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Center (Other Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"center" |"centered" |"centering" |"centers"

Notes from the compiler: This page is for "center" meaning a point or an area equidistant from all sides of something (for example, "Krsna is the center of everything")

Lectures

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 26, 1972:

Marshall Foch. He was in charge of the French centers. So the Belgium, there were many refugees from Belgium, most women and children. So they came to France. And in charge was Mis..., Marshall Foch. So this Mr. MacPherson, he told me that "We were officers. We informed that so many refugees have come from Belgium. What to do." Then Marshall became very angry. You see. He became very... "What can I do? In this battlefield?" So it was ordered that they should be killed. So actually it so happened that all these women and children, they were assembled together, and four guns from four sides, they were blown up. You see. Their own alliance. Not alliance, what it is called? Allies, allies.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 26, 1972:

Women know how to decorate themselves. But the... There is no difference. Her not dressing herself nicely and dressing herself nicely, it may be considered that bhoga and tyāga. But either of these positions is for center is husband. Center is husband. Therefore bhoga-tyāga is not consideration. If for Kṛṣṇa I have to give up everything, I will give up. And if Kṛṣṇa, I'll have to accept everything, I will accept. This is required. Not the position of bhoga-tyāga, but service. If by giving up everything I can serve Kṛṣṇa well, I shall give it up, everything. And if by accepting everything I shall serve Kṛṣṇa very nicely, then I accept everything. That is required. Ānukūlyena.

Because we have to see whether Kṛṣṇa wants it, Kṛṣṇa wants it. Kṛṣṇa wants Arjuna that "You become victorious in this battlefield and kill all of them."

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 19, 1972:

By following the rules and regulations, sato vṛtteḥ, always trying to be honest and sādhu-saṅga... (CC Madhya 22.83). The sādhu-saṅga is very important. Therefore we have created this internal society, International Society so that actually it is happening. People are coming to our society, in our centers, and after one week, automatically he takes a bag and beads and shaves himself. Automatically. Sādhu-saṅga is very... Association of sādhu. Solitary bhajana, executing devotional service in a solitary place, is not possible for the neophyte devotees. It is meant for the advanced devotees. If, from the very beginning, without executing the regulative principles, if one wants to execute devotional service in a solitary place, it will be simply disturbing, and he must fall down. There are so many examples, even in this Vṛndāvana. So we should not imitate. We must, vidhi-mārga. The regulative principles must be followed.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, December 28, 1972:

Similarly in anything there are five causes. And the ultimate cause is daiva. You may make everything very nicely. You may become, may be very business, a good business man, you have got sufficient capital, you are conducting your business in a very nice center, downtown, everything, but if God is not favorable, then everything will be spoiled. Everything will be spoiled. So therefore this cause, favorable. Of course, God is kind to everyone. But, but we see sometimes that everything is perfectly done, but still it is spoiled.

Just like a man. A man is suffering from some disease, and you have employed first-class physician, first-class medicine, first-class everything, but is still the man dies. What is the cause? The cause is daiva. That in spite of all your endeavors, because God does not like that he should live, you cannot save him.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 24, 1972:

Unless it comes to the shore, the circle increases. Similarly, our loving propensity increases. In the primary stage, a child whatever he gets, he puts into his mouth. Anna-brahman. Then gradually, as the child grows, sometimes he distributes to his other brother or parents, the love increases. In this way, self-centered, then family-centered, then community-centered, society-centered, nation-centered, international centered... So this increase of our loving propensity will not be satisfied unless it reaches the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We love. The loving propensity is there. Even we have no family... Sometimes we keep pets, cats and dogs, to love. So we are, by nature we used to love somebody else. So that somebody else is Kṛṣṇa. Actually, we want to love Kṛṣṇa, but without information of Kṛṣṇa, without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, our loving propensity is limited. Within certain circle.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 24, 1972:

So we should not collect more than what we need. Kṛṣṇa will give, giving us. Just like we are spending so much money in all our centers. So Kṛṣṇa is sending us the necessary expenditure. How... Otherwise, how we are maintaining? So... But we should not be hankering after collecting more than what is necessity. That is atyāhāra. Similarly, we should not eat more than what we need for maintaining the body and soul together. Atyāhāra prayāsaḥ, prayāsaḥ. We should not endeavor for anything which requires too much anxiety. That is called prayāsaḥ. Atyāhāra prayāsaḥ. Automatically, by Kṛṣṇa's grace, whatever comes, that's all right. Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca prajalpaḥ (NOI 2). Talking unnecessarily, nonsense. Just like people waste their time talking three hours on some political situation. You see.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 24, 1972:

Compass. Yes. That compass, you put the pointed part on the center, you can make a circle. So if I do not take the central point, I make my own point, then my circle will overlap your circle, there will be a clash. But if the center is the same, I can draw one circle, you can draw one, another circle. None of these circles will overlap. So if taking Kṛṣṇa as the center... Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. If we relate our activities, social activities, philanthropic activities, political activities, any a..., religious activities, any activity. If you make center Kṛṣṇa, then my circle, your circle, another circle will not overlap. But it will give different lights. Kṛṣṇa being center. That point we were discussing in this morning from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ. Everyone is trying to make his own circle. Political, social, humanitarian, philosophical, scientific. That's all right. But Bhāgavata says that make your circle perfect from the point of Kṛṣṇa. Don't miss the point. Svanu, svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). Whatever you do, if you try to please Kṛṣṇa, then your circle is perfect. Kṛṣṇa must be center.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 24, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa must be center. Rūpa Gosvāmī says, nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. Kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. You can deal in politics. Then politics will be perfect. Kṛṣṇa-sambandhe, you can make circle of scientific knowledge. Then it will be perfect. Making center Kṛṣṇa, either politics, sociology, philosophy, religion, whatever it may be. It will be perfect.

Yukta-vairāgyam ucyate. Anāsaktasya viṣayān yathārham upayuñjate. Just like we are using this microphone. This is material, scientific advancement. Sometimes they criticize that "You are not materialistic. Why you are using the modern appliances? Why you are flying on the aeroplane?" So practically, our vision is that everything is Kṛṣṇa's and everything must be utilized for Kṛṣṇa's service.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 26, 1972:

Some way or other, fix up your mind in Kṛṣṇa." Then your life is successful. Some way or other. Yena tena. So if your mind is fixed up always in Kṛṣṇa, then your senses will be also engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service. Because mind is the center of all activities of the senses.

So as Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, he first of all engaged his mind in Kṛṣṇa. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). By fixing up his mind in Kṛṣṇa, then he could use all other senses, namely the tongue... Actually bhakti begins with the tongue. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau. Beginning from tongue, Kṛṣṇa-bhakti begins. It may be very awkward to hear, that "By tongue, how bhakti begins?" But that is the statement in the śāstras. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). Our present senses, blunt, materially covered, it cannot taste what is Kṛṣṇa's name, what is Kṛṣṇa's form, what is Kṛṣṇa's quality, what is Kṛṣṇa's pastime, what is Kṛṣṇa's paraphernalia. Senses, they taste. But... Just like in, when one is suffering from liver disease, or jaundice, he cannot taste the sugar candy.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 2, 1972:

That is real unity. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam... (CC Madhya 19.170). That is Vaikuṇṭha platform. Just like in Vaikuṇṭha, the Vaikuṇṭheśvara, Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, He's the central point of service. Just like in Vṛndāvana... The Vṛndāvana... The animals, the birds, the beasts, the water, the trees, the flowers, the cowherds boy—everyone—center is Kṛṣṇa. That is Vṛndāvana. They did not know that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they loved Kṛṣṇa with their heart and soul. That is Vṛndāvana. So if we come to this point of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and simply learn how to love Kṛṣṇa, then we can create the whole world as Vṛndāvana. Unfortunately, even in the Vṛndāvana, at the present moment, because our desires have been something else other than serving Kṛṣṇa, there are so many factions. The center is missing.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1972:

Yes. Śvādo 'pi sadyaḥ savanāya kalpate. This is the verse. Actually we have seen it. Last time, when I was coming via Philippines, so we have got a center there, and it is very nicely organized within six months by one of our devotees, Siddha-svarūpa, Siddha-svarūpānanda Mahārāja, and his colleague. So it is very nicely organized. And they are actually dog-eaters. These Philippines, they're dog-eaters. In these parts of the world, the Koreans, the Philippines, even the Chinese, some of the Japanese, they're dog-eaters. But even though they are dog-eaters, they attended the meeting and chanted with us so nicely, better than a so-called Vaiṣṇava in India. Yes. They were so nice. It is practically seen. So that is also stated in the, confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. Śvādo 'pi sadyaḥ savanāya kalpate.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 8, 1972:

People are after śānti. This is the formula of śānti. We have to accept Kṛṣṇa as the supreme enjoyer. Not we are enjoyer. At the present moment, all our activities are going on, self-centered: "I am enjoyer. I am leader. I am bhokta." No. This is wrong. Kṛṣṇa is bhokta. Kṛṣṇa is leader. Kṛṣṇa is the friend. Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This news, this idea, should be spread all over the world. Then automatically, very easily, all the nations will be united. Because Kṛṣṇa consciousness acceptance means ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). The difficulty is the members in the United Nations, they assemble together, but their heart is not clean. They meet together with unclean heart; therefore there is no solution. Whereas Kṛṣṇa consciousness means those who are meeting on the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are meeting in cleansed heart.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Calcutta, January 25, 1973:

Devotee: "Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given us an authorized program for this purpose, centered around the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra."

