So the whole arrangement is that the central figure, central figure of creation, central figure of enjoyment, is the Supreme Lord, and the living entities, they are simply cooperator. By cooperation, by cooperation they enjoy. The relation is just like the master and the servant. If the master is satisfied, if the master is fully satisfied, the servants are automatically satisfied. That is the law. Similarly, the Supreme Lord should be satisfied, although the tendency for becoming creator and the tendency to enjoy this material world is, they are also in the living entities because it is there in the Supreme Lord. He has created, He has created the manifested cosmic world.
Arrangement (Lectures, BG)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Lecture on BG 1.12 -- London, July 13, 1973:
They are described in the Bhagavad-gītā, brāhmaṇa qualification, kṣatriya qualification, vaiśya qualification, śūdra qualification. So... Very nice arrangement, Vedic civilization. Everyone is guided by the superior. The brāhmaṇa guides the kṣatriyas, the kṣatriya guides the vaiśyas, and the vaiśya employs the śūdras. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). In this way, four divisions of brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, they manage the whole society so nicely. The kṣatriyas, as the kṣatriya's business was to give protection to the citizens, similarly, vaiśya's duty was to give protection to the animals. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44).
Lecture on BG 1.40 -- London, July 28, 1973:
Therefore a woman, especially in India, especially in Bengal, before attaining puberty, she was married. Not to meet the husband unless she attains puberty. But she remained at father's house, but she must know that: "I am married. I have got husband." This psychology. Then she becomes very chaste. Because she thinks of her husband, and becomes more and more devoted. So this arrangement that woman must be married before puberty... Or even after puberty, she must get a husband. So if this dharma... It is called kanyā-dāya, kanyā-dāya. Kanyā-dāya means it is very obligatory that the father must get the daughter married. This is dharma. So if this dharma, or this religious principle is violated, that is... Arjuna is marking: adharma-abhi, abhi-bhava. When people become neglectful of the family tradition and religious principles, adharma abhibhavāt kṛṣṇa praduṣyanti kula-striyaḥ (BG 1.40). Kula-striyaḥ. Kula-striyaḥ means... Kula means family, and striyaḥ means woman. So woman must be belonging to a respectable family. Therefore it is said: kula-striyaḥ. Not society-girls. Kula-striyaḥ. Of the family. We have got experience in our school, college days. I was sitting in a friend's house and one sweeper woman, sweeper, with broomstick and with, what is called, covering?
Lecture on BG 1.45-46 -- London, August 1, 1973:
That is ordinary man. But Arjuna, he is always friend of Kṛṣṇa, constant friend. His name is Gudakesa, above all darkness. Certainly he must be. One who is Kṛṣṇa's friend directly, how there can be ignorance? There cannot be. Then why Arjuna is playing that part? He knows Kṛṣṇa's desire; still, he says that yadi mām apratikāram aśastram śastra-pāṇayaḥ. And no... Tan me kṣemataraṁ bhavet. He is playing like that. Because without Arjuna's playing like that, how this Bhagavad-gītā will come? This is just like playing on the stage. One very rich man, he is, in a drama, he is playing the part of a very poor man. But actually, he is not poor man. But in the stage he is playing the part of a poor man. Similarly, Arjuna is not bewildered, but for the time being he appears to be bewildered by Kṛṣṇa's māyā, because Kṛṣṇa wants to speak Bhagavad-gītā, for the benefit of the whole world, that what is spiritual knowledge. Therefore this is a stage arrangement.
Lecture on BG 2.1 -- Ahmedabad, December 6, 1972:
He was asking Sañjaya: "What did they do?" Kim akurvata sañjaya. That was the question. And first of all, Sañjaya described the arrangement in the battlefield, and then he's speaking. Now, sometimes Bhagavad-gītā is misinterpreted that this battle, I mean to say, dharma-kṣetra kuru-kṣetra means "this body." We do not misinterpret in that way. There is no question of misinterpretation. We are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. We do not change by our whimsical imagination, concoction. We do not interpret the words of the Bhagavad-gītā according to our own desire. No. Actually, from literary point of view, interpretation is required when things are not understood very clearly. The interpretation required. In the law court, when the lawyers try to interpret before the judge, when the terms are not very clear... That is the same way, in, in, amongst the associates and society of learned scholars. Interpretation is not required when the things are very clear. Just like the sun, sunshine, sunlight. There is no need of a lamp to show the sun. The sun is self-effulgent. It is already there. Light is there. Why one should take a lamp to show the sun? This misinterpretation has killed the spirit, the real essence, of Bhagavad-gītā.
Lecture on BG 2.1-5 -- Germany, June 16, 1974:
So when Kṛṣṇa was present on this planet He proved all these opulences possessed by Him. Take, for example, that everyone marries, but Kṛṣṇa, being the Supreme Person, He married 16,108 women. But it is not that He remained one husband for sixteen thousand wives. He made arrangement for providing the sixteen thousand wives in different palaces. Each palace, there is described, they were made of first-class marble stone and furniture made of ivory and the sitting place made of very nice, soft cotton. In this way there is description. And the outward compound, there are many flower trees. Not only that, He also expanded Himself into sixteen thousand expansion, personal expansion. And He was living in that way with each and every wife. So it is not very difficult task for God. (devotees offer obeisances) God is said to be situated everywhere. So within our vision, if He is situated in sixteen thousand homes, what is the difficulty for Him?
Lecture on BG 2.9 -- Auckland, February 21, 1973:
In the society there are naturally four classes of men, very intelligent class of men, politicians, mercantile people and ordinary workers, in every society all over the world, all over the universe. You can name them differently, but these four classes are there. That is by nature's system. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). By nature's way or by God's arrangement, there are four classes of men. The most intelligent class of men is called the brāhmaṇas. Intelligent means one who knows up to the Supreme Lord. And then next intelligent class: the politicians, administrators. Next intelligent class: the mercantile class, traders. And the fourth class man means worker. They have no intelligence, but they depend on others for their livelihood. So there are first-class, second-class, third-class, fourth-class men everywhere, any part of the world.
Lecture on BG 2.9 -- London, August 15, 1973:
Otherwise it is not possible. If you cannot digest.... Just like we are now old man. We cannot digest. So there is no question of sense enjoyment. So sense enjoyment begins from the stomach. The luxuriant growth of the tree begins from the root, if there is sufficient water. Therefore the trees are called pada-pa. They drink water from the legs, the roots, not from the heads. Just like we eat from the head. So there are different arrangements. As we can eat from the mouth, the trees, they eat from their legs. But one must eat. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna. Eating is there, either you eat through your legs or your mouth or your hands. But so far Kṛṣṇa is concerned, He can eat from anywhere. He can eat from hands, from legs, from eyes, from ears, anywhere. Because He is complete spiritual. There is no difference between His heads and legs and ears and eyes.
Lecture on BG 2.12 -- Mexico, February 12, 1975:
He has to make himself fit to go there. He must know what is the temperature there. Accordingly, he'll take his dress. Then he'll have to take permission of the state, visa, passport. So many things you have to arrange. Then you can go, not that all of a sudden anyone can come to your country, Mexico, without arrangement. Similarly, if you want to go to the higher planetary system, then you have to make your arrangement in this life. You cannot go to the moon planet by force because you have got a tiny airplane. That is not possible. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). A man can go to the higher planetary system when he is preparing himself to go there. So there are millions and trillions of planets. Wherever you want, you can go. The descriptions are there in the śāstra. But there is another description, the kingdom of God. That kingdom of God is there beyond this material sky. So we have to take information where that spiritual world is there.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- New York, March 11, 1966:
I am a gentleman. I have got costly dress. I shall put on that," no, you must, forced. Similarly, we, we living entities, we are forced to accept different kind of dress. There are 8,400,000 kinds of dresses like this body. And your body, my body, you see? Now we are here, several ladies and gentlemen, but you'll find that nobody's body will be similar to the other's body. God's arrangement is so nice that everyone has got his particular body according to his work. It is so nice arrangement. You see. You'll find millions of persons, and everyone you'll find different from the other. You won't find two similar persons. You see? So dehinām. Because there are different kinds of mentality, not that all our mentality is one and the same. No, no. We are... And the law of nature is so finer that, according to the different kinds of mentality, they have got different kinds of bodies. So dehino 'smin.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- New York, March 11, 1966:
Prahlāda Mahārāja says, sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. And why this anxiety? Now, asad-grahāt. Asad-grahāt: "Because he has accepted this temporary body." He is eternal. A living spirit is eternal, but he has been forced to accept this temporary body. This is my position. One should be conscious of his precarious position, that "I am eternal, but I am encaged in a temporary body which will not exist. However I may try to make it youthful by so many arrangement, but no..." The science cannot give you permanent life. That is not possible. You may be, may be proud of your scientific advancement of knowledge, but Bhagavad-gītā says that four things... Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). "My dear sir, however you may make advancement in scientific knowledge, you cannot stop birth, you cannot stop death, you cannot stop old age, neither you can stop diseases." You see? So, so long we have got this body, so we must have anxieties. That is the law of nature. Now, here, here it is said that... Now let us finish that. Prahlāda Mahārāja said, sadā samudvigna-dhiyām: "My dear father, for persons who have accepted this temporary material body and is full of anxiety always, for them, my idea is that they should give up this materialistic life and surrender unto Hari." Hari means Bhagavān, the Supreme Lord. That is the way of getting out of... And actually, this is so. In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find in the last instruction to Arjuna is: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66) "This is the most confidential knowledge I am giving you because you are My friend and because I love you very much. Therefore this is My last word."
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- New York, March 11, 1966:
Similarly, our body is also made in that way: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Air... Air is passing, the breathing. You know. The air is always there. This, this outer skin is earth, and there is heat in the stomach. Without heat, you cannot digest anything. You see? As soon as the heat is diminished, your digesting power becomes bad. So many things. This is arrangement. Now, in this planet we have got this body which is where earth is very prominent. Similarly, in other planets, other planets, somewhere water is very prominent, somewhere fire is very prominent. In the sun planet, the bodies there... There are also living entities, but their body is so made that it is fiery. They can exist in the fire. They can exist in the fire. Similarly, Varuṇaloka, in the Venus, all these planets, they have got different types of body. Just like here you can experience that in the water the aquatics, they have got a different type of body. For years and years together there are aquatic animals, they are within the water.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- New York, March 11, 1966:
So this is the arrangement. Every living being has got a particular type of body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). And what is the nature of that body? Now, here the matter is being explained that how we change our body, how... But, but, but, because that is a difficult problem for us because we are engrossed with the idea of identifying this body with the soul. Now, the first A-B-C-D of spiritual knowledge is to understand that "I am not this body." Unless one is firmly convinced that "I am not this body," he cannot progress in the spiritual line. So the first lesson in the Bhagavad-gītā is taken in that way. So here it is, that dehino 'smin. Now, dehī, the soul, soul. Dehī means soul. One who has accepted this body, material body, he's called dehī. So asmin, he is there. He is there, but his body is changing. You see? The body is changing.
Lecture on BG 2.13 -- Germany, June 18, 1974:
So I am the spirit soul. I am not proprietor. I am simply occupier. The, the rascal materialists, they do not know that the proprietor is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He is giving me a particular apartment according to my capacity of paying rent. This is my position. Otherwise, why everyone does not get first-class body, king's body or rich man's body? A child born, immediately he is rich man. So there is no arrangement? And another child born in the same moment is very poor man. Why? This is called karma-kāṇḍa. This child is given a room, an apartment, according to his capacity of paying rent. And the other child is given another apartment, very luxurious apartment, according to his capacity of rent-paying. This is called karma-kāṇḍa. According to your karma, or work, you get a body, either as a king's son or a cobbler's son or a dog's son or a cat's son or a tree's son or a plant's son. This is the nature. This is to be understood. Kṛṣṇa said in the last verse that "Don't think we did not exist in the past. We are existing at present, and we shall continue to exist in the future." Exactly like that, that we live in one apartment.
Lecture on BG 2.13-17 -- Los Angeles, November 29, 1968:
So in the village they lived peacefully, and the Hindus call the Muslims "cācā", and the Muslim call the Hindu... In this way they make some friendly relationship. There was no ill feeling. Even they will invite, the Hindus will invite. In our childhood we have seen, in marriage ceremony or in some religious ceremony also, some Muslim friends were invited, and they were received. Similarly Muslims also invite some Hindus. They'll make separate... My father, he used to be guest of a Muslim gentleman. He was his customer. So he used to make separate arrangement my father, a brāhmaṇa attendant, supplying all foodstuff. So there was no... And he was coming to our house, so he, accompanied with his servant Muslims, we used to supply foodstuff. They were cooking in their own way. Of course, no meat was allowed, but there were friendship. And while departing, he would give us some money, four rupees, five rupees, in the hands of all our brothers and sisters and offer respect to my mother as "Auntie."
