Absence of... (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"absence of"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.40 -- London, July 28, 1973:

So there must be good population. So to have good population, the women should be very chaste. That is the basic principle of Vedic civilization. And to keep the women chaste, it was the function of the responsible father, or, in the absence of father, the elder brother... So he must get the woman, the girl, married. It is compulsory. There was no compulsory for man to marry. Because a man may remain brahmacārī. By training, he can abstain from sex. But if woman is not protected very strictly, it is very difficult.

Lecture on BG 2.25 -- London, August 28, 1973:

Material, material burden, that is always troublesome. Even this body. This is also another burden. We have to carry it. So when one is not disturbed by this bodily pain and pleasure... There is no pleasure, simply pain. Here, pleasure means a little absence of pain. Just like you have got a boil here. What is called? Boil? Phoṛā? So it is always painful. And by some medical application, when the pain is little relieved, you think that "Now it is happiness." But the boil is there. How you can be happy? So here, actually there is no happiness, but we think we have discovered so many counteraction.

Lecture on BG 4.3-6 -- New York, July 18, 1966:

The king of heaven, he made some offense under, on the feet of his spiritual master, Bṛhaspati, and he cursed him that "You are just like a hog. You take the birth of a hog." So he became a hog. Now, when the throne of the heavenly kingdom was vacant due to the absence of Indra—he has become a hog in this earth—so Brahmā came. Brahmā came that, "Mr. Such-and-such, you have now become hog for your offensive activities. Now I have come to deliver you. Please come with me." Now, the hog said, "Oh, I cannot go with you. I cannot go with you. Oh, I have got so many responsibilities. I have got my children. I have got my wife. I have got my country. I have got my society." The hog, he's... So even you offer the hog to take him to the heaven, he will refuse. "Oh, I have got so much responsibility." This is called forgetfulness.

Lecture on BG 4.7-9 -- New York, July 22, 1966:

So this world, this material world, is full of darkness. Darkness, one meaning of darkness is ignorance. And another darkness, you know, without, absence of light. So this nature of this material world is darkness.

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

We try to satisfy our senses... Just like the jackal. He wanted to eat some grapes, but jumping, jumping, he could not get. Then, in krodha, he says, "Oh, it is useless. It is sour. We don't want." So this krodha, in the absence of sense gratification, there is krodha. Kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ.

Lecture on BG 4.19 -- New York, August 5, 1966:

Mr. Goldsmith: Kṛṣṇa believed that it was all right to kill the enemies of Arjuna because it was a righteous war.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Goldsmith: Now, if you have a philosophy like that, can you find peace?

Prabhupāda: What do you mean by peace then?

Mr. Goldsmith: Absence of war.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. Not necessarily. Absence of war is not peace. Just think over. Suppose now there is no war. Do you think that everybody is in peace? Ask any individual person that "Are you in peace? Are you in peace of mind or peace of..." No war is not only the cause. There are many other causes which disturbs our peace.

Lecture on BG 4.24 -- August 4, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

There is no good or bad, it is mental concoction. But on the whole, in the material world means everything bad. Spiritual world everything is good. Material world means absence of spiritual world, that's all. You bring again spiritual world, it is good.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Upsala University Stockholm, September 8, 1973:

We have Kṛṣṇa's form. Kṛṣṇa Deity, we worship. So if we engage ourself in the worship of the Deity, the form of Kṛṣṇa, which is nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa, or, in the absence of Deity, if we chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, that is also Kṛṣṇa. Abhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ (CC Madhya 17.133). Kṛṣṇa is Absolute. Therefore, there is no difference between Him and His name. There is no difference between Him and His form. There is no difference between Him and His picture. There is no difference between Him and His topics. Anything about Kṛṣṇa is Kṛṣṇa. This is called absolute knowledge.

Lecture on BG 7.18 -- New York, October 12, 1966:

Either you love this matter or you love God, but you cannot get out of this loving propensity. Just like sometimes we see: one who hasn't got children, he loves a cat, loves a dog. You see? Why? Because he wants to love something. But in the absence of reality, he puts his faith and love into cats and dogs. So love is there, but that love is now represented in the form of lust. And this lust, when we are baffled in the lust, we become angry. We get wrath. And when we are in wrath, then next stage is illusion. And when we are illusioned, we are doomed.

Lecture on BG 9.2 -- Melbourne, April 20, 1976:

In the material world the nature is darkness. Just like at night it is darkness. This is the nature of this material world. But it is... There is illumination on account of the sun. So God has created the sun to give us light. Sometimes we have heard that on account of absence of the sunshine they commit suicide.

Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Tokyo, January 27, 1975:

We are suffering in this material world. We may say that "We have no suffering. It is very pleasing," but actually, in every step we are suffering. Just like this is winter season. To take bath in the winter season is suffering. And in the summer season, to take bath in the summer season, it is very pleasing. So either we are suffering or we are enjoying according to different season and circumstances, but actually we are suffering. Because... Take this winter season. We do not want chilly cold. Therefore we are covering. The cause is we are suffering. Therefore we are covering. And after covering, we are feeling some pleasure. This pleasure is, for the time being, absence of suffering. That's all. Actually, we are suffering, but by some arrangement, when we stop that suffering for the time being and feel, enjoying, that is material enjoyment. Actually there is no enjoyment.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.9-10 -- Delhi, November 14, 1973:

There is a story in the Bhāgavata that once Brahmā was cursed and he become a hog in this world. No, Indra. Because Indra was very offending, so he was cursed. He became a hog. So Brahmā thought that "In the absence of Indra the kingdom of heaven is not managed very nicely, so let me go an bring him again, excuse." So when he came, he asked the hog that "Come with me." "Where?" "To the heaven." "Oh, I cannot go. I have got my responsibility. I gave got my responsibility. I cannot go."

So this is the position. Everyone is very happy. This is called māyā's influence. Unless a hog feels happy, how he can live in this abominable life?

Lecture on SB 1.2.16 -- Los Angeles, August 19, 1972:

According to Vedic civilization, because man is very aggressive, so he's allowed to accept more than one wife. He's allowed. Generally, female population is greater than the male population. So the Vedic principle is that every girl must be married by the guardian, father. A father's duty is, as soon as girl is thirteen years old, fourteen years old, it is the duty of the father, or in the absence of father, it is the duty of elder brother to get her married. Some way or other, find out any husband. Yes. So if every girl has to be married, and if the female population is greater, then where to get so many husbands? Therefore it is very nice system that one man can marry more than one wife.

Lecture on SB 1.2.21 -- Vrndavana, November 1, 1972:

You can stand liberated on the platform of devotional service. As soon as you deviate from devotional service, immediately the māyā is standing. She'll capture you. You can see practically. There is sunshine, and just next to the sunshine, there is darkness or shadow. So little deviation from the sunshine there is shadow. And little deviation from the shadow, you go to the sunshine. Both things are side by side, māyā and Kṛṣṇa. Māyā means absence of Kṛṣṇa. Shadow means absence of light, sunshine. So if you always keep in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is no shadow of māyā.

Lecture on SB 1.7.40 -- Vrndavana, October 1, 1976:

When Aurangzeb killed his elder brother, Dara, then the effect was suffered by Shah Jahan. So all the activities, nefarious activities of Aurangzeb, was suffered by Shah Jahan. Therefore he said, "He's the hero." Similarly, here is the same instance, that "If I kill Aśvatthāmā—it is right, I should kill him—but the effect would go to his mother. His mother, she is innocent, and in the absence of her husband, our guru, it is our duty to look after her comforts. Now, if I kill Aśvatthāmā, then she will suffer in old age." Therefore na aicchad dhantuṁ guru-sutam. He did not... Although Kṛṣṇa advised him "You kill him," he did not like it. Guru-sutam. This is consciousness. Even there is duty, we have to see what will be the effect of the duty.

Lecture on SB 1.8.44 -- Los Angeles, May 6, 1973:

Māyā means absence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is māyā, absence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When you forget Kṛṣṇa, this is māyā. When we remember Kṛṣṇa, know Kṛṣṇa, there is no māyā. Just like you have experience that you go through the cloud and then come to the sunshine, there is no more cloud. So below the cloud there is darkness, there is... We cannot see the sun. So the sunshine is profuse sunshine. Not that cloud can cover the sunshine. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is all-pervading. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). Kṛṣṇa is within the universe, within the atoms, everywhere. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). Every heart, there is Kṛṣṇa. But we cannot see Kṛṣṇa. Simply, somehow or other, we have been covered by the illusion of māyā. That's it. So as soon as we come to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness atmosphere, shining atmosphere, then there is no māyā.