Prabhupāda: The general practice by everyone, whatever tendency he may have, differently. But the general platform is to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. That will pave the way for everyone. Go on.

Devotee: "This chanting has so much power that it immediately attaches one to Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of sādhana-bhakti. Somehow or other, one has to fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa. The great saint Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, although a responsible king, fixed his mind on Kṛṣṇa, and similarly anyone who tries to fix his mind in this way will very rapidly make progress in successfully reviving his original Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now this sādhana-bhakti, or practice of devotional service, can also be divided into two parts. The first part is called regulative principles. One has to follow these different regulative principles by the order of the spiritual master, or on the strength of authoritative scriptures, and there can be no question of refusal. That is called vaidhi, or regulated.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 13, 1972:

Pradyumna: "Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given us an authorized program for this purpose, centered around the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. This chanting has so much power that it immediately attaches one to Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of sādhana-bhakti. Somehow or other, one has to fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa. The great saint Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, although a responsible king, fixed his mind on Kṛṣṇa, and similarly, anyone who tries to fix his mind in this way will very rapidly make progress in successfully reviving his original Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Because fix up mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa is yoga. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). Who is yogi? Dhyānāvasthita, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā... Tad-gatena manasā, absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. This is yoga system. Some way or other, if you fix up your mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, that is perfection of yoga. Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ (BG 6.47).

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 14, 1972:

This has been practically proved in the Western countries. These boys and girls, European and Americans, they were not informed about the regulative principles in the beginning. We enforce the regulative principle when a student is serious to become initiated. Otherwise, ordinarily, in all our centers, everyone is welcome and join the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Gradually, by mixing with the devotees, by being purified on the transcendental vibration of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, they voluntarily offer to become serious student, initiated. In this way, we have expanded. Practically the basic principle is chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and giving them some chance to hear about Kṛṣṇa from the Bhagavad-gītā as it is. This is our principle. Go on.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.1 -- Mayapur, March 25, 1975:

These demons, they are preaching Bhagavad-gītā without Kṛṣṇa. Nobody preaches about Kṛṣṇa. Nobody says what Kṛṣṇa wants. Sarva-dharmān parityajya. Kṛṣṇa wants this, but they are misinterpreting in different ways and diverting the attention of the people most foolishly, that... In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa is the center. So this is going on. You know, you are coming all from foreign countries. Bhagavad-gītā is popular in your country, at least amongst the scholars and theosophists and theologists. Going on, for the last two hundred years at least. But nobody understood Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference. Now for the last, say, five or ten years, because we are presenting Kṛṣṇa as it is, it has become very easy for you to accept it. Unadulterated Kṛṣṇa. Before this, everything was presented adulterated. Therefore there was no effect.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.11 -- Mayapur, April 4, 1975:

"There was chunk, and there was creation." This creation is so easy? And maintain them, hold the creation? If you create some center of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, how much strain you have to exert to maintain the standard, status quo. Similarly, there are so many universes created, maintained. And there is another phase, annihilation. That is the process of material creation. We have got experience. Anything material is created is... The beginning, there is a date, and it is maintained for sometimes, then it is annihilated. Anything you take—this body, your body, my body—it is created a certain date, and it is maintained for a certain number of years, and again it is annihilated. This is material world. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate: (BG 8.19) "It manifests sometimes and again disappears." This is called material world, and because it is never eternally sustained, therefore it is called māyā. It is not false, as the Māyāvādī philosophers says, "It is false." It is not false. Lord Viṣṇu is taking so much care to create this material world.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.14 -- Mayapur, April 7, 1975:

And if we take shelter of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, along with His associates, then the task becomes very easy. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ (SB 11.5.32). Very easy; not at all difficult. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's method for approaching Kṛṣṇa is very, very easy. Now we have got this center, Māyāpur center. We have got hundreds of centers, but this is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's birthplace. You have come from very, very distant places all over the world. So here, you simply take prasādam, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa twenty-four hours, then your life is successful. It is not at all difficult. But we are so stubborn that we do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is our misfortune. But still, as we struggle against misfortune, to become fortunate in the material world, similarly, we have to struggle against misfortune. Māyā is very strong. But the way is also there, how to get out of the clutches of māyā. Pāsate māyā tāre jāpaṭīyā dhare.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.15 -- Dallas, March 4, 1975:

The central point is Kṛṣṇa. So although there are parties, if the central point is Kṛṣṇa, so there is no dissension. It is a competition, that "My Godbrother, my Godsister, is serving such a way. She is so well versed in this art. Why not try myself to do something?" This is variety. That is not this ordinary party strife if we make Kṛṣṇa the center.

So on the whole, for the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava, means the followers of Caitanya Mahāprabhu... Especially in Bengal, there are many thousands followers, Bengal and Orissa. They are mainly followers of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and you will find in Vṛndāvana, Navadvīpa, many Bengali Vaiṣṇavas, followers of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. They are living there very, I mean to say, austerity, following austerity, no very much careful about the bodily maintenance.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.16 -- Mayapur, April 9, 1975:

Here Kṛṣṇa is sitting, Rādhā-Mādhava is sitting on the throne. He is the enjoyer, and we are trying to serve Him so that He may very nicely enjoy. This is called Kṛṣṇa family-center, Kṛṣṇa. Just like in ordinary family the head man is there, and he is the chief man, and all other—his wife, children, servants, and other friends, associates, even animals, cats, dogs, cows—everyone is serving the center point, master. Similarly, our Kṛṣṇa family means Kṛṣṇa is the master, and He is the supreme enjoyer. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). And if we understand this point, that Kṛṣṇa is the center, He is the enjoyer, and we are meant for serving Him for His enjoyment, that is Kṛṣṇa family.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.1 -- Atlanta, March 1, 1975:

Na mocayed yaḥ samupeta mṛtyum. So where is this philosophy all, over the world? There is no such philosophy. This is the only, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, which is putting forward this philosophy, not whimsically but from authorized śāstra, Vedic literature, authorities. So that is our request. We are opening different centers all over the world for the benefit of the human society that they do not know the aim of life, they do not know that there is next life after death. These things they do not know. So we are trying to educate them that "There is next life undoubtedly, and you can prepare your next life in this life. You can go to the higher planetary system for better comfort, material comfort. You can remain here in a secure position." Secure means this material life.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.49-65 -- San Francisco, February 3, 1967:

First thing is, because he knows God, therefore he loves God, prema. His only lovable object is God, or Kṛṣṇa. And the second is the..., he makes friendship with the devotees of God. First thing is, because he loves God, therefore he makes friendship with the devotees of God. But God is the center. If you love God, then you can love others also very perfectly. For example... Of course, in your country I do not know, but in our country, suppose a girl is married to a boy, and the boy has got father, mother, brothers, and so many other relatives. As soon as the girl comes to the house of her husband, the father of the husband becomes the father-in-law, or the mother of the husband becomes mother-in-law. So he has got..., she has got some duty to the father-in-law, to the mother-in-law, to the brother-in-law, but before marriage, she had no connection with these, all these people. Similarly, as soon as you make your connection revived... The connection is permanent.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 6.254 -- Los Angeles, January 8, 1968:

Twenty-four years He was very busy all over India. Therefore He left His legacy to the Indians, any Indian, to take up this cause and preach this cult of saṅkīrtana movement all over the world. So I shall request you to understand the philosophy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His movement. We have got already six centers, five centers in your country. I started first in 1966, July, in New York. Then I started in San Francisco, then Boston, then at Montreal. Of course, I did not go everywhere. These boys, the sincere boys and girls who are helping me, who have joined this movement, they are doing. This center was started also by one boy. I have come for the first time here. Now I will request you that this movement is nothing sectarian or anything bluff. It is the movement as the necessity of the human society. You join it, you consider it. You put your logic, arguments. In every way, you'll find that this is the necessity of the present day.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 6.254 -- Los Angeles, January 8, 1968:

So not only one center in Los Angeles, but you open centers in every village, every country, every home. And the process is very simple. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and dance in ecstasy and everything will come within yourself gradually. Everything will come. You'll practically feel how you are becoming reformed. There is no need of wasting time. This Hare Kṛṣṇa movement can be done at home, outside home, when you are working, when you are walking, every moment. So try to understand this movement and try to follow it. It is not sectarian; it is the need. I shall discuss all these points gradually. If you kindly come and attend our classes, I shall be very much thankful.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.98-102 -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