Lecture on BG 2.14 -- London, August 20, 1973:
So dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). All of us, the living entity, soul, is within this body. Not this body I am. So one who has realized this thing, that "I am not this body, I am spirit soul, and living by nature's arrangement, I have been allowed to live in such and such body," then he is learned. That is the beginning. So Kṛṣṇa, from the previous verse, that is actual spiritual education. In the world, these rascals are going on, spiritualists. They do not know the very first thing of spiritual knowledge, that "I am not this body." They are doing so many sinful acts on account of this body; still, they are going as religious, or spiritualist. Nobody is spiritualist unless one understands his spiritual identification, neither one is religious. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā the last word is sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), because you rascal, fools, you have created so many religious system simply on the differences of body. That is not religion. Real religion is that "I am the Supreme Soul, Parambrahma, Kṛṣṇa. And you are My part and parcel. So we have intimate relation, like father and son. So it is the son's duty to obey the father.
Lecture on BG 2.14 -- Germany, June 21, 1974:
Therefore we are taking knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, the perfect person. And He is advising that if you want to stop your pains and pleasure, then you must make some arrangement not to accept this material body. That He is advising, Kṛṣṇa, how to avoid this material body. That has been explained. This is Second Chapter. In the Fourth Chapter Kṛṣṇa has said that janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). You simply try to understand the activities of Kṛṣṇa. These activities of Kṛṣṇa is there in the history, in the Mahābhārata. Mahābhārata means greater India or greater Bhārata, Mahābhārata, the history. In that history this Bhagavad-gītā is also there. So He is speaking about Himself. You try to understand Kṛṣṇa. This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa, His activities. He is not impersonal. Janma karma me divyam. Karma means activities. He has activities.
Lecture on BG 2.17 -- Hyderabad, November 22, 1972:
Therefore as this universe, material cosmic manifestation is working very nicely, you have to accept there is God. You cannot deny. So that consciousness, superconsciousness, that is different. You cannot say that "I am the same. I have got superconsciousness." That is not possible. Then, if you have got superconsciousness, why don't you feel about my pains and pleasure? The superconsciousness is of Viṣṇu. That is all-pervading consciousness. That is also the same. Nature is the same. As I have got my consciousness all over this body, similarly, the superconsciousness is there all over the universe. As I feel pains and pleasure on account of some disturbance on this body, similarly, as soon as we create some disturbance with this universal atmosphere, the supreme consciousness is disturbed. That disturbance is going on. Therefore, in spite of all arrangement... Pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). That, by God's creation, everything is complete. There is no flaw. But because we are creating disturbances, the world situation is different.
Lecture on BG 2.17 -- Hyderabad, November 22, 1972:
We are creating disturbances. By God's creation, everything is nice. Everything is fine. Take, for example, within this planet, there is sufficient place to grow food for all the population. Not only all the population at the present moment, but if the population increases ten times, twenty times, still, there is sufficient place to produce food for them. We are traveling all over the world three times a year, and we see in Australia and Africa and other countries, there are so much vacant places. And food can be produced, enough food can be produced. Enough milk can be available for feeding all this population. That is God's arrangement. But the difficulty is that we are quarreling amongst ourself. I am thinking Indian. Somebody's thinking "I am an American." Somebody's thinking "I'm Australian." "You cannot come here. You, I cannot allow you to come to my country." The immigration department. Therefore, the difficulty. By God's arrangement, there is everything complete. But I am disturbing. I am encroaching upon God's property: "This is mine." Therefore there is disturbance. Therefore the only solution of the whole world problem is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no other solution. The only solution. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means when people will be educated to understand that this planet does not belong to America or India and Africa. Everything belongs... Sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). As Kṛṣṇa says, "I am the proprietor of all the planets." When you understand this, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then there will be peace.
Lecture on BG 2.18 -- Hyderabad, November 23, 1972:
Therefore mandāḥ. Sumanda-matayaḥ. And if one comes forward to be spiritually enlightened, he accepts something bogus, which has no meaning, without any reference to the śāstras. Therefore mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ. They have got a opinion, and that is going on. You may have any opinion. That is all right. This foolishness is going on in this age. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ. Manda-bhāgyāḥ, and most unfortunate. Everyone is practically unfortunate. Nobody has certainty what he will eat tomorrow, or in the evening. Everywhere... Don't think only it is only in India. In America. When I went there, I thought everyone is very rich. There are so many poor men. They are lying on the street. The street-lying population is everywhere, either in India or in America or in England. I have seen. The first-class, second-class, third-class men will remain there. You may however try to make everyone first class; the division, first class, second class, third class, will go on. That is nature's arrangement. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). And disturbed. Just like today's strike, unnecessarily. Disturbance. So many disturbance everywhere, all over the world, because the population has degraded, degraded. They must be like that. This is the way.
Lecture on BG 2.18 -- Hyderabad, November 23, 1972:
The śarīriṇaḥ, the soul, which is within the body, that is nitya, eternal. Now, although it is nitya, it is fallen in certain condition of this material body, that it appears to be dying. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). He's under the tribulation of birth, death, old age and disease on account of this material body. Therefore, if you actually want to give service to the humanity, then give service to the soul, and if you give service to the soul, automatically the body is also served. But if you stress on the body, without... Therefore, despite all arrangements for humanitarian work, the human society is becoming worser and worser. Why? That is not service. They do not know how to serve. Illusion. Real service is this, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to arouse the Kṛṣṇa con..., dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness in every human being. Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti. To make him aroused in relationship with Kṛṣṇa, that is real service. So what is going on in the name of service, that is not service. That is simply washing the coat and shirt. That's all. (break) Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)
Lecture on BG 2.20 -- Hyderabad, November 25, 1972:
So long one has got a pinch of desire that "If I would have become like Brahmā, or like king, like Jawaharlal Nehru," then I'll have to accept a body. This desire. Kṛṣṇa is so liberal, so kind. Whatever we want—ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11)—Kṛṣṇa will give you. To take something from Kṛṣṇa... Just like the Christians pray, "O God, give us our daily bread." So is it very difficult task for Kṛṣṇa to give our dai...? He's giving already. He's giving daily bread to everyone. So this is not the mode of prayer. Their mode of prayer... As Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4). This is prayer. We haven't got to ask anything. Kṛṣṇa, God, has made ample arrangement for our maintenance. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). But it is restricted by nature when we are sinful. We become atheists. We become demons. Then the supply is restricted. Then we cry for: "Oh, there is no rain. There is no this, no..." That is nature's restriction. But from God's arrangement, there is sufficient food for everyone. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He supplying everyone.
Lecture on BG 2.21-22 -- London, August 26, 1973:
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." Te kāraṇe. "So give up this." Cāṇakya Paṇḍita also says, tyaja durjana-saṁsargam, "Give up the association of these rascals." Bhaja sādhu-samāgamam, "Only associate with devotees." This will be the right. We are establishing different centers, not for sense enjoyment, but for good association of devotees. If we miss this, those who are working, those who are managers of this institution, they must always know that we cannot make this institution or this center as a brothel. There must be such management and or such arrangement that we must have always good association for advancement. That is required.
Lecture on BG 2.25 -- London, August 28, 1973:
So anyone who's accepting this material body as very important... Just like the other day, some rascals came. They were very much eager for feeding this body. Those who are starving, starvation... Starvation of the bodily concept of life. But there is spiritual starvation. That we are not taking care. Material starvation may be there, but actually that is not a problem because there is sufficient arrangement for maintaining this material body. Real starvation is of the soul. The soul is not getting spiritual food. Here, in this meeting, this is meant for giving to the starving spirit soul. And as soon as you get some spiritual food, then we become happy. That is the situation. Yayātmā suprasīdati. Unless you get spiritual food there cannot be satisfaction of the real soul. The same example, within the cage there is the bird. If you simply wash the cage very nicely and cover it and paint it and the bird within the cage is crying, starving... What is this civilization? Similarly, we spirit soul, we have been encaged within this body, so our natural aspiration is to get freedom from this encagement.
Lecture on BG 2.25 -- London, August 28, 1973:
So those who have surrendered to the material nature, he has to suffer. He has to suffer. There is no way out. You have accepted this body. You must suffer. Kleśada āsa dehaḥ. This material body means suffering. So they do not know this. They are making so many arrangements and plans how to become happy, how to become peaceful without any miserable condition, but the rascals, they do not know that so long you have got this material body—either a king's body or an ant's body—you must have to suffer. They do not know. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says here that you take care of the soul. Tasmād evam. Tasmād evaṁ viditvā. Just try to understand the soul is important. You haven't got to lament for this body. This is already settled up. So much suffering, so much comforts, you'll get. Although the body, material body... Because the material body is also created according to the three qualities. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). When the inquiry is that why one has got the king's body and why he has got, one has got the pig's body. There are so many other bodies, 8,400,000 different types of bodies. So why the difference is there? That difference is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kāraṇam. Kāraṇam means cause. Why these varieties are..., kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Asya, jīvasya. He is associating with different kinds of qualities, and therefore he's getting a different type of body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya.
Lecture on BG 2.26 -- Hyderabad, November 30, 1972:
So some, cakravat parivartante sukhāni ca duḥkhāni ca. Just like the wheel turns round, sometimes up, sometimes down, so this is the position of this material world. There is no question of lamenting. You cannot say, "These people are suffering and that people are enjoying." The man who is enjoying, he'll also suffer next moment. This is going on, suffering and enjoying. Unless we come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is no way of coming out of this duality of this world. This is duality. Everything you'll find in dual. Unless there is happiness, you cannot understand what is distress. And unless there is distress, you cannot understand happiness. You cannot understand light unless there is darkness. So this is the world of darkness and light, so-called light. You have to transcend. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). So we have to make arrangement. That facility is there to every human being, how he can get out of this world of duality and come to the transcendental platform which is called avyabhicāriṇī-bhakti-yoga.
Lecture on BG 2.27-38 -- Los Angeles, December 11, 1968:
It says that urukramāṅghrim. Urukramāṅghrim is the name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Uru means big, and krama means activities. One whose activities are very great. Whose activities are very great? Just try to understand. Now see, the big planet, biggest planets in the universe, the sun globe, is floating in the corner of the sky. So whose activities these are? Who has caused this floating? This is called urukrama, big activity. Not that because you have some way or other balanced some millions of dollars in the bank and you have become Rockefeller or Ford, that does not mean you are very big worker. Here is the big worker. Millions of planets are floating in the air by His arrangement. He is called Urukrama, big worker. So Bhāgavata says, naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghrim (SB 7.5.32). If anyone understands urukramāṅghrim, or the Supreme Lord, for him to understand the existence of soul is not very difficult. Just like one who has seen the sun globe, for him to understand what is sunshine is not very difficult. But one who is perpetually in the darkness, neither has seen the sunshine nor has seen the sun globe, for him, what is light, what is sun, it is very difficult to understand.
Lecture on BG 2.30 -- London, August 31, 1973:
So the matter is explained by Kṛṣṇa, apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parāṁ yayedaṁ dhāryate. Jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat (BG 7.5). So spirit is bearing. Everything is explained in Bhagavad-gītā. The gigantic big, big planets, why it is floating weightless in the air? That is also explained. Gām āviśya aham ojasā dhārayāmi (BG 15.13). That, just try to understand. A big 747 airplane taking five hundred, six hundred passengers is floating, flying in the sky without any difficulty. Why? Because the pilot is there. Not the machine. Don't think that it is gigantic machine; therefore it is flying. No. The pilot is there. Machine is there also, but the floating is depending not on the mechanical arrangement, but on the pilot. Is there any disagreement? If the pilot is not there, the whole machine immediately will fall down. Immediately. Similarly, the statement in the Bhagavad-gītā, gām āviśya aham ojasā. Kṛṣṇa enters into the gigantic planet. He is within the... Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. It is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā.
Lecture on BG 2.40-45 -- Los Angeles, December 13, 1968:
So we do not know that we are standing on a tottering platform. So however nice arrangement we may make, this will be finished in one moment. That is, we are missing. We are simply sticking to a false platform that "This will save me, this will save me." No. Therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that jaḍa-bidyā jato māyāra vaibhava. This material advancement of civilization, very nice, very dazzling. Just like when we pass on the street or road of your American cities, it looks so nice. So many lights and so many night—illuminating signboards. But we should always remember that this nice situation is not permanent settlement. Any moment I'll have to give up everything. Everything. So therefore, if one becomes attached to this false platform, illuminating, so-called illuminating, false platform, then his determination to go back to Godhead will not be very much intense. That is being explained. So bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānām. What is the English translation? Yes.
Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:
Now, as soon as we are convinced that "I am not this body. I am consciousness. I am pure soul. So I have to get free from this entanglement," then I will have to make arrangement for that. Simply theoretically knowing will not do. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānām: (BG 2.44) "Those who are too much attached with these bodily pleasures, and by that conception, one who is illusioned, that person cannot fix up in his identification with the soul." So that is the critical point. That is the critical point, that if we indulge in our bodily pleasure, that pleasure is flickering. That pleasure is flickering. We cannot enjoy. Bodily pleasure we cannot enjoy. That is an intoxication, something like intoxication. That is not pleasure, actual pleasure. Actual pleasure is of the soul, not of this body. So we have to guide our life, we have to mold our life in such a way that we must not be diverted by the so-called bodily pleasures. And if we are diverted by the bodily pleasure, then we cannot be fixed up in our identification with the soul. This is clear.
Lecture on BG 2.48-49 -- New York, April 1, 1966:
In the former verse it has been already explained that "You have right to work but not for the result. Don't be cause of the effect of your result. Then you will be bound up." We are being bound up by reaction of every work. It is just like this world is so situated... Just you know that a sound vibration... Practically, nowadays everyone knows it, that any sound vibrated, it, within a second it takes round all over the world seven times. It is so... The arrangement is so. Just like in a pond if you drop a stone, the circle, the circle begins to enlarge, enlarge, enlarge, enlarge, enlarge, and so similarly, we catch the radio vibration. You know there is numbers. Under such and such vibration, you can catch the sound. So the whole arrangement is like that. Now, if we work even in that arrangement, yoga-sthaḥ, being situated in my spiritual plane, then that will reach to the spiritual sky by enlargement of the circle, enlargement of the circle. I can do work here.
Lecture on BG 2.49-51 -- New York, April 5, 1966:
So that aristocratic family has the facility. In every Indian aristocratic family you'll find they have got their particular temples and temple worship, and they go, they offer their respect, and do their business as it is. There is no harm. So by, side by side with material activities, they have got the chance of spiritual... Now, this particular family I am speaking to you, Singhania family, you'll be very glad to learn that how they are family arrangement... They have got a temple, Dvārakādhīśa, a Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple, just like this picture. They have got a very nice temple, and that temple has got some property. And the, that property, out of the property, one of the land is leased out to this Singhania Organization business. So they pay rent to the Deity. You see? Similarly, the Deity has large income. And they spend also in so many ways. If we have got the chance of starting a temple here, we shall also let you know how to spend for spiritual consciousness. Yes. Now their family duty is that they are, this Singhania, Sir Padampat Singhania, they have got four or five brothers, and the mother is still living. And the order is that each and every family member must go every day and pay respect to the Deity. And if somebody is absent one day, then he must be fined. A fine is imposed.
Lecture on BG 2.59-69 -- New York, April 29, 1966:
In every temple nice musical sound is going on. If you there, you sit down for a time, and you hear, and you become satisfied. So the ear is satisfied. The eyes are satisfied. Then you take very nice, palatable, I mean to say, foodstuff, offered to the Deity, and you are offered the prasādam as remnants. So these arrangements are there. And, not only in Vṛndāvana, in every town, still the system is going on. That means our senses, in a different way, they're engaged. They're engaged, spiritually engaged. So that process is very good for the neophytes. Those who are beginners, the arcanā process, the Deity worship in the temple, is very nice. But apart from all those engagements, where it is not possible, this singing or glorifying the Supreme Lord or this simple song—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—it will elevate certainly to the highest extent if you do it very nicely and seriously. Ātma-vaśyair vidheyātmā prasādam adhigacchati. Prasāde sarva-duḥkhānāṁ hānir asyopajāyate. And as soon as you are satisfied, then your all miseries are ended.
Lecture on BG 3.1-5 -- Los Angeles, December 20, 1968:
Although India is being advertised there is no food, but if you go to Jagannātha temple, any time, and ask the manager that "We have come, one thousand devotees. Please supply us prasāda." "Yes, ready." (laughter) So that is being done. The arrangement is there since last two thousand years. The Jagannātha has property, there is production, there is good management. That is going on. Similarly, there is another temple, Nathadwar. They're also spending thousands of... In Madras also, there are many temples. There is a big estate. They are also collecting money daily, $4,000, $5,000. Yes. Still. The temple arrangement is there.
So that process is not to be introduced newly. It is not possible. Therefore Bhāgavata says, kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ, dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ kalau, kalau means in this age, tad dhari-kīrtanāt. Simply by chanting, you get the result of sacrifice, you get the result of meditation, you get the result of temple worship. Here we are, of course, attempting to worship Jagannātha with our teeny efforts, but if you go to the real Jagannātha temple in Purī, you'll see fifty-six times.
Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:
Yes. Because after all, however tractor, machine, or farm arrangement you may make, unless there is supply of heat and water, it is all useless. You cannot produce grains just like wheat or rice or pulses(?) in your factory or by your will, defying the nature's law. Oh, that you cannot do. Real, your life is in the hands of the demigods. If they stop supply, sunshine, if they stop supply, water supply, how you can produce? Therefore you have to satisfy them. People have practically forgotten their duty.
(indistinct) ...and regulations, there is no scarcity. The modern theory—the population has increased—this is a nonsense theory. If there is production is sufficient, where is the question of population increasing? Let population increase. The supplier will give you. In the Vedic literature we find, eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That Supreme Lord is supplying everyone food. Why do you think of human society? What is the human society? Out of 8,400,000 forms of life there are only 400,000 forms of human life. And 8,000,000 forms they are lower animals, birds, beasts, aquatics. Who is supplying their foodstuff? Everyone is sumptuously fed by the grace of God.
Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Purport: "A person who is fully Kṛṣṇa conscious and by his acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is fully satisfied, no longer has anything to perform as his duty. Due to his becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious all the dirty things within are instantly cleansed, ordinarily an effect of many, many thousands of yajña performances. By such clearing of consciousness one becomes fully confident of his eternal position in relationship with the Supreme. His duty thus becomes self-illuminated by the grace of the Lord and therefore he no longer has anything to do in terms of the Vedic injunctions. Such a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is no longer interested in material activities and no longer takes pleasure in material arrangements like wine, women and similar infatuations."
Eighteen: "A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living being (BG 3.18)."
Nineteen: "Therefore without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty, for by working without attachment one attains the Supreme (BG 3.19)."
Purport: "This Supreme is the Personality of Godhead for the devotees and liberation for the impersonalist. A person acting for Kṛṣṇa or in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, under proper guidance and without attachment to the result of the work is certainly making progress towards the supreme goal of life. Indirectly Arjuna is told that he should fight the battle of Kurukṣetra without attachment in the interest of Kṛṣṇa because Kṛṣṇa wanted him to fight. To be a good man or a nonviolent man is also a personal attachment, but to act on behalf of the Supreme..."
Prabhupāda: Yes, to be good man, this consciousness is, "I am very good man." Or to bad man, "I am very bad man." But if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, "I am neither good man or bad man. I am Kṛṣṇa's man." That's all. Finished. Finished. All business. "I am Kṛṣṇa's man." That's all. If Kṛṣṇa wants to kill you, I'll kill you. If Kṛṣṇa says you do that, I'll do that. That's all. So I am Kṛṣṇa's man. So he's immediately transcendental to all goodness or badness.
Lecture on BG 3.11-19 -- Los Angeles, December 27, 1968:
Therefore in this age Caitanya Mahāprabhu has recommended that you do not require to change your position. You simply try to hear about Kṛṣṇa from the rightful source. That's all. Then everything will be all right gradually. Everyone of us are mistaken or whatever you may call, but Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He gives His book, Bhagavad-gītā, He sends His representative, He comes Himself as Lord Caitanya to deliver us. He sends Lord Jesus Christ. So so many arrangement, but we don't take advantage. We are so fool and sinful. But still, the propaganda will go on.
Just like father, however misguided a son may be, whenever the father gets a chance, he says, "My dear son, you don't do this. It is not good. You do this." So that is the duty of the father. Similarly, we are bent upon continuing our sinful activities but there is sufficient arrangement by Kṛṣṇa to instruct us and to lead us back to Godhead, back to home.
Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:
This verse we were discussing last meeting, that we should eat after offering sacrifice. Lord Kṛṣṇa says that things which are eatable, we receive by the grace of the Lord. We should acknowledge it. We should not be forgetful, that our eatables, which come to us, they can be manufactured by our sweet will. No. The arrangement is so nice in the administration of nature that we shall get all our necessities of life by the grace of God, and our duty is to advance ourself in the right knowledge of our spiritual existence without unnecessarily engaging ourself for sense gratification. That is the difference between human civilization and animal life.
Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:
Cornmeal, yes. And he was very stout and strong. He was deriving all the vitamins. Because he was poor man, he could not eat any butter or milk or any other things, meat also no, nothing of the sort. He was simply eating... He was drawing, at that time, only twenty-two rupees from me. Twenty-two rupees means... According to your American exchange, it comes to five dollars, five dollars a month, his income. And what he could spend? So he was taking the cheap food. But he was very strong and stout. So whole idea is that these grains, these grains are meant for human being. Coarse grain or fine grain, there are so many varieties of grain, varieties of rice, varieties of dāl, according... Now, the fine rice, the basmati rice... The laborer class... In India, of course, we have got this distinction. They are not satisfied for, with this white rice. They want coarse grain for satisfaction. While gentleman class, they cannot eat coarse grain. They want finer grain. So all these varieties of grains and vegetables and everything is there by nature's arrangement, by God's arrangement.
Lecture on BG 3.13-16 -- New York, May 23, 1966:
So here is the same thing. Annāt. Anna, the grains. Grains are our life's subsistence, human being. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni. And grains are produced by regular rainfall. Parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. Parjanya means rainfall. And yajñād bhavati parjanyaḥ: (BG 3.14) "And rainfall is produced when you offer yajña, sacrifice, to the Lord." Regular rainfall will be possible when people are engaged in the yajña. Otherwise, nature will control rainfall. For want of rain, all your arrangement—mechanical arrangement, tractors, and all these things—will all fail if there is rainfall, there is no rainfall. So control of the rainfall is not in your hand. It is in supernatural power. So here it is said that rainfall is made possible by offering yajña, by sacrifice. Parjanyāt... Or yajñād bhavati parjanyo yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ: (BG 3.14) "And yajña is prescribed according to the Vedic rituals."
Now, just see the link. Living entities, they can develop by eating grains. Grains are produced by rainfall. Rainfall is made possible by offering sacrifice. And the process of sacrifice is given in authoritative scriptures like Bhagavad-gītā, Bhāgavata, and Vedic literature, what is the process. So because the beginning is from the Brahman—Brahman means Veda, transcendental sound—therefore, if we work according to the direction of this Bhagavad-gītā or Vedas, then the whole thing becomes, I mean to, spiritualized.
Lecture on BG 3.17-20 -- New York, May 27, 1966:
He took his only business of chanting this. He was chanting daily three lakhs. Three lakhs means three hundred thousands times. Three hundred thousands times he was chanting, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa. This
- Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
- Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
This is sixteen. By one stretch you can chant sixteen. Now you can make your arrangement if you want to increase. So that Ṭhākura Haridāsa, he used to chant three hundred thousand times daily, three hundred thousand times daily. Ātma-ratir eva. Bas. He had no other business. He had no other business.
Lecture on BG 4.1-6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1969:
Just like in the modern materialistic civilization, we have very good arrangement for eating, for sleeping, for defending, and for sense gratification. The modern material civilization is simply based on this mundane knowledge, but there is no arrangement or university for imparting transcendental knowledge. There is no section in the university, practically, that, what is called brahma-jijñāsā, the science of knowing the spirit soul. That is called transcendental knowledge.
So we are busy with mundane knowledge, but the most important part of knowledge is transcendental knowledge. "What I am? Wherefore I have come? What is my constitutional position? Am I this body or I am beyond this body?" These are transcendental knowledge. So Kṛṣṇa is beginning the transcendental knowledge. Go on.
Lecture on BG 4.7-10 -- Los Angeles, January 6, 1969:
You have also guarantee. You have also guarantee. Those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness seriously, even they do not make perfection... Generally you can make perfection. It is not very difficult, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You have to keep your consciousness always absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. Our consciousness must be absorbed in some thought. Without thought, your consciousness is not existing. There must be some thought. Now you have to replace that thought with Kṛṣṇa. That's all. You have to mold your life in such a way that you cannot think of anything except Kṛṣṇa. This our arrangement, this chanting, the dancing, or reading this Kṛṣṇa conscious book, what does it mean? That we always try to be absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So if you remain always absorbed... This is called samādhi. If you remain absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then Kṛṣṇa says that next life you go directly there. So that is guaranteed.
Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Montreal, June 14, 1968:
You just try to understand your own body. You are eating, it is going to the stomach, and it is transforming into different secretions. Then it is pumped up to the heart. And in the heart it becomes reddish blood, and the blood is transfused or transported to different parts of the body through the veins. There is a big mechanical arrangement undoubtedly. Every scientist or every sane man will admit. But it is just like a machine. It is just like a machine. Any machine you take, motor car, typewriting, whatever you have got experience... There are many in your country; it is machine country.
So the constructor, construction of the machine may be very complicated, wonderful, very nice, everything is all right, but a living entity required to pull on the button. Without pulling on the button, however nice arrangement may be in the machine, it cannot work. That is our experience. We cannot deny it. The wonderful machine, working... Now, business machine, there are so many wonderful machine. They are working also. Sometimes calculating brain is required; electrical brain is there. Everything is all right. But unless a man puts on the button, plies the button, it cannot work. That thing is important.
Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Montreal, June 14, 1968:
But how you can deny the living force behind this gigantic, mechanical arrangement? Call it material world, material machine, or whatever you may call. How you can deny? At least from your practical experience you cannot deny. You may put some jugglery of words, but the actual fact is this.
So duṣkṛtina means a person who does not believe this. They are called miscreants. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). So God, in His incarnation, appears with two missionary purposes. One purpose is paritrāṇāya sādhūnām, just to protect the pious who are obedient to the laws of God or the laws of nature. And to vanquish persons who are disobedient. They are called duṣkṛtina. This duṣkṛtina, or miscreant, is described in another place also in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). The purpose is, Kṛṣṇa says, that those who are miscreants, always disobeying the laws of nature or always denying the prime factor behind the wonderful activities of nature, such miscreants, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ. Mūḍhāḥ means they are rascals.
Lecture on BG 4.8 -- Bombay, March 28, 1974:
Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). It is the place for miseries and that is also temporary. If you want to make some compromise, "Never mind it is a place of miseries. I'll stay here comfortably as much as possible." But Kṛṣṇa says, aśāśvatam. Even if you make some compromise arrangement, you cannot stay here. You'll be kicked out. As soon as you think that "Now I have got a very nice building. Very nice wife and children. Everything is properly settled. Now I am happy," next day, "Get out." Finished. This is the law. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14).
So foolish people, they think that "Now I am settled up." What is your settlement? First of all make it a settlement that you shall be allowed to stay here. If there is no such guarantee, then where is the settlement? Next life you may become a cat or dog according to your mentality. But these foolish people, they do not know it. They think that "This is all right." This is not all right.
Lecture on BG 4.9-11 -- New York, July 25, 1966:
We are counting where, that day when we have to give up this body. Just like I am now seventy years old, so... I am now seventy years old. So my days are counted. So I have to give up this body. The warning is already there. So we have to prepare ourself. Just like when going from outer station, from New York to California, if you wanted to go, you have to make your preparation, say, fortnight before, reserving the seat and making all arrangement. Similarly, we must know that we have to leave this body and we must prepare for that. Unless we don't prepare for that, all of a sudden, if death comes, then our whole life is spoiled. That is the whole system. So we have to think of Kṛṣṇa. This is the very easiest process, that how, what are the activities, how Kṛṣṇa appears, how Kṛṣṇa disappears, what are the nature of Kṛṣṇa's activities. So we must try to understand these things.
Lecture on BG 4.10 Festival at Maison de Faubourg -- Geneva, May 31, 1974:
Just like the fire has got two energies, namely, the heat and light, similarly, God has got two nature. One is called material nature and the other is called spiritual nature. So this cosmic manifestation which we experience is combination of material nature and spiritual nature. The material nature is called inferior nature, and the spiritual nature is called the superior nature. The material nature is inferior because the superior nature living entity controls over it. We have got experience. Just like a big machine, computer, or any other machine, it is combination of matter, but it cannot work independently until and unless there is touch of the spiritual nature, a human being. The big airplane is floating in the... (break) ...I mean to say, mechanical arrangement. But unless there is the pilot, it cannot work. Similarly, you try to understand that this material nature, cosmic manifestation, however wonderful it may be, unless there is direction of the Supreme Being, it is useless. So if you have understood the difference between material nature and the spiritual nature, then try to understand that as you have got experience of this material nature, there is another nature, another sky, another planetary system, everything another. That is all made of spiritual nature.
Lecture on BG 4.11 -- Bombay, March 31, 1974:
Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. All the necessities of life is being supplied by Kṛṣṇa. In Africa there are millions of elephants. They are also supplied food, at a time, forty kilos. And the ant is also, within the hole of your room... (break) ...according to law. Don't encroach upon others' property. Mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). Whatever is allotted for you, that is... Everything is prescribed. Everything is there. But the... Why this arrangement is made? They do not know. The arrangement is made that mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha... Of course, particularly the name of manuṣyāḥ has been... Because in the human life God consciousness can be developed, not in the animal life. Therefore here particularly it is mentioned, mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ. "Everyone is trying to approach Me, but according to different angle of vision, according to capacity." The capacity is somebody's trying to go up to the Brahman effulgence, somebody's trying to understand the Supreme Paramātmā within everyone's heart, and somebody's trying to understand and go directly to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Lecture on BG 4.13 -- Johannesburg, October 19, 1975:
Now, Kṛṣṇa says tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ, we have to change to another body, but we do not know what is that body. We are not prepared. Just like here I am, Johannesburg. So I know, from here I'll have to go to Nairobi. That I know. And we are making arrangement. But if as human being one does not know what is going to happen next life, then what kind of human being is? Where is the difference between cats and dogs? The dog does not know, neither he can be instructed, neither he is able to take the instruction. But why the human being should remain like dog? This is the problem. So we must consult Bhagavad-gītā very regularly, try to understand the problems of life, and the first problem is that you have to change your body.
So what kind of change of body you are going to have? You must learn it. Otherwise you are in darkness. What is the value of life if you do not know? Suppose next life I am going to become a dog. So what is the value of my becoming this life a prime minister? But they do not know. The science is unknown. Science is known, but people are so fool that they do not take care of it. This is the position.
Lecture on BG 4.21 -- Bombay, April 10, 1974:
Economic development means to get more money and to satisfy senses more and more. This is the modern theory. But Kṛṣṇa says that to achieve the perfection of life, one should be nirāśīḥ. Nirāśīḥ means unnecessarily desiring for sense gratification, unnecessarily. Everyone has got right to live and live nicely. For that purpose there is sufficient arrangement by the Lord. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. There is sufficient arrangement. No living being will starve. There is such arrangement. But when we forget more and more Kṛṣṇa and God, nature will punish. There will be restriction of supply of foodstuffs. That is nature's law.
- daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
- mama māyā duratyayā
- mām eva ye prapadyante
- māyām etāṁ taranti te
- (BG 7.14)
So present crisis, food crisis...
Everything is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā does not say that "You live by breathing air." No. Bhagavad-gītā says, annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Anna. Anna means food grains. There is necessity of food grain. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni. Bhagavad-gītā never says that "you don't require to eat. You simply breathe air and practice yoga." No. But we must eat neither more, nor less. That is recommended. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya. We should not eat more, nor less. And nirāśīḥ. Nirāśīḥ means desireless of extravagance. Now we are desiring for sense gratification more and more. That is not wanted. If you want perfection of life.... This is called tapasya.
Lecture on BG 4.22 -- Bombay, April 11, 1974:
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that even though you think that by material advancement you have become very happy, but you should always keep in your front janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Then you have to die. Then where is your happiness? If you can make such arrangement that you will not die, whatever you have created you will enjoy, then it can be said as happiness. But that is not possible. You have to die. Therefore Kṛṣṇa gives more prominence to these four kinds of miseries: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam.
So people should be satisfied in any condition of life given by Kṛṣṇa, and he should endeavor for developing his Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is the real aim of life. Not to make competition to get more comfortable life than your neighbor or father or brother or like that. That is not our business. That is the business of the cats and dogs. Kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). Then (?) What is that? Tapo divyam. This human life is for tapasya. This is tapasya. "All right, Kṛṣṇa has given me this position. That's all right. I will be satisfied." This is called tapasya. Why should I make competition? Simply by doing competition I am not going to be successful. That is the instruction of all śāstra.
Lecture on BG 4.23 -- Bombay, April 12, 1974:
I repeatedly say to the American people that "You have got your this position, richest nation in the world, janma..." Practically in America there is no poor man. That I have seen. They do not know what is poor man. Because the poorest man gets five thousand rupees per month. The poorest man. So actually there is no poor man. There cannot be. The government arrangement is so nice that nobody is in want of money. He can get money in so many ways. So it is very good, fortunate position to take birth in America. Janma, rich family, rich nation.
And aiśvarya. Janma-aiśvarya-śruta, education. Now they are advanced education. By scientific advancement, they are trying to go to the moon planet. Not only that. Many machine up to date they have discovered, using.... There is very big company IBM. Machine, business machine, IBM. International Business Machine. You know everything.
Lecture on BG 4.34-38 -- New York, August 17, 1966:
But if we put here a hundred bags of flour and if we ask people that "Come and take," then somebody will take ten bags, somebody will take fifteen bags, somebody will take, will not take any bags because, if he's weak, he cannot take. So the distribution will not be equal. That is our advancement of civilization. The knowledge which the pigeons, the cats and dogs have got, we are lacking in that knowledge, that the whole thing belongs to the Supreme Lord and we can accept them, whatever we need, not more than that. That is knowledge. That is knowledge. There will be no difficulty. The whole world is made by the Lord's arrangement that you have no scarcity. Everything is sufficient. Everything is sufficient. There will be no scarcity, provided you know the distribution. The distribution is... There is fallacy, distribution: one is taking is more and the other is starving. Therefore, the starving population, they are making protest, "Why we shall starve?" But that is also defective.
Lecture on BG 6.11-21 -- New York, September 7, 1966:
Sometimes it is recommended that yoga system is meditation in the void. But we do not find in the Vedic literature that yoga system meditation on void. No. It is meditation on Viṣṇu. That will be explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Now, after sitting in a secluded place, in a sanctified place, and according to the sitting arrangement, with tigerskin or deerskin and straw, as it is recommended, then one should sit down there. He should not change his āsana, sitting place. Then after sitting, what he has to do? He says, samaṁ kāya-śiro-grīvaṁ dhārayann acalaṁ sthiraḥ (Bg. 6.13-14). Now, one has to sit down straight. One has to sit down straight so that his skull, this head, and the body, and everything should be straight like that. Samaṁ kāya-grīvam. Grīva means this neck. The neck and the skull and the body should be in one straight line. Samaṁ kāya-śiro-grīvaṁ dhārayann acalam. And should not move. Sit down like this. Samprekṣya nāsikāgram. And one has to see the top portion of the nose. Not that one has to close his eyes completely. No. Then you cannot see. Samprekṣya nāsikā agram.
Lecture on BG 6.32-40 -- New York, September 14, 1966:
Bambhārambhe laghu-kriyā. Aja-yuddhe, fighting between two goats... Now, they are very serious about fighting, and somebody comes, (claps) does like this, (claps), and they go away. The fighting stops. You see? So bambhārambhe, the attempt is very great, but the effect is little. Aja-yuddhe muni-śrāddhe: "And a ceremony observed by some sages in the jungle..." What they have got? They have got some leaves and flowers. That's all. What arrangement will be made? And prabhāte megha-ḍambare: "And in the morning, thundering sound of the cloud..." And similarly, dam-pate kalahe, I mean to say, "war between husband and wife..." So these things are to be taken as insignificant. So, of course, in India the quarrel between husband and wife, nobody cares. Nobody takes very seriously. The husband may complain, the wife may complain. Everyone says, "Yes, yes. That's all right. It will be all right." They never go to court for divorce. You see? But it is... There is no seriousness. And actually it is fact. I have seen a serious. They are divorced, but still, the husband is anxious for the wife, and the wife is anxious for the husband. The divorce is artificial. The husband and wife, the combination, that cannot be cut off. So one should tolerate these things. If there is some misunderstanding, they should not go to the court for divorce. They should tolerate. These are some of the rules for spiritual advancement.
Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969:
Because they cannot love Viśvarūpa. Is that all right? Can you love Viśvarūpa? If Kṛṣṇa comes before you with Viśvarūpa, (laughs) you'll forget your love. Don't try to love Viśvarūpa. Love Śyāmasundara, that's all. We have seen Kṛṣṇa in Viśvarūpa during wartime. I remember I think in 1942, December, date I forget. I was just eating and there was siren of bombing in Calcutta. So the arrangement was as soon as there will be siren of bombing the government selected a place, shelter room, this room in your house will be shelter room. So we had to go into that shelter room and the bombing began—chiiiii-gown. So we were seeing that Viśvarūpa, you see, at that time. So I was thinking of course, that this is also Kṛṣṇa's another form. But that form is not very lovable form. (laughter) So a devotee in love, wants to love Kṛṣṇa in His original form. This Viśvarūpa is not His original form. He can appear in any form, that is His all-potency. But the lovable form is Kṛṣṇa, Śyāmasundara.
Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969:
Everything created by God is complete. Don't you see this earth? Take the aggregate existence of this earth. It is complete. There is sufficient water stock in the sea and oceans. The sunlight is acting, evaporating the water and it is turned into ocean. Then it is overcast all over the land and there is production. And there is river flowing down. You stock your water tank high, and there are mountain heads, there is stock of water and all year the river is flowing, supply water. Don't you see how nice brain it is? Can you pour water? If you want to evaporate hundred gallons of water you have got to make so many necessary arrangements. And here, millions of tons water is taken away immediately from the ocean and sea and turned into cloud, light cloud so that it may not fall down immediately. You see? Not like a tank. And it is reserved on the head of the mountain and it is sprayed all over the land so everything is there. You require water to produce grains, vegetables. So everything is there.
Lecture on BG 6.46-47 -- Los Angeles, February 21, 1969:
Pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). Because it is manufactured by the complete intelligent brain, everything is complete. Similarly your body is also complete for spiritual realization. You haven't got to search any other external. Simply this yoga system is that, to understand that completeness. Everything is complete. Your foodstuff is complete, your arrangement is complete, your human body is complete. Just you try to utilize it and you become completely liberated from this all pangs of life. Śabda. The Vedānta-sūtra, simply by sound vibration one can get liberation. So this śabda, śabda means sound. Śabda. You see? So the machine is already with you, everyone. Just utilize it. this simple method. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and hear. That's all. Yes.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- San Francisco, March 17, 1968:
This is very nice, natural division. Therefore Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ: (BG 4.13) "I have created the four divisions of society according to quality and work." If somebody is working just like a brahmacārī, brāhmaṇa, and he has acquired the quality... What is that quality? To understand Kṛṣṇa or the Supreme Lord. So he's a brāhmaṇa. Why he should be called for the action of the arms? The arms for defending, that is kṣatriya. Of course, that is required. To protect the country, to protect the society, military arrangement should be there. Nobody disapproves. But not the brāhmaṇas. It is putting the horse before a cart. Horse is required for different purpose. Another beast of those, asses, mules and bulls, they are required for towing cart.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- San Francisco, March 26, 1968:
Because Bhagavad-gītā was spoken... The narration which we are reading, it is the description of Sañjaya as secretary of Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra. Just like running from a radio. The play is going on in the auditorium, but you can hear from the room. Just like we have got now mechanical arrangement, similarly, at that time, maybe the same arrangement, but there was no machine. Still, the secretary of Dhṛtarāṣṭra could see what was going on in the battlefield, and he was just narrating to Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who was blind. In other sense it may be said that there was television, and Dhṛtarāṣṭra, being blind, he could not see, and Sañjaya, his secretary, was explaining what was seen in the television. But this is the position. Anyway, so the conclusion made by Sañjaya was this, yatra yogeśvaraḥ hariḥ. Hari means the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The side in which the Yogeśvara, Kṛṣṇa... My point is that Kṛṣṇa's name is Yogeśvara. Nobody can be better yogi than... Or the master of yoga. There are different systems of yoga, and Kṛṣṇa is the master of yoga. And Lord Śiva is called Yogīśvara.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Sydney, February 16, 1973:
We are so dependent on God's mercy that we cannot say. Just like today, this evening, when we were coming in this hall, there was heavy rain. So this heavy rain... I am coming from India, and other parts there is drought. There is no rainfall; they are suffering for want of rainfall. But in Australia, especially in Sydney, I see there is good rainfall. So how the distinction can be adjusted? In some places there is no rainfall, but here we have got sufficient rainfall at the present moment. It is God's mercy. You cannot do it. Where there is shortage of rainfall, they cannot bring in rainfall by their scientific advancement of knowledge. That is not possible. You have to depend on God, on the mercy of God. What is this rainfall? This rainfall is an arrangement, taking water from the seas and spread all over the surface of the land. But you cannot do it. The sea water you can spread by pumping or by some other means, but that will not serve your purpose. The sea water must be distilled. It must be made into sweetness. Then such rainfall will give you some effect in producing agricultural production and so many things.
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 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:
Swedish woman (5): No.
Prabhupāda: No. We have got experience. (laughter) But if you become worried, "Oh, so many ants have come here. Where shall I accommodate?" It is like that. There is ample arrangement for accommodating them. You should not worry. You better mind your business, how to become God conscious and go back to home, back to Godhead.
Swedish woman (5): Yes, but you can't neglect that there are.
Prabhupāda: No, we are not neglecting. We have come here to teach you. Therefore we are not neglecting you.
Swedish woman (5): Yes, I see that you can't neglect that.
Prabhupāda: Yes, we are not neglecting. We are not neglecting. But we are not worried. That is the difference. We are trying to serve you, but we are not worried about you. Because I know that you will be provided with everything by God. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. It is stated, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaḥ. God is not very poor man that He cannot maintain you. He will maintain you. There may be millions of population. God is quite able to feed them. Why do you think that God is so poor? We have already explained that He is full with all opulences. So it does not matter whether there is increase of population. But if the people are unfaithful, they must be punished with starvation. That is God's will. It is not that they will not be fed. There is no question of overpopulation.
Lecture on BG 7.2 -- San Francisco, September 11, 1968:
So tac-chakti viṣaya vivikta-svarūpa viṣayakaṁ jñānam. You'll have full knowledge about the constitutional position of yourself, this material world, the spiritual world, God, our interrelationship, time, space, everything. There are many things to be known. But the principal thing is that the God, the living entities, time, work, and this material energy. These five things are to be known. You cannot deny that "There is no God." God is controller, supreme controller. You cannot say that you are not controlled. There is controller. Just like in the state, you cannot say there is no controller. There is controller. In every street, in every house, there is control, government control. Suppose this store, here is also government control. You have to build store like this, you cannot live. If it is residential house, "The fire arrangement should be like this." There is control. Even you walk in the street, you drive your car, there is control: "Keep to the right." You cannot cross where there is written "Stop." You have to stop.
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Montreal, June 3, 1968:
So this knowledge of brahma-saukhyam is... In so many ways they are instructed in Vedic literature. We have got volumes and volumes of Vedic literature. The first, we have got the four Vedas. Then we have got the Upaniṣads. Then we have got Vedānta-sūtra. Then we have got Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa, then Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and so many. And one book, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it contains eighteen thousand verses. Mahābhārata contains hundreds of thousand verses. There are eighteen Purāṇas and 108 Upaniṣads and Vedānta-sūtra—immense literature for understanding what is brahma-saukhyam. So these literatures are meant for the human society, not for the cat society, dog society. The great sages of India, especially Vyāsadeva, he labored so hard and delivered so valuable literatures to us. There is opportunity. It was the duty of India to distribute this knowledge all over the world, this immense treasure of knowledge. Unfortunately... And as so far we have studied that persons who are great thinkers, they were expecting. They have still some respect for India's great treasurehouse of the spiritual knowledge. But unfortunately there is no arrangement for distributing this spiritual knowledge all over the world.
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Bombay, March 29, 1971:
By understanding Kṛṣṇa as it is stated in the Fourth Chapter—janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ—simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, one becomes so much elevated that after quitting this body, material body, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), he never accepts again this material body. As I have already explained to you that our miserable conditioned life is this—that we have to accept every fifty years or sixty or utmost hundred years, we have to accept another body. We may make very good arrangement in this life, nice bungalow, good bank balance, nice family relationships, everything. But the thing is that we shall not be allowed to stay. Aśāśvatam. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Therefore all our attempts to become very happy within this material world is futile. The intelligent man should know this, that "I want permanent settlement in my life, but that is not being done." Only intelligent man can understand because intelligent means to understand that we are all eternal. Why should we accept this temporary body? We must have our eternal body. That is possible. You can have your eternal body like Kṛṣṇa. At the present moment, although we are eternal, we have to accept a certain type of body which is not eternal. Asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). Asann api. This body is temporary, but it is very miserable. It is always giving us trouble. That we should know.
Lecture on BG 7.14 -- Hamburg, September 8, 1969:
That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). One who is actually learned, advanced in knowledge, he should know that these four things, the miseries of taking birth... The misery of taking birth means we have to take, we have to appear... After this body is finished, we have to take another body. How this body is constructed, developed? In the womb of the mother. The father gives the semina with the living entity within, and mother receives it and develops it, body. This is nature's law. So you have to live within the mother, compact, air-tight packed, for ten months, at least. Just imagine if you are packed in a bag and put in a air-tight compartment, locked up, would you like? You'll die within three seconds. But the arrangement is so nice, by nature's law, the intestine, that the mother (child) breathes with the mother's breathing, mother's fooding. Even unconscious, his development of the body goes on. That is nature's arrangement, but you cannot do that. It is by God's grace the child lives. Otherwise, by your so-called scientific calculation, nobody can live in that condition. You just try it. Take any man, pack him, and put him in the air-tight condition. He'll die within three seconds.
Lecture on BG 7.15-18 -- New York, October 9, 1966:
So far body is concerned, you get all things supplied by you, er, supplied by God. You have got enough grains. You have got enough fruit. You have got enough milk. You have got everything enough. You eat it, live peacefully. Because what is my want of this body? Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca. Oh, you can eat. Āhāra means eating. So you can eating suffi..., you can eat sufficiently. Nidrā. You can make shelter. God has given you so many wood, so many, I mean to say, planks you can get. Make your home. That's all right. Sleep there peacefully. And āhāra-nidrā-bhaya. And you can defend as far as possible. Then you want sex life? All right. There are so many women. Get them married. Live peacefully and culture God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That arrangement is there. Why don't you do it? Why do you want more and more, more and more, more and more? This is foolishness.
Lecture on BG 7.15-18 -- New York, October 9, 1966:
So God has given us all facilities to come to Him, but we are unfortunate. And He has given us still more facilities in this age, because in this age we are all unfortunate, short-living. So even we have no facilities for the primary necessities of life, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna: eating, sleeping and defending and mating. These things are, I mean to say, absolutely necessary for keeping the body fit. But we have no such arrangement even that, you see, in this age. There are so many people who have no shelter, so many people who have no food, so many people who have no married life, no sex life, and there are so many people not defended from the onslaught of nature or anything. This age is like that.
Lecture on BG 9.1 -- Melbourne, April 19, 1976:
It requires little intelligence. Just like you are breathing. So when the breathing is stopped, you say, "The man is dead." But what is this breathing? This breathing is nothing but a little portion of air passing. So you can artificially make that arrangement, air passing, but does it mean that it will bring life? So therefore breathing is not life. Life is different from breathing. You have to study scientifically. Because breathing can be produced. This respiration of... Even in the, what is called, bellow there is breathing, "Hans, phans, hans, phans..." (laughter) Does it mean life? No. Therefore you have to study every part of your body. You'll find there is no life.
Lecture on BG 9.2 -- New York, November 22, 1966:
So mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ. And if somebody has got some intention to make spiritual progress, then there are so many pseudo-spiritual, I mean to say, societies. They're entrapped by some of them. So manda-matayaḥ, sumanda-matayaḥ, manda-bhāgyāḥ: "And most of them are unfortunate, unfortunate." Most of them. If you count the population, take a statistic, they are so unfortunate that the primary principles of life—eating, sleeping, defending and mating—they haven't got sufficient arrangement. Oh. These are only primary principles. They are available even in animal life. But in this age even these primary principles... No one has got shelter, no one has arrangement for eating nicely, no one has got the mating or wife, and everyone is afraid of "When there will be war declared, and I'll have to go to the warfield?" This is the position.
Lecture on BG 9.2 -- Melbourne, April 20, 1976:
Scandinavia, they say. So the darkness is very, very disgusting. But this material world is dark. To give us little relief, Kṛṣṇa, God, has given us the sun. The day before yesterday, I think... Yesterday, in the morning, we saw, while coming on the path, how the sun was coming through the sea nicely. Within a second the whole light came. So this is God's arrangement. Don't think that this arrangement... Exactly in the time, six o'clock in the morning, immediately the sun comes out of the sea and gives you light. Because this material world is dark, so in order to give you relief... Otherwise you'll commit suicide. God is so kind, He is giving you light. So uttamam.
Lecture on BG 9.3 -- Toronto, June 20, 1976:
So that is the way of nature. That you may try to become very happy in this material world, nature will kick you out, will not allow you to stay here. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). This world is duḥkhālayam. You make so many imagination, try to fulfill it, that's a very troublesome job. To get money and to make material arrangement, that is not very easy. After you've undergone severe hardship, then you can get some money and build big, big buildings or purchase car. So before possessing big, big buildings and cars you had to work so hard. And to keep them intact, that is also very difficult. So, and again there is no guarantee that you shall be able to enjoy it. Today you may be proprietor of a big house, big motor car, but after death you don't know, you have to accept a body, and it may be you become a cockroach in the car or in the house. That is not in your hands. That is in the prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). That will be considered. If you have got attachment for the car and you are dying, then you have done working such a way that you have no right to possess a car any more. You have to accept a cockroach body. Then you become, a, because you have got attachment, in the same car you become a cockroach. This nature's law we do not know.