Lecture on SB 1.8.46 -- Los Angeles, May 8, 1973:

Your country says equality given. Why not equality to the animals? That is defect. It is due to, I mean to say, absence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person will not distinguish like that. For eating animal, they will philosophize that animal has no soul; therefore it can be killed. No. This is nonsense. Everyone has got soul. Even a small ant has got soul. But they have to kill. They have to eat. They are philosophizing different way. Lord Jesus Christ said, "Thou shalt not kill," and now they are interpreting, "Killing means murdering human being." But that is not in the Bible.

Lecture on SB 1.15.27 -- Los Angeles, December 5, 1973:

So actually, if we want to enjoy life, then we should take the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa. We shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. That will give us relief from the blazing fire. Saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-trāṇāya kāruṇya-ghanāghanatvam **. This is the only way. Otherwise...

So when Arjuna was too much perturbed by absence of Kṛṣṇa, he was simply remembering the instruction of Kṛṣṇa which he received in the Battle of Kurukṣetra.

Lecture on SB 1.15.34 -- Los Angeles, December 12, 1973:

So this Yadu dynasty, Kṛṣṇa thought that "In My absence they are powerful... Because they, to assist Me..." "To assist Me" means... He had two missions: paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). They have killed so many demons. Everywhere they came out victorious because Kṛṣṇa was there. Now, in the absence of Kṛṣṇa, they would be puffed up. Therefore they would be turned again into demons: "Oh, I belong to Kṛṣṇa's family."

Lecture on SB 1.16.17 -- Los Angeles, January 12, 1974:

Darkness is not first; light is first. And darkness means where there is no light. Where there is no light, that is darkness. Similarly, darkness has no separate existence. It is simply absence of light. That's all. Real existence is light. The whole creation is... Just like real existence is the sun. Try to understand, very easy. Sun, but when it is covered by the cloud, it is called darkness. Or it is covered by another planet, then we find darkness.

Lecture on SB 1.16.23 -- Los Angeles, July 13, 1974:

Even if I go to the highest planetary system, with very, very long duration of life and material comforts, that is not actual benefit. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna: (BG 8.16) "My dear Arjuna, even if you are promoted to the Brahmaloka, the highest planetary system, still, it is not safe, because the death is there. And if you come to My place, no, there is no more..." That is called nirvāṇa. Our business is to finish this material existence and go back to home, back to... That is real business.

So here the Dharmarāja is lamenting, "On account of absence of Kṛṣṇa, our real business, nirvāṇa, is being delayed. Therefore, are you lamenting, mother?" So Kṛṣṇa is so kind that although He's not present at the present moment, still, in the form of His holy name, He's present.

Lecture on SB 2.3.15 -- Los Angeles, June 1, 1972:

According to Vedic civilization, a girl, before attaining puberty, must be married. There are so many injunctions about that. And the responsibility is of the father, or, in the absence of father, the elderly members or brothers. It is called kanyā-dāya. Kanyā-dāya means it is the obligation. You cannot avoid it. You can avoid the marriage of your son, but you cannot avoid the marriage of your daughter. That is Vedic injunction.

Lecture on SB 2.9.10 -- Tokyo, April 26, 1972:

In the Sāṅkhya-kaumudī it is stated that unalloyed goodness or transcendence is just opposite to the material modes. All living entities are eternally associated without any break, and the Lord is the chief and prime entity there. In the Āgama Purāṇas also the transcendental abode is described as follows. The associated members there are free to go everywhere within the creation of the Lord, and there is no limit to such creation, particularly in the region of the three-fourths magnitude. Since the nature of that region is unlimited, there is no history of such association, nor is there end of it. The conclusion may be drawn that because of the complete absence of the mundane qualities of ignorance and passion, there is no question of creation nor of annihilation. In the material world everything is created and everything is annihilated, and the duration of life between the creation and annihilation is temporary. In the transcendental realm, there is no creation and no destruction, and thus the duration of life is eternal unlimitedly.

Lecture on SB 3.25.5-6 -- Bombay, November 5, 1974:

So although woman is inferior than the man, still, the Vedic civilization is so perfect that the man, as father, as husband, or as son, takes care, full care of the woman. This is Vedic civilization. Therefore it is said that mātuḥ priya-cikīrṣayā. The son was ready always to see that "Mother is not unhappy. My father has gone away. So she may not feel the absence of my father." This very word is very significant, mātuḥ priya-cikīrṣayā. He was always ready to take care of the mother. And the best care is to give her knowledge.

Lecture on SB 3.26.30 -- Bombay, January 7, 1975:

Brahman effulgence is spiritual world, certainly, but there is no variety. There is no Kṛṣṇa's enjoying with the cowherds boys or Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. You cannot find there. You simply remain in the Brahman effulgence.