That should be in the... Just like Arjuna had problems, whether to fight or not to fight. So he approached Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam: (BG 2.7) "Kṛṣṇa, I know that the problems, You can make solution." Arjuna knew that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. "Although He's acting as my friend..." But he knew what Kṛṣṇa is, and therefore he asked. So we are in face of so many problems. Why not approach Kṛṣṇa? What is wrong there? And take Kṛṣṇa's instruction and be happy. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are opening centers everywhere. Take advantage of this movement and be happy.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.108-109 -- New York, July 15, 1976:

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that let us live amongst devotees. Why we are struggling to get so many centers open? Because devotees will live there, follow the regulative principles according to the instruction of the śāstra and spiritual master, guided by, and people will get chance. As soon as one comes in this society of devotee, he'll get some opportunity. And svalpam apy asya... That is meant. Even by sentiment one comes... Tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ hareḥ (SB 1.5.17). The Nārada Muni said, "Even by sentiments, one gives up his occupational duty, so-called occupational duty, and surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, even not understanding fully..." So śāstra says, "What is the loss there?" And if one is performing one's material duties very perfectly, then what is gain there? He's simply wasting time. And a devotee, even by sentiment or whimsically comes in this center and gives some service, that is a permanent record.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.110-111 -- Bombay, November 17, 1975:

The vivid example we can see, the sun. The sun globe is situated in one place—every one of us, we can see—and the heat and light is distributed throughout the whole universe. According to our Vedic conception, the sun is moving round, not the sun is the center. It is in the center of the universe, but it is going round. Kala-cakra. It is called kala-cakra. In Brahma-saṁhitā it is said,

yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ
rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ
yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

From Bhāgavatam we understand sun is not fixed up in one place but it is going round. And the whole universal planetary system, they are also moving, making the polestar, making the polestar as the pivot.

So we can see that sun is in the center of the universe, but it is illuminating and heating the whole universe. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is situated in his own abode, Goloka Vṛndāvana, but by distribution of His different energies He is all-pervading.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.124-125 -- New York, November 26, 1966:

Basis of peace is love. Do you think that you do not love anyone and you become peaceful? No. How it is possible? Therefore, if you love God, then you can love everyone. And if you don't love God, then you cannot love anyone. Because He's the center. Just like in our... Of course, here your family system is different. In India there is joint family system. Suppose a girl comes... The parents, they engage the girls and boys. Say a girl belonged to a different family. But when she is married, she comes to family, and because the husband and wife is related, at once the husband's brother becomes related, the husband's mother becomes related, the husband's father becomes related. Husband's... Everyone becomes related at once. The central point is husband. Before that, before any connection with that central point, this boy's father, brother had no relation with that girl. You see? So central point must be there.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 21.13-49 -- New York, January 4, 1967:

As soon as they think of individuality, oh, they think that there is a difference. Then what is liberation? Yes. And actually there is no difference. The difference is only that Kṛṣṇa's personality and others' personalities, they are conscious that "Kṛṣṇa is our object of love." That's it. The center is Kṛṣṇa. In this way the individual boys and girls and Kṛṣṇa, everyone is enjoying spiritual bliss.

sabe hailā caturbhuja vaikuṇṭhera pati
pṛthak pṛthak brahmāṇḍera brahmā kare stuti
eka kṛṣṇa-deha haite sabāra prakāśe
kṣaṇeke sabāi sei śarīre praveśe

Now, these, all these cowherd boys and everything, cows and everything, they are all expansion of Kṛṣṇa's energy. It is spiritual. Just like we are expansion of Kṛṣṇa's marginal energy and the matter is also expansion of Kṛṣṇa's inferior material energy, similarly, in the spiritual world all those things—Kṛṣṇa, the cowherd boys, the cows, and everything—they are also expansion of His spiritual energy.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 21.62-67 -- New York, January 6, 1966:

So this Sanskrit scholar, Keśava Kāśmīrī, he came from Kashmir to challenge the learned scholars in other parts of the country. There were four celebrated places where highly educated scholars were there. One was at Benares. Benares still, it is considered to be the center of Sanskrit scholars place. Similarly Navadvīpa, where Caitanya Mahāprabhu was born. And in Bihar there was a place, Darbhanga. That is also a scholarly. So Benares, and Berhampur (?), Berhampur in East Bengal near Dacca. So some of the places in India, they are very famous for learned scholars. Still they are continuing. So Sanskrit scholars would come in such celebrated places, and they would challenge for arguing on the śāstras. So the rule was that two parties will argue, and the defeated party will become the disciple of the victorious party. That was the system. So Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He was sixteen years old, this Keśava Kāśmīrī came to Navadvīpa to challenge.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad Invocation Lecture -- Los Angeles, April 28, 1970:

You remember? (laughs) He immediately threw away. They have no taste. So you cannot discuss all this transcendental knowledge with these demons. Satāṁ prasaṅgān. Therefore you have to discuss... Therefore we are opening so many centers, that people may take advantage of his society. Because anywhere else he'll not have the opportunity. His life is being spoiled. The modern civilization is like that. It is a killing civilization, ātma-hā. Ātma-hano janāḥ. All these people are killing themselves because they do not know what is life; simply like animal or living. The animal does not know what is life, but he is under the laws of nature, evolution, going on. But when you get this human form of life, there is responsibility. You have to chalk out. Here is a chance you can become Kṛṣṇa conscious and make your life solve all problems. If not, then again go to the cycle of birth and death again, 8,400,000.

Festival Lectures

Sri Rama-Navami, Lord Ramacandra's Appearance Day, Cornerstone Laying -- Bombay, April 1, 1974:

So on this auspicious day of appearance day of Lord Rāmacandra, we are taking this opportunity of foundation of the cornerstone of our temple in this Bombay center. And it is very kind of Mrs. Nair, A.B. Nair, that she has given us this chance along with her husband. So, so far we are concerned, we are preachers. We are preaching all over the world. We don't require any palatial building or very comfortable apartment. But because it is a preaching center, in order to invite respectable persons, we require nice building, nice temple. Just like Rūpa Gosvāmī, our predecessor ācārya, he left his ministership, government post and became a mendicant. He was living underneath a tree every night. Not permanently underneath a tree: tonight one tree, next night another tree. But when he was approached by King Mānsiṅgh, the commander-in-chief of Emperor Akbar.

Sri Vyasa-puja -- Hyderabad, August 19, 1976:

This is not civilization. The civilization is punar janma jayayaḥ, how to conquer over next material birth. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Therefore we are presenting so many literatures. It is being accepted all over the world, learned circle. Take advantage of this movement. We have tried to open, our humble attempt to open a center here. Do not be envious upon us. Kindly take mercy upon us. We are..., our humble attempt. And take advantage of it. That is our request.

Radhastami, Srimati Radharani's Appearance Day -- Montreal, August 30, 1968:

Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). In the Brahma-saṁhitā you'll find that He expands His ānanda-cinmaya-rasa, the mellow of transcendental pleasure potency. And these gopīs are expansion of His pleasure potency. And Rādhārāṇī is the center. Rādhārāṇī is the center. So Rādhārāṇī is not... Don't take that Rādhārāṇī is an ordinary woman like we have our wife or sister or mother. No. She is the pleasure potency. And the birth of Rādhārāṇī was not from the womb of any human being. She was found by her father in the field. While father was plowing, he saw one little nice child is lying there, and he had no children, so he caught it and presented to the queen, "Oh, here we have got a very nice child." "How you got?" "Oh, in the field." Just see. Rādhārāṇī's janma is like that. So this janma is today and Rādhā, this name is sometimes not found in Bhāgavata. So the atheistic class of men protest this Rādhārāṇī's name is not in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Radhastami, Srimati Radharani's Appearance Day -- Bhagavad-gita 18.5 -- London, September 5, 1973:

So I am very pleased that you are keeping this center nicely in our own standard by performing yajña, by saṅkīrtana, and today is Rādhāṣṭamī. You perform. Our yajña is saṅkīrtana, and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the pleasure potency of Kṛṣṇa. Rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmād ekātmānāv api bhuvi purā deha-bhedaṁ gatau tau, śrī-caitanyākhyaṁ prakaṭam adhunā tad-dvayaṁ caikyam āptam (CC Adi 1.5). When Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa is one. Ekam advitīyam. But eko bahu syāt. He can expand Himself. So when He wants to enjoy, so the pleasure potency is manifested from His personal body. That pleasure potency is Rādhārāṇī. Rādhārāṇī is not ordinary living entity. Rādhārāṇī is Kṛṣṇa's personal pleasure potency. Hlādinī-śakti.