Lecture on BG 9.4-7 -- New York, November 24, 1966:
All the other gentlemen, they also persisted. So there was some agreement. So this boy went again to Vṛndāvana to his Gopāla, and he prayed that "Sir, You have to go with me." He was so staunch devotee, just like talking with friend. He did not think that He's a statue; it is image. He knew God. That was his conviction. So God said, "How do you think that a statue can go with you? I am a statue. I cannot go." Then this boy replied, "Well, if a statue can speak, He can go also." (laughter) Then Kṛṣṇa said, "All right, I shall go with you." Then there was some arrangement that "You will not see Me, but I will go with you. I'll go with you, and you hear, you'll hear the sound of My nūpura." A nūpura is an instrument which is fixed up in the leg of Kṛṣṇa. It sounds like "Ching, ching, ching, ching," just like that. So He was going with him, and daily he was offering some foodstuff, taking alms from the village. In this way he was coming, but when he came in the precincts of the village, of his own village, he could not hear the sound of the nūpura. So he saw back: "Oh, where is Kṛṣṇa?" He saw that statue there, the statue standing.
Lecture on BG 9.13 -- New York, November 28, 1966:
Even a small bird, he has arrangement for eating, he has arrangement for sleeping, he has arrangement for defending, and he has arrangement for mating. As soon as a bird is born, two eggs are born: one male, one female. That means from the beginning of his life, the mating problem is solved. There is no necessity. A bird, they never, the birds or beasts, they never seek, the male is seeking after female or female after seeking. That is automatically solved. Similarly, their eatings are already there, and their sleeping accommodation are already there. So these are not problems, but we have created problems only for these four demands of the body. So Vedānta-sūtra says that "Don't be busy about these problems." Viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt: "These problems are satisfied in any form of life." Why in human form? They have developed consciousness. They have got better business. Why they should be engaged only for these four principles of life? Huh? Their problem is to inquire, "What is the source of all these manifestations?"
Lecture on BG 9.13 -- New York, November 28, 1966:
Just for example, take for example myself. I am a foreigner, Indian. I came here only with seven dollars with me. Dock, I got down from the ship. I did not know where to live, where to eat. But I am here, here for the last more than one year. So I am also eating, I am also sleeping, and I am also well-protected by my friends. So how it is being done? I am not serving here, I did not come with some money, but there is arrangement. Everyone, you have got arrangement made. Don't be very anxious for these problems. You should be anxious, athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is the problem of life. So who inquires about this, athāto brahma jijñāsā? Those who are actually developed in consciousness, they inquire, athātaḥ, "What is the source of myself? I am living entity, this world, this nature, this so many things we see, and what is the cause of, the cause of all causes? What is that?" That should be inquiry. Jijñāsuḥ, inquisitive, inquisitive. And the answer is given here in the Vedānta-sūtra, next. Athāto brahma jijñāsā: "Now this life is meant for inquiring about the Supreme Brahman." And what is that Brahman? That Brahman means that janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) "Brahman means that source, that Supreme Absolute Truth from whom or from which everything emanates, the cause of all causes." That is Brahman.
Lecture on BG 9.18-19 -- New York, December 4, 1966:
But in the Bhagavad-gītā says, "No, I am the Supreme." The Lord says, "I am the prabhava. From every... Everything, whatever you see, that is emanating from Me." So we have no practical economic problem. God is maintaining everyone. The production which is being made all over the world, that is sufficient to provide all the population of the world. That is God's arrangement. There is no scarcity. But because we have made our own rules and regulation, although we have got enough grains produced, we can produce much more than what is needed by us and I can throw in the ocean the excess. Still, if some poor country or poor brother comes, I will refuse. This is called... Because we do not know that our destination is God, therefore the violation of the rules of nature, violation of the laws of God, we are making, and we are becoming entrapped by this material nature. This is a fact.
Lecture on BG 9.22-23 -- New York, December 8, 1966:
Today I am the richest man, and tomorrow I may be a poverty-stricken man in the street. This is going on. As we find in this earth, so also by our pious activities we can be promoted in better planets. Then kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti (BG 9.21). And when the resultant actions of pious activities is finished, then again we are driven to this earth or down than this earth. So this is going on. Lord Caitanya said that ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151), that "This way, this cycle of different species of life, they are going on. So traveling in this way, somebody who is very fortunate, by association of devotees, he gets the seed of devotional service." Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). To achieve the seed of devotional service is a fortunate achievement. It is not very easy because it ceases the cycle of different transmigration of the soul. By ignorance we take this spot life as permanent settlement and we think that "We shall live here permanently and make arrangement to live here permanently and make assets for my children, for my nation." But we do not know that the cycle of transmigration is not fixed up.
Lecture on BG 9.24-26 -- New York, December 12, 1966:
This is very nice, clear. Now, suppose if you have purchased ticket for an intermediate station between California, San Francisco, and New York. So you shall have to get down in that station. So how can you expect that... You have purchased a ticket for intermediate station. How can you expect to go to California? Similarly, if you worship demigods, you can go up to that planet. As you worship, there are different arrangement in the system, in the creation of God, as you want. You have got freedom of action, and God awards you the result, whatever you want. But if you want to go to the planet where Kṛṣṇa is, Kṛṣṇa planet, which is called Goloka Vṛndāvana, then you have to worship Kṛṣṇa. Oh, there is nothing unreasonable. If you want to go to California, San Francisco, you have to purchase ticket for that.
Lecture on BG 10.4 -- New York, January 3, 1967:
You can eat. You can go to a restaurant and have very palatable dishes of meats and so many things. But you have to control it: "No. I shall not eat all this nonsense. I shall eat only kṛṣṇa-prasādam." Eating is not prohibited because without eating you cannot live. That's all right. But there are so many things. Just like even you don't accept kṛṣṇa-prasādam, you try to become vegetarian. In your country especially I see you have got enough arrangement for vegetable dishes. I am here for the last more than one year. I am getting all nice vegetable dishes prepared by our nice student Kīrtanānanda. So you are also tasting them. They are very nice.
Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, September 24, 1973:
So people, they want to enjoy life within this material world, but actually there is no enjoyment in the material world. Because, Kṛṣṇa says, there is birth, there is death, there is old age, and there is disease. So where is your happiness? After all, you have to die. Suppose I make very good arrangement, very nice house, very nice bank balance, very nice wife, children, everything, but death can come at any moment. Then where is your perfection? If after so much hard labor everything is ready for enjoyment, but I am called by Yamarāja... Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). Death takes away everything. Therefore you cannot say the arrangement you made for happy life is perfect. That is not perfect. But foolish people, they do not know what is perfection. They simply want superficial, temporary happiness, never mind what will happen next life or few years after.
Lecture on BG 13.1-2 -- Bombay, September 25, 1973:
Durāśayā, they are hoping something, that by making arrangement in this material world they will be happy. That is not possible.
In the Western countries, Europe and America, they have made sufficient arrangement for living materially very happy, but that has not been possible. They are also disappointed, confused. So materially you cannot be happy. You must know. You must have full knowledge what you are, what is this body, how you'll be happy. Then your life is successful. If you live like cats and dogs and try to adjust things like cats and dogs, that is a waste of life, waste of time.
Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:
Actually, nobody is dying out of starvation, nobody, not even an animal, not even a bird, dying of starvation, not a beast. God is supplying everyone's food. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He is supplying food to the elephant. In Africa there are millions of elephants. They take food, at a time, forty kilos. But they are also being supplied with food. But who is supplying food? We have not arranged food for the elephants, or we have not arranged any food for the ant within our room, but they are being fed by the laws of nature, by God's arrangement. So that is not question. This is our false, I mean to say, idea, that "We shall die out of starvation if we do not make economic condition better." You do it, but you must know that food is already there.
Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:
As soon as you take your birth, the food is there. For example, when a child takes birth, a young girl gives birth, just a moment before the birth of the child, there is no milk in the breast, but as soon as the child take birth, immediately immense supply of milk. So who makes this arrangement? There is already arrangement.
This is the fact because we get it from Vedic information that nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān: (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13) "God is the chief living entity amongst all living entities. God is the most intelligent personality than all of us. He is supplying the necessities of life to everyone." These are the Vedic injunctions. That is the difference between God and ourself.
Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:
You may have tractors, you may have very good arrangement for producing food, machinery, but still, if the land or earth does not produce food, your, this tractor or all other arrangements will be failure. So after all, we should know the supply of things are in the hands of the material nature. And material nature works under the direction of God. That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Prakṛti means this material nature.
You don't think material nature is blind. Material nature has got her intelligence, and she is taking intelligence from the Supreme Lord. And according to that she is supplying food or grains and everything, because you get everything from the earth. Either you take metal or this wood or water or food grains, whatever you are taking, using, you are exploiting the resources of material nature, but material nature is the agent of God. Material nature is an energy of God. So if God does not wish to supply you, however you may bring tractor and anything.
Lecture on BG 13.2 -- Melbourne, April 4, 1972:
Just like desert. In desert you cannot make it fertile because that particular tract of land is forbidden by God, "No, nothing should be produced." You cannot do it. If you have got producing power, then why don't you produce sufficient grains and vegetables in the desert. That is not possible. So after all, we have to accept the supreme authority, the Personality of Godhead. Even if you study scrutinizingly, very scientifically or, whatever you may say, philosophically, you will have to accept a supreme arrangement, a supreme hand over everything. That is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means a person who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he can see everything. He can see in everything the hand of God. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
If you see... A Kṛṣṇa conscious person sees a flower. He sees the flower—creation of God, Kṛṣṇa. "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is so artistic that he has created this flower by His energy so nicely, so decorately, so good flavor. So it is Kṛṣṇa's thing. Let me offer it to Kṛṣṇa." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Lecture on BG 13.4 -- Miami, February 27, 1975:
The trees, these banyan trees, they are making their arrangement how to stand fixed up very strong. Nobody can move. The same struggle for existence is going on. As we are struggling to make our position secure, similarly, the trees are also making their position secure. The cats and dogs, they are also making attempt to make their position secure. This is called struggle for existence. So from this tree, just try to remember that there are nine hundred thousand species of aquatics.
We get information from śāstra. There is a fish which is called timiṅgila which swallows big, big whales just like big fish swallows a small fish. This is struggle for existence. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. Phalgūni mahatāṁ tatra jīvo jīvasya jīvanam.
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 13.8-12 -- Bombay, September 30, 1973:
Just like we have a manager, a head, on this planet. Now we have divided. Formerly this planet was one unit, and there one head, the emperor. Just like Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja was the emperor of the whole world. Parīkṣit Mahārāja. All kings formerly, whoever became king, emperor, he ruled over the whole planet. In each and every planet there was a ruler, but now, in the days of democracy, there are so many rulers, practically each and every one of us is a ruler. This is democracy.
But actually the arrangement is that ruler should be one, and the supreme ruler is Kṛṣṇa. Ruler means īśvara. So there are so many īśvaras. Īśvara means that actually there must be one īśvara, one ruler, but because here in this material world every one of us is trying to become īśvara, therefore the Māyāvādī philosophy is that everyone is īśvara. That's all right. But that īśvara is not sublime. I may become īśvara amongst my disciples, but I am not the supreme, I'm not īśvara of everyone. So īśvara is actually Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1), the śāstra says. There are īśvaras, rulers. That's all right. But the supreme ruler is Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac cid ananda vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). This is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, and Kṛṣṇa also says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). "There is nobody else superior than Me." That is the fact.
Lecture on BG 13.8-12 -- Bombay, October 2, 1973:
You cannot go to the nearest planet, even the moon planet, by your mechanical arrangement. The modern scientists, the sputniks experts, they say to go the topmost planet of this universe it will take forty thousands of years. Who is going for forty thousand, flying forty thousands of years and again come back and see you: "Yes, I went to such and such planet." Is it possible? So we are so poor. It is not possible in that way.
So this is the position of our going to the material planets, and what to speak of the spiritual planets? That is far, far away. You cannot travel within the space of material world.
Lecture on BG 13.18 -- Bombay, October 12, 1973:
Similarly, there is another world, paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ (BG 8.20), another cosmic manifestation, spiritual manifestation, where there is no need of sunshine. Na tad bhāsayate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ (BG 15.6). There is no need of sunshine. There is no need of moonshine as here in this darkness, material world. There is arrangement by God to illuminate the darkness of this world. There is sun; there is moon; there is electricity; there is fire. But in the spiritual world, which is tamasaḥ param, which is beyond this darkness of this material world, there is jyoti.
