets children and make him devotee. That is real father and mother. Otherwise cats and dogs. A Tulasī dāsa, he has written one poetry that "A son and the urine comes from the same way." Son... Son means it is born out of the semina. That also comes through the genital, and the urine also comes through the genital. So he is giving this example that "Putra and Mutra..." Mutra, means urine, and putra means son, comes from the same passage. So if the son is a devotee, then he's putra; otherwise he's mutra. (laughter) Otherwise he's urine. Very nice. Yes. Putra and mutra come from the same channel. If he's a devotee, then he's putra, otherwise he's mutra. (break) ...miseries are compared with the heat and cold. Mātrā sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). Śīta and uṣṇa. Uṣṇa means hot, and śīta means cold. They are pleasing and miserable in circumstances. Cold is very pleasing in the summer, and heat is very pleasing in winter. But same heat in summer is not pleasing, and same cold in winter, it is not pleasing. So what is the actual position of cold and heat? It is simply transforming as pleasure and pain according to circumstances. Otherwise it is neither painful, neither pleasing. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma iva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...has given me hundreds of such places but His order is "You cannot stay." (laughter) I'll tell you one humorous story in this connection. It is a little long. I don't wish to divert your attention. Very interesting story. That is also mentioned in the Bhagavad..., aniketa. One may have many nice places to live; still, he should think that "I have no place to live." That is one of the spiritual items.