So just today is the appearance day of hlādinī-śakti. So if you want to please Kṛṣṇa... Because our business is to please Kṛṣṇa. Hari-toṣaṇam.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Disappearance Day, Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 13, 1973:

And I made my headquarter at Allahabad. Allahabad is about five hundred miles from Calcutta. So I was thinking that "I met a very nice saintly person." That was my thinking always. So in this way, in 1928, there was a Kumbhamelā. At that time, these Gauḍīya Matha people came to Allahabad to establish a center there, and somebody else said, somebody informed them that "You go to that Prayāga Pharmacy." My drug shop was named as Prayāga Pharmacy. My name was also there. "You go and see Abhaya Babu. He is religiously... He will help you." These Gauḍīya Matha people, they came to see me. So "Sir, we have come to you. We have heard your good name. So we want to start a temple here. Please try to help us." And because I was thinking of these Gauḍīya Matha people that "I met a very nice, saintly persons," and as soon as I saw them, I was very much engladdened: "Oh, here are these persons. They have come again."

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Appearance Day, Lecture -- Los Angeles, February 7, 1969:

'Oh, these are all rascals, simply taking sex pleasures. That's all.' " There were thirteen pseudo Vaiṣṇavas, thirteen sects: Āula, Bāula, Karttābhajā, Neḍā, Daraveṣa, Sāṅi, Sahajiyā, Sakhībhekī. Sāṅi community... You have heard that in London there is a Sāṅi community. Sāṅi Hindu center you have heard from Mukunda? The Sāṅi is there still. So there are thirteen pseudo pretenders belonging to the Caitanya-sampradāya. They are called first Āula, Bāula, Karttābhajā, Neḍā, Daraveṣa, Sāṅi, Sakhībhekī, Gaurāṅga-nagarī, Cūḍādhārī, Ativāḍī, and Smārta, Jāta-gosāñi. Like that, thirteen.

So if I describe these thirteen, it will take thirteen hours. So I don't describe all them. But one or two must be described. The most important is the Jāta-gosāñi. Jāti-gosāñi. They created a caste of gosvāmīns, just like they created a caste of brāhmaṇas, a caste of gosvāmīns.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Appearance Day, Lecture -- Los Angeles, February 7, 1969:

You see? You see? I was very glad—"So they have come again"—because I was separated from them in 1923, and again I saw them in 1928 after five years, and I was thinking of Guru Mahārāja simply in this way, "Oh, I met a very nice saintly person. Very nice saintly person. If I can see him again?" Like that. So in this way, with my help, the Allahabad center of Gauḍīya Maṭha was established. Then I was initiated in 1933. In 1933. And in 1936 I was, at that time, in Bombay, and Guru Mahārāja was very much indisposed, and he was at Purī, Jagannātha Purī. We have got our temple there. Guru Mahārāja established sixty-four temples, small and big. Just like I am increasing, he increased. So most of the temples were in Bengal. In Bengal there were about fifty out of sixty-four. And one temple was at Allahabad, one was in Madras. In this way, outside Bengal, about three, four, one Benares.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Address -- London, September 11, 1969:

Prabhupāda: No. Wherever I go, I have got my disciples. In the Western countries I have got now about twenty centers, especially in America, Canada. So the American boys are very enthusiastic. I think...

Devotees: Haribol!

Prabhupāda: I think I got in Los Angeles and San Francisco a very great reception. And in Ratha-yātrā festival about ten thousand boys and girls followed me for seven miles.

Devotees: Haribol!

Reporter: What do you try and teach, sir?

Arrival Address -- Los Angeles, June 20, 1975:

The animals, the trees, the flowers, the land, and the cowherd boys, the elderly cowherds men, Nanda Mahārāja and others—all are attracted to Kṛṣṇa. This is Vṛndāvana. The Yamunā water, everything. Fruits, flowers and everything. That is Vṛndāvana. So Kṛṣṇa is the center of attraction. You might have read that when Brahmā stolen all Kṛṣṇa's associates, so He created Himself again all of them, and everyone was feeling more attracted by Kṛṣṇa. So this is natural. This is not unnatural. Our position is, natural position is, to be attracted by Kṛṣṇa. If we do not become attracted by Kṛṣṇa, that is unnatural. And to become attracted by Kṛṣṇa, that is not unnatural. That is natural.

Arrival Address -- Denver, June 27, 1975:

Of course, in the material world there is no gold which has got good scent. But in the spiritual world that is possible. So with your intelligence, with your opulence, add Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then nationally, individually, collectively you will be glorified. I am very glad that you have opened this center. It is nice place. And execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is very simple, not difficult, if we want to execute. But I am glad that you are doing that. Our Satsvarūpa Mahārāja is guiding you, and I thank you very much for your kind reception. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Arrival Address -- Toronto, June 17, 1976:

Unless we do not understand what I am—I misidentify myself with this body—we shall remain in the darkness of the animal. There cannot be any peace and prosperity. That is not possible.

So we have come here in Toronto to open this center to give this enlightenment to everyone. It is not meant for a particular nation, particular religious system. It is a science. Suppose if we say that you become peaceful, you become honest, you become wise. These instructions are not meant for East or West. It is meant for everyone. So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to educate people how to become wise, honest, truthful, believer in God, so on, so on. This is the movement. So we think that you shall take seriously this movement.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation of Satyabhama Dasi and Gayatri Initiation of Devotees Going to London -- Montreal, July 26, 1968:

Pay tax to the government, central government. The tax is distributed—the education department, municipal department, this department, that department. Therefore the people are missing the center. They are trying to satisfy one another, but nobody is satisfied. And by illusion they cannot understand this mistake. Everyone is very much proud: "Oh, I am serving my country." And he does not know what somebody, his countrymen, will come and kill him. You see? He does not know that. This is māyā. So one should be intelligent to serve Kṛṣṇa. This prayer Hare Kṛṣṇa means "Kṛṣṇa, I am so much harassed by this service of this māyā. Now please engage me in Your service." This is our prayer. And as soon as I am engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, then I will be satisfied, Kṛṣṇa will be satisfied, and the whole world will be satisfied. So nobody should interpret any other way.

Initiation of Rukmini Dasi -- Montreal, August 15, 1968:

So I've advised him to develop it into New Vrindaban. So I have got today his letter, the document he is preparing through the lawyer. So it is also a nice project. If by Kṛṣṇa's desire we can develop a center just exactly prototype of Vṛndāvana, it will be very nice. Those American boys and girls who cannot go so long distance, 14,000 miles, they will have facility. So Kṛṣṇa is giving us all facilities. Simply we have to be very sincere and everything will be done nicely.

So let us begin our today's business. (to initiate:) So you come forward. Yes. Take little water, one glass and spoon. This is too big. All right, take it. You know how to do it? Take little water, one, two, three, then four. Do it like that. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Initiation of Hrsikesa Dasa and Marriage of Satsvarupa and Jadurani -- New York, September 5, 1968:

Prabhupāda: Now chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (chants) Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Boston center is in your charge, husband and wife. So you have to develop. You do it, and your children will do it. In this way just engage fully, heart and soul, in Kṛṣṇa's service. Oh, this is mixed?

Brahmānanda: No, it's not.

Prabhupāda: Bring that. Mix it. Mix it. Yes, mix it. (oṁ apavitraḥ recitation-fire sacrifice) Offer. Svāhā. Take. Everyone, you also take, little, little, some. Vande aham... (recites maṅgalācaraṇa and prayers again, with devotees repeating) Now take one banana. Give him one. Yes, you take one. He'll give. Hayagrīva. Give Hayagrīva one. Give me one. Yes. Now turn(?) down. Yes. (chants namo brahmaṇya-devāya prayer three times) Just put slowly. (chants Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra responsively with devotees two times) Now bow down.

Initiation of Lokanatha dasa -- New Vrindaban, May 21, 1969:

That is anityam. That substance will not be carried by you. You have come here empty-handed from the womb of your mother, and when you leave this place, you will also go empty-handed. Not that because you have earned millions of dollars, Mr. Rockefeller or Ford, you can carry this. No. The Rockefeller Center will remain there, where it is. You have to go empty-handed. So now, when it is said arthadam, "You can achieve the substance," that does not mean this artha, temporary, which will not be carried by me. It will be left behind. That is going on. I create something in this life. As much as this body is created by the father and mother, similarly, I also create. That creative energy is there in me because I am part and parcel of God. So God creates; I also create. That creative energy is within me, but a very minute quantity. That creation is nothing in comparison with God's creation.

Initiation Lecture -- New York, July 28, 1971:

They could not seriously understand Kṛṣṇa, because the writing or discussing or discourses took place amongst the nondevotees. Satāṁ prasaṅgāt. But if you actually (indistinct) Kṛṣṇa, then you have to talk of Kṛṣṇa amongst devotees. We are opening different centers just to give people chance. They may have intimate association with the devotees. Satāṁ prasaṅgāt mama vīrya-saṁvido. Vīrya-saṁvida. Vīrya means full potency. Mama vīrya-saṁvida bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ. Hṛd means heart and karṇa means ear. Rasāyanāḥ means pleasing, very pleasing, tasteful, rasāyanāḥ.