Therefore here it is said, jyotiṣām api taj jyotiḥ, param. There are different kinds of illumination, sunshine, moonshine, electricity, fire. But that jyoti which is directly emanating from Kṛṣṇa's body, that is the real jyoti. So on account of Kṛṣṇa's bodily rays, the whole creation is coming out. That is Kṛṣṇa's inconceivable power, brahma-jyotir. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Athāto brahma jijñāsā. In the Vedānta-sūtra, you have to inquire about that paraṁ jyoti, brahma-jyotir. And from that paraṁ jyoti, everything is coming out. Just like from the sunshine.
Lecture on BG 13.19 -- Bombay, October 13, 1973:
Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). By superior arrangement. You cannot say that "I want this kind of body." God is not your order supplier. You'll get. Either you ask for it or don't ask for it, you according to your karma, you'll have a next body. Karmaṇā daiva... By the superior arrangement. If you work in this life like God you'll get next life a god's body. And if you work in this life as a dog then you get next the life as a dog. That is not in your hands. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Guṇaiḥ. According to your qualities, as you will work, and prakṛti, nature, will give you a similar body.
Lecture on BG 13.19 -- Bombay, October 13, 1973:
So we should have brain to understand that: "Why there are different personalities and different activities? Because there are different qualities. So to organize human society these qualities should be taken into consideration. We should divide. Just like in our body we have got four departments. This head department, the arm department, the belly department and the leg department. Everyone is working according to the departmental function. The brain is working differently. The office or the direction, the brain is giving direction. Then my hand is moving, my leg is moving. Similarly, there must be a directory department. In office also there are board of directors, then secretaries, then clerks, then menials, then servants, then cāparāsi. So even in your body this arrangement is there.
Lecture on BG 13.19 -- Bombay, October 13, 1973:
How can you avoid? If you simply say that "Let there be all heads," that cannot. Or "Let there be simply legs." That is cannot that cannot be. There must be the heads, the legs, the hands, the belly. Similarly, the whole society should be divided into that way and they should work cooperatively. The central point. Just like this head, leg, hands, they are working cooperatively for the benefit of this body, whole body. Actually for the benefit of this belly. Because we are all working now for eating without eating we cannot live. Then it is after sleeping, then mating the, then defending. First there must be arrangement for eating. So, practically the stomach is the king in this bodily arrangement, the stomach.
There is a story, Udarendriyāṇām in the Hitopadeśa written by Viṣṇuśarma. There, there was strike. All the hands legs eyes, they observed strike, that "This belly, the stomach is eating only, and we are working. So we shall not work. We shall not work, stop working. Just like nowadays striking goes on. So they stopped working, and after few days, all of them became weak because they were not feeding the stomach. Then they arranged another conference. "Why we are becoming weak?" Then the fault was found out that because we are not giving to eat to the stomach. So all then agreed, "Well, let the stomach eat, and let us work." So this is the nature's arrangement. The stomach will simply eat and the hands and legs and eyes, they must work.
Similarly, the central point is Kṛṣṇa, God. God must simply eat. You must work. We are all part and parcel of... Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). Just like part and parcel of my body. They must work. And the stomach shall eat. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that, that Kṛṣṇa is the central stomach and you all work for Kṛṣṇa. You are also benefited.
Lecture on BG 13.20 -- Bombay, October 14, 1973:
Just like we create favorable circumstances to enjoy even in this life. Why this struggle for existence? We are trying to make a favorable condition for enjoyment. This is struggle for existence. Nobody is satisfied with the present position. Everyone is struggling hard. But he does not know that any material arrangement, according to my intelligence, will never make me happy. That we do not know. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, "You rascal, nonsense, give up this business." Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). "You are rascal number one. You have forgotten your constitutional position. Now you give up all these engagements if you want to be happy." Mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. "Just be under My control." "And what benefit I shall derive?" Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ: "I'll give you protection." Because you're suffering for your sinful activities... everything is sinful activities. Everything.
Lecture on BG 13.21 -- Bombay, October 15, 1973:
So the reason is—logic is given—that even without trying for distress, if distress is enforced upon me, so similarly, if I am destined to enjoy something, that will be also enforced upon me. So why should I waste my time with so-called happiness. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate (SB 1.5.18). This trying for happiness, I have tried many lives. Fortunately I have got this human form of...
What is our trying? We try for eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. So that is available by the laws of nature. Even a bird, beast, he has got arrangement. Birds, when they take birth, there are two birds, one male and female. So sex arrangement is already, ar... Because they have no marriage, I mean to say, problem. They eat from tree to tree there is fruit. They sleep also, they have their sex life, and when there is danger they try to defend. Everyone. So if you also try to improve, but that cannot be improved.
Lecture on BG 1322 -- Hyderabad, August 17, 1976:
Unfortunately there is no education, there is no knowledge about this throughout the whole world. We are thinking that after annihilation of this body everything is finished. No, that is not the fact. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. If a young man thinks that "I have got now this body for enjoyment. I am young man. I shall not become an old man." That is not the fact. Young man has to become old man. That is prakṛti-jān guṇān. cannot say that "I shall remain young man forever and enjoy life." That is not possible. Similarly you have to change your body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Unfortunately there is no discussion, there is no education, there is no institute for this important factors of life and people are kept in darkness. This is Kali-yuga. They do not care to know neither there is arrangement in the educational institution to know this fact although the fact is there it is explained by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa personally explaining tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ (BG 2.18). This body is perishable, but the śarīriṇaḥ, one who possesses this body, he is nitya, śāśvata. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This knowledge is missing. That is the defect of modern civilization. Atheistic civilization. Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. This is not very good position.
Lecture on BG 13.35 -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:
No, but don't find many churches here. So this is not very good sign. People should eat sumptuously, not overeating. Overeating is bad. Not undereating. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya yogo bhavati siddhaye. Yuktāhāra, as much as you require, you must eat. Yajñārthe... Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Either human being or an animal, they must get sufficient food, and that means anna, food grains. So I have studied it very thoroughly. If people produce food grain in all the lands available all over the world, they can feed ten times population than it is at present. Kṛṣṇa has made such arrangement.
In the Īśopaniṣad, it is said, pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). In the creation of Kṛṣṇa, there cannot be any scarcity. Everything is sufficiently there. Pūrṇam, it is complete, perfectly made, either this planet, that planet. Everywhere, the living entities are there, and Kṛṣṇa has made provision for every one of them. There is no question of scarcity. But people are not obeying the orders of Kṛṣṇa or the authorities, that "You produce..." Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Even in Bible, it is said, "Thou shalt not kill." They are not producing food grains, and they are killing the animals and eating.
Lecture on BG 15.15 -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):
Devotee: If we don't finish our Kṛṣṇa consciousness in this life, how we come in contact with the guru in next life?
Prabhupāda: Yes, that arrangement will be done, you go on with your business. We are singing this song daily. Why do you forget? Cakhu-dān dilo jei janme janme prabhu sei. One who has opened the eyes, he'll remain my master life after life.
Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda!
Translator: The question was that Kṛṣṇa had said that He would not take part in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, but later on He did. So He had actually changed His word. So does the devotee also sometimes do that, say one thing but later on change his mind.
Prabhupāda: You are not Kṛṣṇa. You are servant of Kṛṣṇa. Don't try to imitate the master. That is folly. You are servant, you remain always servant. Don't try to imitate the master. Kṛṣṇa has lifted the hill. Can you do that by imitation? Don't try to imitate. Follow His instruction. That is wanted. Kṛṣṇa can do anything, He is God.
Lecture on BG 16.4 -- Hawaii, January 30, 1975:
So first of all we must decide what we want. Whatever you want, you will have. Kṛṣṇa is very kind. If you want to remain bound up by the laws of material nature within this material world... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). As we contaminate the different material modes of nature, we get different situation of life, different forms of body, different circumstances. Kṛṣṇa has arranged everything very accurately. His arrangement is very perfect. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). When He does something, He desires only. By His desires, the energies are there. Immediately the energy works. Just like you have got some energy. If you desire, immediately it begins to work. You have got experience. Similarly, we have got limited number of energies, and Kṛṣṇa has got unlimited number of energies. So if we desire to become something unlimitedly, Kṛṣṇa can supply you your necessities unlimitedly. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). That freedom is there. If you want to remain as a demon, then Kṛṣṇa will supply you all the ingredients, how you can flourish as a demon.
Lecture on BG 16.6 -- Hawaii, February 2, 1975:
They do not know even that there is birth after death. Such a foolish civilization. Although we are experiencing every moment birth and death... Birth and death every moment, it is going on so finely. It is Kṛṣṇa's arrangement. Just like this world, this earthly planet, is moving at the rate of one thousand miles per hour. Such a gigantic body, it is also moving. Every, all planets are moving. Even the sun is moving. But we cannot perceive. You ride on a best airplane—there are so many disturbances, sound, moving, sometimes table is (trembling?) moving. But this planet also moving more speedily than the airplane, but you do not perceive. This is Kṛṣṇa's manufacture, perfectly. Pūrṇam idam. This is called pūrṇam idam, everything perfect. Pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). Because He is so perfect, we do not perceive. But it is moving.
Lecture on BG 16.6 -- South Africa, October 18, 1975:
In modern days also, practically nobody is devotee, so how they are described in the Bhagavad-gītā? They are described as duṣkṛtinaḥ, mūḍhāḥ, narādhamāḥ, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ, āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ (BG 7.15). These asuras also divided into so many classes. The first-class asura is the duṣkṛtina, one who is engaged in sinful meritorious action. Sinful meritorious. Just like a big thief. There are many organization of smugglers, black market, thieves. They have got brain to organize. Without brain they cannot organize. Now, in the Western countries there are big, big organizations simply for smuggling, cheating, bluffing, and very good brain, educated, lawyers. I have seen practically in New York these cheating concerns. There are many lawyers to help them how to cheat. And they make arrangement, take money from one, cheating. Many organizations. So they are called duṣkṛtina. They are educated. They have got good brain, they can act very nicely, but their intelligence is being used for sinful activities. They are called duṣkṛtina. They do not know how they shall use their brain. That is going on.
Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Tokyo, January 27, 1975:
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. Because in the winter season by covering the body we are feeling pleased but in the summer season by covering the body we feel not pleased. So this is going on. So rejecting and... Why the same dress, warm dress, does not give us pleasure in the summer season? And the same dress, in the winter season it gives us pleasure. So we do not know whether dress is pleasing or suffering. Means sometimes it is pleasing and sometime it is displeasing.
Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Tokyo, January 27, 1975:
So even if we are assured that we are not going to die, still, there are other sufferings. And, of course, there is no question of not dying. Everyone will have to die. Even you accept this place of suffering and if you are assured that you will live here permanently, still, you become happy, "All right, I will not die." But that is also not possible. Therefore aśāśvatam. Even if you make your arrangement very nicely that you will not suffer, but you will not be allowed to stay. Now just like in Tokyo city we are making very big, big buildings, everywhere, all over the world, to live very comfortably. But that comfortable life is also not assured because you will have to die. You will have to die. Therefore it is called aśāśvatam, not permanent. Even if you are under the impression that "I am very happy," that happiness also will not be allowed you for eternal time, it will be finished.
Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hawaii, February 3, 1975:
In India, especially in the villages, you'll find cleanliness. He has got one cloth, poverty-stricken, one cloth, not very white. Due to dirt, it is black. But that one cloth should be washed daily, still, one cloth. They'll take one napkin and wash the cloth and India, tropical climate, here also, and spread it on the floor. Within five minutes it will be dry, and then change clothes. And early in the morning, even in chilly cold, they will take bath, taking water from the well. And nature's arrangement is, if you take well water, it is hot early in the morning. Early in the morning it is very, not very hot, but is warm. You can take very easily your bath. They, do that. This is called naimitti. Nitya, naimitti. Nitya, this is daily affair, taking bath and go early in the morning to evacuate, then wash your hand. Not required, soap. You can take the dirt from the earth and wash your hand nicely. Then take your bath and change your cloth, wash cloth. Then go to some temple.
Still this system is current. And see ārati, maṅgala-ārati. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Ring the bells. In every temple such arrangement is there. Then come at home and do your duty, the businessman. In the shop also, they'll cleanse everything very nicely. Even the scale, weighing scale, they will wash every day. This is required, śaucam. Satyaṁ śaucaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjavam āstikyam, jñānaṁ vijñānaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam.