But because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, as Kṛṣṇa wants enjoyment, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12), ānandamaya, so we part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we also want ānanda. So to remain in the Brahman effulgence is not ānanda. It is eternity only. It is not ānanda. Therefore on account of absence of ānanda, they come down again to enjoy this material ānanda.

Lecture on SB 5.5.30 -- Vrndavana, November 17, 1976:

We cannot understand in our present state what is that spirit soul. Although we can perceive that there is something—in the absence of that something, this body is nothing but a lump of matter. That we get experience every day. But we cannot see what is that. Therefore atheist class or the persons with poor fund of knowledge, they deny the existence.

Lecture on SB 7.6.2 -- Vrndavana, December 3, 1975:

Real love is with Viṣṇu. Because by nature there is love. Just like the child. It loves the mother. And in the absence of the mother he cries, and when the mother comes he becomes satisfied. So our real love is for Kṛṣṇa but that we have forgotten. And you are offered, "Why you are crying? You take this. You take this. You take this." No. Nothing will satisfy us unless we again come back to love our original source of life.

Lecture on SB 7.9.6 -- Mayapur, February 26, 1977:

I think in our childhood we read one book, a Moral Class book, said there was a story that shipwrecked, and they took the shelter of one boat, but some of them died of thirst because they could not drink water. So in the water they were living, but they died of thirst.

So our position is like that. Everything is full. Still, we are dying and fighting. What is the reason? The reason is that we do not follow Kṛṣṇa. This is the reason: absence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 30, 1972:

In the Bhagavad-gītā the living entities have been described as prakṛti. Apareyam itas tu vidhi me prakṛtim parā. After describing the material energies—earth, water, air, fire sky, mind, intelligence, ego—Kṛṣṇa says apareyam, all these energies, separated energies, material energies, they are aparā, inferior. But that is also Kṛṣṇa's energies. Inferior means not actually inferior, because they, there cannot be anything inferior which is emanating from Kṛṣṇa. The inferior in this sense: by our absence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Because we have come here, in this material world, to enjoy to satisfy, sense satisfaction, sense gratification, we have made it inferior.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 6.154 -- Gorakhpur, February 16, 1971:

Each word of the Vedic scriptures is so nice. In spite of... In America I have seen. In spite of ample money and resources, some people have voluntarily accepted to remain as very poor and wretched. Voluntarily. They like that. They have no systematic life. Therefore Bhāgavata says, manda-bhāgyā. If we are unfortunate, even despite all facilities, we cannot be able to accept it. That is called misfortune. Not that in the absence of money and other facilities, one becomes unfortunate, but even in the presence of all these things, one is unfortunate. That is the characteristics of this age.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 1 -- Los Angeles, May 2, 1970:

The whole sunshine cannot be covered. That is not possible. An insignificant portion of the sunshine may be covered, or is covered sometimes by the cloud. Similarly, this material world is an insignificant portion of the spiritual world, covered by this material energy. That's all. And what is the position of material energy? The material energy is also another form of the spiritual energy. That means absence of spiritual activity, that is material.

Wedding Ceremonies

Wedding Ceremony and Lecture -- Boston, May 6, 1969:

According to Vedic system, the father and mother's responsibility is for the child unless they are married. It is the duty of the parents to see that the girl and the boy is married by the supervision of the parents. That is the Vedic way of civilization. In India the... Especially for the girls. If the girl is above the age of 13 years old, and if she is not married by the father, or in the absence of father, the elder brother... Mother has not so much responsibility. But the father or the elder brother... Then it is said that that man, father or elder brother, will go to hell. So it is a great responsibility to take care of the girls.

General Lectures

Morning Lecture -- Allahabad, January 15, 1977:

Ultimately we are all servants, but in the absence of being mahātmā, we are serving māyā. Service is there. We cannot become master. That is not possible. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). So there are two things: Kṛṣṇa and māyā, light and shadow. If you don't serve Kṛṣṇa, then you have to serve māyā. And those who are serving māyā in the name of Kṛṣṇa, they are called Māyāvādī.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Jeremy Bentham:

Prabhupāda: What is happiness, that is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Happiness means absence of distress. That is happiness. So Bhagavad-gītā recommends that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). You may think that you are very happy but this is not happiness. You have to see to your distressed condition because you have to take birth, you have to die, you have to suffer diseases and you have to suffer, janma-mṛtyu-jarā, old age. So where is your happiness.