So satāṁ prasaṅgam mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ. First of all, in order to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness one has to be engaged about Kṛṣṇa. Just like Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is preaching a philosophy to Arjuna.

Initiation Lecture Excerpt -- London, September 7, 1971:

So many tablets advertised, in your country especially. For this disease, one tablet, for that disease, one tablet. Dozens of tablet he has to take daily. And at the night also, sleeping tablet. (laughter) But our devotees, they get good opportunity, sleeping very nicely without any tablet. Go on. (break) The centers, they should learn how to conduct this priestly work. You have practically seen, and gradually, you should take charge of everything. All right.

Initiations and Lecture Sannyasa Initiation of Sudama dasa -- Tokyo, April 30, 1972:

We have opened this temple in this country. So we invite all Japanese boys and girls, young men. Especially we invite them because they can understand. Old men, they are sophisticated. They, whatever they have understood, it will take hundred years to forget. (laughter) But young men, they are inquisitive, they are receptive. They can easily... Practically all over the world, all our followers, disciples, students, they are all young men, or teenagers, or some of them, about twenty-five years or thirty years, but no old men. That is the special feature of this movement. In all countries we have got branches, all over America, all over Europe, all over Canada, Australia, and in your country we are now making progress gradually. We have got center here. We are thinking of opening one center in Quoto. What is that?

Initiation Lecture -- Caracas, February 22, 1975:

That is also true in the material science. The students go to the school, college, and hear from the professor, and gradually he becomes learned in that subject matter. Especially in this age, śravaṇam, or hearing, is very, very important. We are therefore opening different centers in different parts of the world, and they are being given the chance of this bhakti-yoga system, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam (SB 7.5.23), like that. So all these devotees present here, they are not Indians. I have not brought them from India; neither I have bribed them here. But by hearing only, they are now coming to God consciousness and devotees. Therefore this śravaṇam item, or hearing item, is very, very important. So if you all, ladies and gentlemen present here, take advantage of hearing about God from this institution, you will also become God conscious.

Cornerstone Ceremonies

Cornerstone Laying -- Bombay, January 23, 1975:

So we selected this Bombay. Bombay city is the best city, most advanced city in India, the best city in India. And people are also very nice. They are religiously inclined. They are opulent. They can take up better things very nicely. Therefore I wanted to start this center, Bombay, for spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Although there have been many impediments in my endeavor, still, ultimately it is Kṛṣṇa's business. It will come successful. So today... The foundation and cornerstone establishment was done two years before, but there were many, many impediments from the asuric janā. Now, some way or other, we have got little relief from such impediments. So we are putting this cornerstone this auspicious day, and I am very glad that you have joined us.

Cornerstone Laying -- Bombay, January 23, 1975:

This is the message of Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is not going to make any topsy-turvy of the social order or spiritual order. No. It should be standardized according to the authority. And the best authority is Kṛṣṇa.

So make this center successful, you ladies and gentlemen of Bombay. We have got very nice place. We are building so that you can come here, stay, at least in weekend. If you stay, all those who are retired or elderly gentlemen, ladies, they can come here and stay. We will have sufficient place. But try to organize these principles of Bhagavad-gītā all over the world. That will be the gift of India. Caitanya Mahāprabhu desired that anyone who has taken birth in India as human being, not cats and dogs.

Cornerstone Laying -- Bombay, January 23, 1975:

So this is a great culture, Bhagavad-gītā as it is. So those responsible ladies and gentlemen are present here, make this center very successful and come here, study Bhagavad-gītā as it is without any foolish interpretation. I say foolish again and again because interpretation is not at all required. Everything is clear, from the very beginning.

dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre
samavetā yuyutsavaḥ
māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva
kim akurvata sañjaya
(BG 1.1)

So very clear. Kurukṣetra is dharma-kṣetra still. In the Vedas it is stated, kurukṣetre dharmam ācaret: "One should go to Kurukṣetra and perform religious rituals." Therefore it is dharma-kṣetra from time immemorial. And why should we interpret it that "This Kurukṣetra means this body, dharmakṣetra, this body"? Why? Why mislead people? Stop this misleading. And Kurukṣetra is still there. Kurukṣetra station, railway station, is there.

Cornerstone Laying -- Bombay, January 23, 1975:

This is paropakāra movement, to do welfare to others, not like cats and dogs, simply bring money and sense enjoy. This is not human life. Human life is for paropakāra. People are in ignorance, without any knowledge of God, without the ideal of life. They are simply working like cats and dogs and hogs. So they should be educated. Human life is the chance for getting such education. So this is the center for educating the human society to become actually human being and make his life successful.

General Lectures

Lecture on Maha-mantra -- New York, September 8, 1966:

Sun is separately existing. In spite of distributing for millions of years heat, the reservation of heat in the sun is intact. It is not diminished. But everyone knows that for millions and billions of years the sun is distributing heat. Nobody knows the history, how long. Your distributing center, the powerhouse, if you fail to supply coal or oil, then after one hour the whole New York City will be dark. So just you can imagine who is supplying the fuel in the heat of the sun so that for millions and billions of years the heat of the sun is in the same temperature. So this is only one of the creation of the God, God's creation. But just imagine. If God's creation is so unlimited and so much energetic, then how much energetic and how much powerful is the creator? That is to be... These things are to be thought. In everything, everything, we can have God consciousness.

Lecture Engagement -- Montreal, June 15, 1968:

"All the species of life—never mind whether he is man or he's a dog, he's a cat—he's a living entity, and I am the seed-giving father of all living entities." Now, how nice, you can understand simply. This verse, if you can understand, then you can have some idea of universal brotherhood. If you want to make universal brotherhood, you must find out the center—the universal father. So these questions and answers are there, and we have got the science of God, the education of science of God, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So these books are meant for human society, and if you take advantage of the knowledge imparted in this book and if you chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, you will see how your life becomes improved, how you become full of knowledge, full of bliss, and how you advance in your eternal life.

Lecture -- Montreal, June 26, 1968:

"The paṇḍitāḥ, the learned man, he does not lament over the body, either living or dead." Because bodily platform is not the subject matter for understanding of philosophical research. Bodily platform is not very important. The spiritual platform is important, but nobody is discussing about spiritual platform. Everyone is, all the education centers, the universities, they are, I mean to say, busy studying chemistry, physics, and biology, mathematics. At most, little philosophy. That is also on mental speculation, theory. Somebody is giving some theory; somebody's giving (another) theory. But nobody discussing about the eternal spirit soul. That is the defect of this modern civilization.

Lecture -- Seattle, September 30, 1968:

So we have to increase. Increase. The increase means there are two ways. If you practice, "I love my society, I love my country, I love my human nation," then "Living entities," go on... But if you directly touch Kṛṣṇa, then everything is there. It is so nice. Because Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive, includes everything. Why everything? Because Kṛṣṇa is the center. Just like in a family, if you love your father, then you love your brothers, sisters, the servant of your father, the home of your father, the wife of your father, namely, your mother, everyone. The central point is father. This is crude example. Similarly, if you love Kṛṣṇa, then your love will be expanded everywhere. Another example, just like if you love a tree, the leaves, the flowers, the branches, the trunks, the twigs, everything. You simply pour water on the root, then your loving affairs for the tree will automatically serve.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 2, 1968:

Transcendental. "You are beyond." This is explained in Bhagavad-gītā:

indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur
indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ
manasas tu parā buddhir
yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ
(BG 3.42)

First of all, you realize this body. Body means the senses. But when you go further, we see the mind is the center of these sensual activities. Unless the mind is sound, we cannot act with our senses. So indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ. So transcendental to the senses, mind is there, and transcendental to the mind, there is intelligence, and transcendental to the intelligence, there is soul. That we have to understand.

Class in Los Angeles -- Los Angeles, November 15, 1968:

So Kṛṣṇa, up to sixteen years, He was in Vṛndāvana. Naturally, there were many children, boys and girls. They played together. So they were very... Kṛṣṇa, everyone loved. Vṛndāvana means simply center figure is Kṛṣṇa, and everyone loves. So some of the girls, they loved Kṛṣṇa, and a girl's loving means she wants Kṛṣṇa as husband. But according to Vedic concept, the girls are married at the age of twelve to sixteen years, and boys are married from twenty to twenty-five years. So all the girls were married mostly, but Kṛṣṇa was not married. And some of the girls were not married, but all the girls, they were very fond of Kṛṣṇa. So from the childhood they were friends. So Kṛṣṇa used to play His flute, and all the girls would come. So this rasa-līlā was performed on this day, the Kṛṣṇa, in the full moon night, He played the flute, and the girls assembled and there was dance.