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:
Now, as we see in the street that the cars are moving in high speed but they are within the orbit, within the line, demarcation of line, white line or yellow line, so there is some brain, there is some management, everything is there, Similarly, all these planets, they are rotating with high speed. Just like this planet. It is rotating 25,000 miles in twelve hours. Is it not? The circumference of this earth is 25,000 miles and... Yes, day and night, twenty-four hours. Almost one thousand miles per hour it is... Now the car is moving seventy miles per hours. It appears very with good speed running. But the earth is running at one thousand miles per hour, but we cannot understand. The arrangement is so nice. The perfection that it is... We cannot understand it. It is practical. We see the morning, day, coming. That means earth is moving. When the aeroplane moves also, there are so many jerking, those sound. They're all imperfect. But here you see that such perfect arrangement, it is moving one thousand miles per hour, and there is no jerking. There is nothing of the sort. We are thinking, "We are sitting in the same place." And there is no brain? Here it requires so much brain to move the car orderly on the street. So many police has made, so many government, scientist, this, that, so many, and this not only one planet, but many millions: yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40).
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:
93,000,000 miles away from the sunshine, still, we are feeling too much hot, scorching heat. So this planet is... The temperature is very, very great. But still, there are life. Otherwise how Kṛṣṇa says, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam: (BG 4.1) "I went there and I spoke to the sun-god." The sun-god... As there is president here, there is also president. He is called sun-god. His name is Vivasvān. Everything is there, and Kṛṣṇa went there and talked with him. But this is a fiery planet. Similarly, the moon is very cold. So every planet has different atmospheric..., and they are moving in their orbit, their duration of their life—everything, there is good arrangement.
So all these arrangements, there is no good brain behind it? How is that? But the rākṣasas, the demons, they will say, asatyam apratiṣṭhaṁ te jagad āhur anīśvaram: (BG 16.8) "There is no controller and it is all false." False? So minute rules and regulation are being followed. The sun is rotating on the orbit in a such a perfect way that if the sun is inclined to this side or that side, there will be, whole world will be frozen or in blazing fire. This is the scientific opinion. It must rotate according to the diagram given by some controller. That is stated in Bhāgavatam, "By the order of the Supreme." Yasyājñayā. Here also, in the Brahma-saṁhitā, yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ. The sun is rotating, yasya ājñayā. Ājñayā means by order.
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:
You committed theft, you were arrested, there were due judgment, and the judge has given you punishment. You must suffer. It is not a chance. And if you say, "By chance, I am now convicted," that is not chance. There is no question of chance. This is a false logic, chance. Nothing takes place by chance. That is sound reasoning. Chance means ignorant. One who does not know, he says chance. That is ignorance. That is not knowledge. Knowledge is different thing. So they are rascals, you can say. This kind of logic, "I have not seen. It has come by chance. There was a chunk," these are all nonsensical proposition. There is īśvara. This is sound knowledge. As you conclude by seeing the arrangement in the Tokyo city there is government, similarly, if you are intelligent enough, then you can understand there must be a controller. That is theism. That is knowledge.
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:
Therefore this foolish class of men who are simply studying, they want time to find out, but actually if he is wise, if he is searching out regularly by wise conclusion, then, at some time, he will come to the conclusion, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante: after many births of research work, he will come to this conclusion that there is God, Vāsudeva. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). Then he is the first-class mahātmā. But that is very rare. Everyone is durātmā, anīśvaram: "There is no īśvara. This is a false manifestation." That is not false. You study everything. You study even one plant. You can see so many arrangement, so many fibers. Fine fibers are coming out, and from one fiber to another. Even a small herb and vegetable, you will find there is craftsmanship. You cannot say it is chance. You cannot do it. So there is brain. That is right conclusion, "There is brain behind it," and that is theism. And that brain, what is the brain behind this, who has this brain behind this, behind this, behind this, behind this, if you come... Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19), after searching out for many, many births, then one comes to the conclusion that vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). You come to the conclusion, "Kṛṣṇa is the cause of everything." That is already concluded. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1): "Īśvaraḥ, the supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa." Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ... There are so many controllers. Just like this city is being controlled by the police commissioner or somebody else. So above him, above him, above him, there is controller. And the... Above all, the supreme controller is Kṛṣṇa. That is the conclusion.
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:
So their theory, this atheistic theory, is aparaspara-sambhūtam. It has taken by mechanical arrangement. Kim anyat kāma-haitukam. Kāma. Just like kāma—a man, a woman becomes lusty, and there is sex, and there is production. So they say like that. The production is like that. There is no other plan. But there is a big plan. That they do not know. The plan is: yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7). That is plan. But these rascal, this atheist class, they say, kim anyat kāma-haitukam: "Only lusty desires, that is the only reason. That is the only cause." The atheist class think like that, that "This birth is taking place due to our lusty desires, but we do not want to take responsibility. Then kill him. What is that?" Therefore they are making this abortion, killing of the child, as legal. The kāma... "We had some lusty desires, and we got it, but we don't want it. Kill it." That's all. This is going on. This is atheism. But it is not that. That child has come. It is a living entity. It desired a certain thing, and therefore he has given chance to take birth as human being or as cat, as dog. Kāma-haitukam.
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:
Then why one is born as a cat, one is born as a dog, one is born as a rich man's son, one who is born as..., so many varieties? Why? If kāma-haitukam, then why not one variety? Where is the question of varieties? What is the answer? Why there are so many varieties? Everyone wants to take birth in rich family, in high family. Why one is born as a street dog and there is no food and crying, barking, and somebody is capturing and eating and no protection? Why? Why kāma-haitukam, the dog is also born by the lusty desires of the male dog and the female dog, but why he is dog, and why he is such a rich man's son? Why? What is the answer? If kāma-haitukam, lusty desire is the only cause for birth, production, then why there is one production, street dog, cat or pig or a worm in the stool, and why one is born as demigod, as Indra or Candra, Varuṇa? Why? A Brahmā? Who makes this arrangement? Why one is put into such exalted position, and why one is put into that abominable position? What is the answer? Kāma-haitukam.
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Tokyo, January 28, 1975:
Yes. You cannot say it's by chance. And who is making this chance arrangement, that one is born so exalted, one is born so low? Then again we have to accept somebody is. So these are all foolish theories, "By chance, by kāma-haitukam." No, there is great arrangement. As the same... Just like the traffic control. There is a very big, great arrangement behind this. It is not by chance. By chance there has been not line, and they pass the car in certain line. No, it is not chance. How you can say, "chance"? So these theories are made by the demons. Read the purport.
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Hawaii, February 4, 1975:
So these foolish, these atheistic persons, mūḍhas, they cannot see. There must be a spiritual touch. In spite of all electronic arrangement, unless there is a spiritual... The pilot is spiritual being. Unless he touches his finger, it is not moving. So how this gigantic material manifestation can work independently? They have no sense. Therefore they say, jagad āhur anīśvaram (BG 16.8). Anīśvaram: "There is no pilot. It is moving automatically." This is asuric conclusion. How it can move? Where is your experience that simply combination of material thing can move the machine? Where is your experience? How do you say like that? It is very common sense. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said these rascals, these demons, they say, jagad āhur anīśvaram: (BG 16.8) "There is no controller." He's thinking. The scientist thinking. He's practically doing in the laboratory, that he is a spiritual soul. He is mixing the chemicals, hydrogen, oxygen, acid and alkaline. He's mixing, and there is reaction. Then something is coming out. He's doing that. Still, he says, "There is no God." What is this foolishness? Why do they say like that? Therefore they are asuras. They do not admit the existence. Big, big chemist...
Lecture on BG 16.8 -- Hyderabad, December 16, 1976:
Big, big asuras like Rāvaṇa, he also wanted to be happy himself and others by material adjustment. He proposed that "There is no need of acting piously to go to the heavenly planet. I shall construct a staircase so anyone can go." Rāvaṇera svargeśvari. So that was failure. Just like we are now trying, the modern scientists. We are trying to go to the moon planet. It is failure. They will never be able to go there. I have discussed this point. We are conditioned. We cannot live one place to another without being proficient or without being eligible. Just like even in this planet you cannot go to the other country. Suppose from India if we want to go to America, it requires arrangement, not that all of a sudden you can go to America or the Americans come here. There is international arrangement, visa, passport, immigration, so many things. So many obstacles are there even in this planet, and what to speak of going to other planet. It is not possible. You must be efficient; then you can go.
Lecture on BG 16.10 -- Hawaii, February 6, 1975:
But you cannot say at any stage that "I am independent." That is not possible. Your constitution is to remain dependent. Therefore the Vedas says, eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. He's maintaining you. God is maintaining. That's a fact. We cannot maintain your, ourself. He has given heat, light, air, water, fruits, flowers, grains, everything. Everything is there for you. There is no scarcity. Simply being less intelligent, taking shelter of lusty desires, false prestige, we are mismanaging the gift of God. Therefore we are in scarcity, therefore starvation. By God's arrangement there is everything. Pūrṇam idam (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). Everything is complete. Pūrṇam adaḥ. This creation is complete. Pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate. Because it is created by God, it is complete, so you cannot find out any deficiency. Pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate.
Lecture on BG 16.11-12 -- Hawaii, February 7, 1975:
So śāstra says, therefore, that "These four necessities of life, you'll get, any form of life. Any insignificant form or very important form, it doesn't matter. You'll get all... This is arranged." You have no anxiety for that. Kṛṣṇa has given you. Just like even if you are put into the jail life, prison life, for these things government has arranged already. In the jail life there is eating, sleeping, arrangement. So for these things we should not be very much anxious. That is human life. Simply he has to see intelligently, things, how things are going on.
Lecture on BG 16.11-12 -- Hawaii, February 7, 1975:
You cannot avoid these laws of material nature. This is called māyā. Actually we are busy with something which is not permanent, a temporary arrangement by the laws of nature. Therefore those who are too much full of anxiety for all these things, they are called demons. Cintām aparimeyāṁ ca. Your cintām will not act. You may think for the safety or satisfaction, but that does not mean we should neglect our duty. But as far as possible, we should be detached. It is not that because all these are temporary arrangement, we should be unfaithful to our family members, to our children, to our wife. As duty, we should take care, but we should not be simply absorbed in such thoughts. Our other business is how to become fit for going back to home, back to Godhead. That is our real business. This is temporary business because we have got some bodily relation, so as duty...
Lecture on BG 18.41 -- Stockholm, September 7, 1973:
Now there is a hobby that classless society. Classless society cannot be. That is not possible. So long you are in the material world there must be classes. By nature, there is. Just like even in birds, there are a class of birds known as the crows and there is a class of birds which are called the swans. The swans will try to reside in a place where there is very clean water, flowers, good trees, nice arrangement parking. So they will flock there. Birds of the same feather flock together. And the crows, the will flock... In your country you don't find many crows, but in India there are many crows. They go to the place where all garbages are there. They'll enjoy there. So there is division actually, taste. But one thing is, that the human form of body, although there is natural such division, but one can be raised to the higher position by this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So far material body is concerned, you cannot change the quality. This is already. One has got the particular type of body by nature's arrangement according to the quality. According to the quality. Now, if you want to change him to the better quality, then you have to accept this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Because Kṛṣṇa consciousness is on the spiritual platform. It has nothing to do with the material platform. From the material platform, you cannot change anyone's quality.
Lecture on BG 18.45 -- Durban, October 11, 1975:
Of course, now we are engaged in so many different types of duties, but the Vedic civilization, there are four divisions of society and four division of spiritual enlightenment. It is called varṇa and āśrama. Four varṇas means brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. This is social arrangement. And spiritual arrangement-brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. So we are known, advertised, as Hindu. Actually there is no such word in the whole Vedic literature, Hindu. It is a name given by the Mohammedans on account of the river Sindu. They pronounced sa as ha. So the Sindu was mispronounced as Hindu and the side, or this side of Indus River, who resided, they are called by the Mohammedans as Hindus. The Hindu name is given by the Mohammedans. Actually, our dharma is varṇāśrama-dharma, four varṇas and four āśramas. That is the real name, varṇāśrama-dharma. The whole Vedic culture is dependent on varṇāśrama. It is meant for everyone, not that it is meant for Indians only, no. Four varṇas and four āśramas.
Lecture on BG 18.45 -- Durban, October 11, 1975:
So how these four varṇas are recognized? That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Brāhmaṇa. (aside) The child must stop. The first varṇa is brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa is the head of the varṇas, social arrangement. So brāhmaṇa, first of all it is said... Not here in the Eighteenth Chapter. In the, I think, Fourth Chapter it is. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ: (BG 4.13) "The catur-varṇa—the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra—they are created by Me according to guṇa and karma, quality and action." One is designated, "Here is an engineer." This engineer is not by birthright, "Because my father is an engineer, so I become an engineer," no. You must have the qualification of the engineer. That is called guṇa. If you simply say that "I am a son of an engineer, therefore you must accept me as engineer," that is not accepted. Have you got qualification of engineer? If he says "Yes," then consider it. So guṇa.
| Page Title: | Arrangement (Lectures, BG) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Mayapur |
| Created: | 18 of Feb, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=121, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 121 |