Recorded Speech to Members of ISKCON London -- Los Angeles, December 23, 1968:

These performances we can practice anywhere. It does not matter either in a temple, or in a street, or in a park, or at home. But to assemble together and sit together, we require a place for congregation; therefore a temple of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is required to be established in various centers of the world, irrespective of the particular countries, culture, philosophy, and religion. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so universal and perfect that it can appeal to everyone, irrespective of his position; therefore I fervently appeal to you, all present in this meeting, to extend your cooperation for successful execution of this great movement.

Thank you once more. (Hare Kṛṣṇa bhajana by Prabhupāda with harmonium)

Śrīman Gurudāsa Adhikārī and his associate Godbrothers have very eagerly asked me to visit London, and I am also very much anxious to see you all there.

Lecture -- Hawaii, March 23, 1969:

This is my country." Ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). Aham means "I," and mama means "mine." This is nonsense. Nothing belongs to you. Everything belongs to God. Everyone has got right to live on God's property. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If everyone is taught this God consciousness, there is no need of this artificial United Nations. We are united by nature. God is the center. Why artificial spending so much money? We are united not only in the human society, but we are united in all living societies, all living entities. Why we should treat the animals as different? Because there is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I have got my consciousness that "The human beings in America are my brothers, or my countrymen. They should be given all protection." And why not cows? They are also born in America. Why they are being sent to slaughterhouse? Because there is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture -- Hawaii, March 23, 1969:

That means "You are a fool." He very politely said that "You are talking with Me as if you are very learned man, but your subject matter is so third-class that no learned man takes this subject matter very seriously." What is that? Bodily conception of life. "You are talking just like a very learned man, but your center of activity is the body. So this is not a learn..., symptom of a learned man."

So if we take this crucial test of learning, we shall find hardly a learned man in this world, hardly one man, because everyone is absorbed in this bodily conception of life. All their ideas—this nationality, humanity, this duty, that duty, all—everything on this. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). They are accepting this bag of skin and bones as self. You see? This is a bag made of skin and bone, and this... Is spirit soul so cheap thing that it is a bag of skin and bone and some stools and urine, combination? That is nonsense.

Lecture Excerpt -- New York, April 12, 1969:

Then God will reveal Himself. He is sitting within everyone's heart, and as soon as He sees that one is very sincere and "He's trying to understand Me," then He will teach you from within and you'll understand. Even without reading book, by His grace you will understand. But anything we should not claim falsely. We should be very sincere and serious to understand God. Then God will help us. God is within everyone's heart. There is no difficulty. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So I'm very glad that you are all coming to our, this center. And these boys are trying to convince you in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Please try to cooperate with us so that we may be encouraged also.

Engagement Lecture -- Buffalo, April 23, 1969:

Of course, we do not expect that everyone will accept this philosophy, but even one percent population of the whole world accepts this... Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭha lokas tad anuvartate (BG 3.21). The Bhagavad-gītā explains that if some principal man accepts some theory and some philosophy, others follow. So we have got our center here. I request you all student to try to understand this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and purify yourself. And the purificatory process is very simple. We are simply chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. So my request, my fervent request to you all, that you are very nicely placed. Please try to understand this philosophy. Make your life very happy in this life or in the next life so that people of the world will be happy by following your example.

Brandeis University Lecture -- Boston, April 29, 1969:

Make an experiment. You have no loss. You haven't got to pay anything. But if you take this, the result will be very, very great, which has no comparison in this world. That is practical.

So result is... That is stated by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who inaugurated this movement. You see this picture, five learned brāhmaṇas. In the center there is one picture who is Lord Caitanya. He started this movement when He was only seventeen years old, a boy. A boy only—a schoolboy. He was student, but He introduced this movement five hundred years ago, and some of the elderly men, as you see, one elderly man with beard, He also helped Him, and the others... Actually this movement was originally started by young boys. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Nityānanda Prabhu, and Advaita Prabhu, They started. And there was a great agitation against Them by the brāhmaṇas, priestly brāhmaṇas, at that time. So Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu picked up these sixteen words from Vedic literature.

Brandeis University Lecture -- Boston, April 29, 1969:

My first condition is that there is no illicit sex life, there is no intoxication, there is no gambling, and there is no meat-eating. These four principles are there, but all my students in these twenty, about sixteen centers—one in London, one in Germany—but you will be surprised that all these boys and girls, they have taken to this austerity very seriously. They're not drinking even tea or smoking a cigarette.

So spiritual life does not mean a whimsical life. It is, first of all basic principle is, that building character. In the Bhagavad-gītā you will find that when Arjuna is accepting Lord Kṛṣṇa, he is saying that paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān: (BG 10.12) "My dear Lord, Kṛṣṇa, You are the most purest." Purest.

Lecture at Engagement -- Columbus, may 19, 1969:

Therefore, so long the bodily concept of life is there, we are interested in sense gratification, because body means the senses. And when we fail to achieve any gratification by indulging in the senses, then we become philosophers or thoughtful. That is the mental platform. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42). Because these senses are centered round by, of the mind. Mind is practically the controller of the senses. So when you fail to achieve real, I mean to say, pleasure from the senses, we go to the mental platform: poetry, philosophy, similar, songs. But you have to transcend even the mental platform. That is intellectual platform. Above that intellectual platform, your soul is there. So you have to immediately come to the platform of soul, and you'll be happy.

Address to Indian Association -- Columbus, May 11, 1969:

So you are so many Indians. If you help me, I can construct temples everywhere. We have got many assistants. Of course, the American rich men, they are not coming. The boys and girls who have joined me, they are very not rich but very sincere. They are working and maintaining these twenty centers. We have got good expenditure. You know. It is America. Sometimes we have to spend two thousand dollars in every center. So Kṛṣṇa is giving us opportunity. Although there is no temple, but we are, I mean to say, our own temple, but temples we have got everywhere. We have got our Deity, Jagannātha, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. They are being worshiped nicely, and we are offering prasādam. Every Sunday we are distributing prasādam. So the system is going on. Especially if you go to Los Angeles, we have got the biggest temple there. At least, daily, fifty, sixty persons are taking prasādam. On Sunday there are guests, more than one hundred. They are taking part. It is going on nicely.

Lecture with Allen Ginsberg at Ohio State University -- Columbus, May 12, 1969:

It seemed to me like a stroke of great intelligence for him to come, not as an uptown swami (laughter) but a real down-home street swami, and make it on the street in the Lower East Side, as also opening a branch on Frederick Street in San Francisco, right in the center of Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, so that people who were tripping in Haight-Ashbury several years ago, coming down, wanting some, quote, "permanent—eternal reassurance," formula, ritual, magic, hope, feel, one truth, if you wish, zeroed in on the Frederick Street rugged, performed, incensed, ashram, where chanting would be heard at dawn as they were coming down off a trip all night. A great many people who were hung on acid or other varieties of chemical psychedelics found it much more stable to practice a prolonged ritual or sādhana following the instructions of Swami Bhaktivedanta, which are old, classical, Indian-style instructions for both ritual, daily living, diet, sexuality, thought consciousness, apparel, hand gestures—in other words, a very complicated ritualized yoga, a very ancient one also. I thought Swami Bhaktivedanta made a great move in coming to the Lower East Side and to Haight-Ashbury.

Lecture with Allen Ginsberg at Ohio State University -- Columbus, May 12, 1969:

And then, naturally, because people dig chanting, centers formed in other parts of the United States, so that there are small street-level houses or storefront centers in Vancouver, or in L.A., in Montreal, up in Buffalo, down in... There's some Buffalo chanters here. And "chant" comes from the word enchant, which means to make oneself into, to make a magical spell about oneself. So there are Santa Fe centers also.

In other words, the indigenous, the importation of a very strange oriental form, almost a hard-shelled Baptist oriental form, in the sense of its traditionality and its fundamentalism, its reliance on ancient texts and interpretation of ancient texts by long tradition of teachers—it's strange it's so far-out and ritualized an Indian form should take root in the United States a little more naturally than the more Protestant Vedānta Society or the extremely rigorous Zen groups that have taken root. I think partly it's due to the magnanimity or generosity or the old-age charm, wisdom, cheerfulness of Swami Bhaktivedanta, his openness of heart, his willingness to come down on to the street, and his sense of his own divinity and the divinity of others around that it's been possible for the bhakti-yoga cult of India to be planted very firmly here in America so that now there are communes, or ashrams, functioning on the basis of the Kṛṣṇa rituals, which are, in some respect, a model for all those anarchists and political people who are interested in establishing indigenous American communes.

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

That will not bring any benefit. Maybe some benefit, temporarily, but real solution is there. If you believe in the Vedic scriptures, then real solution is yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta (BG 15.7). So everything is there. You can take advantage of these facilities. Therefore we have opened this center. You come. You try to understand and be benefited. We are not asking you that "Give us thousand dollars. Then we shall open our secret." Our secret is all open secret. You simply take advantage of it. Try to understand with your reason, with your sense, everything. We are prepared to convince you because we have got every equipment(?). We are not manufacturing anything bogus. We have got everything complete. So what was your question? Your question? Yes?

Lecture to International Student Society -- Boston, December 28, 1969:

Then, when the child grows, he tries to participate with his other brothers and sisters: "All right. You also take little." This is increasing the feeling of fellowship. Then he grows again, he feels for his father, parents, society, then community, country, and at last, international. Expansion. But in such feelings, unless the center is right, that expansion of feeling, universally or internationally or nationally even, that is not perfect. That is not perfect. Take, for example, internationally. In your country, what is the meaning of national? National means one who has taken birth in that particular country. Is that all right? National? You feel for another American because he is born in this country. Or any other country, Indian. That national feeling, that is called national feeling. You feel for your countrymen. You sacrifice your life for your country. But there is defect. What is that defect?

Lecture to International Student Society -- Boston, December 28, 1969:

What is that defect? If this is the definition—that a living entity or a person born in that country, he is a national—then why not the animals? They are also born in that country. But we are not expanding our feelings beyond this human society. We don't think animals are national assets. Animals are sent to the slaughterhouse. So this is because the center of national feeling or international feeling is losing. The center is not fixed up. If the center is right, then you can make circle from that center, any number of circles, they'll never overlap. They'll be growing, growing, growing. They'll not interact with one another if the center is all right.

Lecture to International Student Society -- Boston, December 28, 1969:

So everyone is feeling nationally or internationally, but the center is missing. Therefore your feeling, your international feeling, my international feeling, your national feeling, my national feeling, they are overlapping. So we have to find out the center. Then you expand your circle, it will not, I mean to say, overlap or counteract. It will go on. That center is Kṛṣṇa. Our society, International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, is teaching to the people of all countries that the center is Kṛṣṇa. You try to think from the central point of Kṛṣṇa. That Kṛṣṇa philosophy is the Bhagavad-gītā. I take it for granted that many of you have studied Bhagavad-gītā. In the Seventh Chapter there is a nice verse that,

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ
(BG 7.19)

You have heard the word mahātmā. That is a Sanskrit word, or Indian word, which is applied to a person whose mind is expanded, whose feelings, the circle of his feelings, is very expanded. He is called mahātmā.

Lecture to International Student Society -- Boston, December 28, 1969:

So our point is that if we actually want to expand this international feeling, then we must find out the real center. That center is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, or God, I have already explained. Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad-gītā... You'll please always remember that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means placing Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Whatever I am speaking, it is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Unfortunately, Bhagavad-gītā has been misinterpreted by so many commentators that people have misunderstood the Bhagavad-gītā. Actually, Bhagavad-gītā means to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and we are trying to do that. So in that Bhagavad-gītā, as Kṛṣṇa has given the definition of mahātmā, broadminded... So what is that broadminded? He says next verse, mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13).

Lecture to International Student Society -- Boston, December 28, 1969:

Then the human society will profit by it. They are actually not in sound condition of living atmosphere, but if they understand Bhagavad-gītā and if they actually expand their broader outlook, then these questions of social, national, international, all will be automatically solved. There will be no difficulty. And without finding out the center, if we manufacture our own ways... Not to speak of any individual persons, the different nations of the whole world, they are trying to be united. And in your country there is United Nations organization. Unfortunately, instead of becoming one, the flags are increasing. Daily you pass, you'll see another flag is there. Just like in our India, there was one Hindustan. Now (chuckling) there has become another, Pakistan. And sometimes there will be Sikhistan and there will be some-stan. So instead of becoming united, we are being disunited because we are missing the center.

Lecture to International Student Society -- Boston, December 28, 1969:

So instead of becoming united, we are being disunited because we are missing the center.

So my request is that you are all international students, you try to find out the center of any international movement. That international movement does not mean that "My brother is international and I am international. All others, they are nothing." Not like that. Actually, you try to feel internationally. That international feeling will be possible when you find out the center, Kṛṣṇa, as it is in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). When you actually understand Kṛṣṇa, the Kṛṣṇa philosophy, that will be perfect.

Lecture to International Student Society -- Boston, December 28, 1969:

The words are sufficient to give you enlightenment, but unfortunately, people take advantage of the popularity of Bhagavad-gītā, and they try to impress under the shelter of Bhagavad-gītā their own philosophy or own idea. That is useless. You try to understand Bhagavad-gītā as it is; then you will get this entitlement, enlightenment, that Kṛṣṇa is the center of all activities. And if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then everything will be perfect, all problems will be solved. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanam (CC Antya 20.12). These things are there, and actually, they are happening. Our students are feeling, they are actually doing that. So we shall request you to read this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, so your feelings of international spirit will be perfect and you'll be happy, and wherever you preach this cult, they will be also happy. And that will be very nice thing.

Speech to Maharaja and Maharani and Conversations Before and After -- Indore, December 11, 1970:

Perhaps you have seen one of them, Kṛṣṇa. That is published in two parts. We have got our magazine, Back to Godhead, in five languages: English, French, German, and Japanese, Hindi, and Bengali. Of course Bengali is going to be out. Hindi is already out. So we are doing these activities, and we have a mind that we may open a center in a nice city like Indore under your patronization. Although I know that at the present moment the time is different, still, if you like, you can help us in so many ways. In our Indian parable it is said that "A dead elephant is also one lakh of rupees." Elephant, living or dead, still, it is valuable. Mara hati laksa (?).

Speech to Maharaja and Maharani and Conversations Before and After -- Indore, December 11, 1970:

So this movement, from very old days, beginning from that sun-god, and again five thousand years ago between Lord Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍavas, the pious kings. So this movement has got very intimate relationship with the kṣatriya kings. So I would request Your Highness... Both, you are sitting. If you kindly give us a little place here in Indore, we can immediately start a nice center. And this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is essential. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that,

yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā
sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ
harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā
mano-rathena asato dhāvato bahiḥ
(SB 5.18.12)

That "If anyone has got devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he develops all the good qualities." Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī. Because he was a devotee, he did not distinguish the king, whether he was Muhammadan or Hindu. He immediately accepted that "You are representative of Kṛṣṇa."

Speech to Maharaja and Maharani and Conversations Before and After -- Indore, December 11, 1970:

Prabhupāda: Not... I don't... We got a invitation from Czechoslovakia. That is also Communist country, but there the people invited us to open a center.

Yamunā: The Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra was number one in Czechoslovakia. We have one record. I just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa over and over, the mahā-mantra, and in that country it was the most popular of all records.

Prabhupāda: In Germany also. We sold fifty thousand records in Germany. And there is another record, govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi **. That is also selling very nicely. And recently another record you produced? What is that?

Yamunā: Yes, that will be a long-playing record, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's name is Bhaja Hūre Mana, Mana Hū Re.

Prabhupāda: Ah, bhaja hūre mana, śrī nanda-nandana, abhaya-caraṇāravinda re.

Yamunā: And saṁsāra prayers, vande 'ham prayers.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, February 23, 1971:

Again, if you decant the muddy portion of the water, it becomes again clear. Similarly, our consciousness, being polluted by the three modes of material nature, we are thinking one another as enemy or friend. But as soon as you come on the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you feel that "We are one. The center is Kṛṣṇa." And Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). There are 8,400,000 species of life in different forms. The father, the seed-giving father, is Kṛṣṇa, or the Lord, the Supreme Lord. By misunderstanding, we are thinking that "I am Indian, you are American," or "You are brāhmaṇa, I am śūdra," or "You are Hindu, I am Muslim." These differences are only designations. So as soon as we are freed from the designation—sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170)—when we become nirmalam, clear—clear consciousness and Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the same thing—then all our misunderstanding is vanquished immediately.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, February 23, 1971:

Yes, Bhagavad-gītā, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Fourth Chapter, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). Kṛṣṇa says that "This system of bhagavad-bhakti-yoga was spoken first by Me to the sun-god." Vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt. "And Vivasvān, the sun-god, said this philosophy to his son Manu, and Manu said to his son Ikṣvāku." Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). So from this formula, if we study Bhagavad-gītā, then taking the age of Manu, Vivasvān, Ikṣvāku, it becomes not less than forty millions of years. So Bhagavad-gītā is not a new thing. It is coming down from an age forty millions of years back. (break) And besides that, we are represented in Tokyo, in Canada, in Europe, in America, like that. We have got fifty centers all over the world.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, February 23, 1971:

At least Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi. Three branches. In Bombay we have got already an apartment on the Warden Road, 89 Warden Road. We are paying 2,500 rupees per month. Similarly, we have got a center in Calcutta, Albert Road, near Park (?) Station, Calcutta 16. Three, Albert Road. There also we are paying one thousand rupees rent. So now we are in rented house. Out of about five (fifty) centers all over the world, we have got about five centers which is our own. Otherwise, we are in the rented house. For our expenditure is very high. In each centers, according to Indian exchange, we spend not less than five thousand and up to twenty thousand per month. But we are pulling on by selling our literatures, books, and little contribution from the public.

Pandal Lecture at Cross Maidan -- Bombay, March 26, 1971:

One who is working simply for Kṛṣṇa, he is karma-yogī. You have got tendency to work. You have got tendency to flourish yourself by advancing industrialism. That's nice. You go on, do it. We don't forbid it. But do it for Kṛṣṇa. Make Kṛṣṇa center. That is the whole teachings of Bhagavad-gītā. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). You offer... Kuruṣva tad mad-arpaṇam. Yat karoṣi. "Whatever you do, it doesn't matter. Whatever you eat," yat karoṣi yaj juhoṣi, "whatever you sacrifice, whatever you give in charity, give unto Me." Kuruṣva tat mad-arpaṇam. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 11, 1971:

Thompkins Square. And these young boys and girls, they began to assemble and chant and dance. This is the beginning. And when one well-known poet... Perhaps you know. He is Mr. Allen Ginsberg. He was also coming and joined with us. In this way, first of all we started our center in new York, Second Avenue, and then gradually expanded in San Francisco, in Montreal, in Boston, Buffalo, and Los Angeles. Now we have got fifty-two branches all over the world, including one in Tokyo, one in Hong Kong, in Australia, Sydney.

Now try to understand what is this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. This Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, recently it was started about five hundred years ago by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in Bengal, West Bengal, in the district of Nadia, about sixty miles north of Calcutta. And He started this movement. This movement is, of course, not to be understood that Caitanya Mahāprabhu started it, something new. No. It is the oldest, oldest in this sense, that five thousand years ago Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke about this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture -- Detroit, July 16, 1971:

You begin chanting in whatever condition you are and see the result. And so far examples, we have got our temples, we have got our devotees. How they are living, how their characters are being formed, how they are becoming purified, how their faces are becoming brighter, you try to see. It is practical. So that is our request, that you take full advantage of this center. You come here. It is being guided by one of my best disciples, Bhagavān dāsa. So he and others will help you. Please come regularly to this temple and take advantage of it.

Lecture -- Bombay, March 18, 1972:

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is started to educate people to understand Kṛṣṇa, that's all. We have no other concoction. There is no invention. Simply we are trying to convince people to understand Kṛṣṇa. So our main subject matter is based on the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So we have opened this center in Bombay to give you facilities. Please try to take it. Please come and encourage us, and we shall continue this movement, here in this center, as long as possible.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Town Hall Lecture -- Auckland, April 14, 1972:

Yes, serve the humanity... Is it not a service to the humanity to give real knowledge? But the service to the body is not neglected. Just like we are giving this knowledge to the world. It does not mean that we are starving or anyone who comes to us, he will starve. In our Māyāpur center daily one hundred men are being fed. And in our Bombay center... Similarly, in our Los Angeles... In all centers our temple is open. Any man can come and eat and live with us. Here also, we have opened temple. We invite anyone. If one person thinks that he is in scarcity or he has no... I don't think in your country such person is there. But still, if there is, he is cordially invited, "Please come and live with us. We shall supply all, everything, necessities of life." But you shall have to live with us as we live. That's all. That is the only condition.

Town Hall Lecture -- Auckland, April 14, 1972:

We shall supply all, everything, necessities of life." But you shall have to live with us as we live. That's all. That is the only condition.

So there is no scarcity if we believe in Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then there will be no scarcity. Actually there is no scarcity. You have been already informed that we have got ninety-five centers and we are spending seventy to eighty thousand dollars per month. But we have no fixed-up income. We are traveling all over the world with party. You can imagine. This is very expensive job. But Kṛṣṇa is supplying us all our necessities. Why not? If you are serving for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, why He will not supply you? Kṛṣṇa is supplying food to everyone, those who are not devotees, and why not to the devotees? What we have done? Those who have denied the existence of God, they are also being fed by Kṛṣṇa, or God. And we are preaching the glories of God. Why we shall be in want? That is not possible. And actually we are not.

Lecture Excerpt -- Los Angeles, June 7, 1972:

Yes. Sometime 1948, '47. Hm? Or earlier. Anyway, it is more than twenty-five, twenty years. But what they have done? The people are still fighting. So here is the..., that we have to dovetail our service, we have to make Kṛṣṇa center. The Communists also, they tried to make by making the state as center. So that is also failure. Or the United Nations also. I do not know what is their center. Their center is politics, that's all.

So in this way there cannot be complete harmony. Complete harmony will be possible only when you bring in Kṛṣṇa. That will be explained in the next verse. Īśāvasyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Unless you bring Kṛṣṇa, or īśa... Īśa means the supreme controller. He is actually controlling. Īśa. Īśa means the controller. So there is a supreme controller. We see in the, in our experience, that some of the objectives are living and some of them are not living.

Hare Krishna Festival Address -- San Diego, July 1, 1972, At Balboa Park Bowl:

Māyā means the illusory energy, where we want to enjoy, but it is not actual enjoyment. It is illusion. So the sex life in this material world is the center of this attraction.

So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is how to get the living out..., living entity out of this material entanglement. Because real happiness is not sensual happiness. Real happiness is above the senses. It is supramental sense, or spiritual sense. With the gross senses, what we enjoy, that is temporary. It is not permanent. Permanent enjoyment is transcendental sense enjoyment.

Hare Krishna Festival Address -- San Diego, July 1, 1972, At Balboa Park Bowl:

Yogis means those who are trying to reawaken Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He's called yogi. Our present consciousness is material consciousness. The material consciousness, the sex urge is very strong. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). It is said in the śāstra that the gṛhamedhi, those who are attracted by this material world, their center of enjoyment is sex. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham. This sex urge is a, a sort of itching sensation. Kaṇḍūyanenam. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. By satisfying this itching sensation, he becomes entrapped in so many ways. So many ways. That's a fact. Apart from those who are enjoying illicit sex, even those who are enjoying sex in regulated principles, they are also entrapped. Take, for example, one regular householder. In your country, it is different social situation, but in our country, in India, a family life is a great responsibility.

Lecture -- Laguna Beach, September 30, 1972:

You can come and see practically how our students are doing, advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. You can try to learn from them by association. Just like if one wants to become a mechanical man, he enters into a factory and associates with the worker, mechanics, and gradually he also becomes a mechanic, a technologist. Similarly, we are opening these centers just to give opportunity to everyone to learn how to go home, how to go home, back..., how to go home, back to Godhead. That is our mission. And it is very scientific and authorized, Vedic. We are receiving this knowledge direct from Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is Bhagavad-gītā. We are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, without nonsensically comments. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We are placing the same proposal, that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Kṛṣṇa.

University Lecture -- Calcutta, January 29, 1973:

There is great need. We have, of course, established so many temples, but still we require to establish temples, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temples, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's temple, in every village, every town of the world. Now from each and every of our centers, we are sending devotees in buses. They are going interior, into the villages of Europe and America, and they are very much well received. England especially, they are going village to village. They are very much well received. This cult is so nice. Even Christian priests, they are surprised. They are surprised. One of the priest in Boston, he issued pamphlet that "These boys, they're our boys, from Christian and Jews. Before this movement, they did not care to come to the churches even. Now they are mad after God." They are admitting. The Christian priestly class, they are not against us. Those who are saner class, they're admitting that "Swamijī's giving something tangible." Their fathers and forefathers come to me. They bow down. They say, "Swamijī, it is a great fortune for us that you have come to our country."

Lecture -- Jakarta, March 2, 1973:

So I think that you ladies and gentlemen here should take very serious account for this movement and join us. I shall invite some of your leading persons to meet me today or tomorrow, because tomorrow I shall be going. And if you are serious, we can preview some plan how we can cooperate. So you have got nice place, combinedly we can develop it into very nice center for spiritual culture. And that cultural movement will be interested by everyone in the world. Even those who were not aware of the Vedic culture, they're also joining and taking part in this movement. So my earnest request is that you should seriously think over the matter and join with this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Thank you very much.

Lecture -- London, August 26, 1973:

That is for your profit. You want something spiritual, and here is the spiritual movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Simply you have to study this movement very carefully and with intelligence. Then you'll understand that this is the thing we are hankering after. This is the position.

So we are opening centers all over the world. In America we have got about fifty centers, and in your Europe we have got about half a dozen or more than, dozen centers, including France, Germany, Amsterdam, England, and Ireland, Scotland. So this is a new center opened by us. This house has been very kindly given to us by George Harrison. He is a nice boy. He is taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So you have got good facilities now to understand what is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So we shall simply request you to take advantage of this center. We are not charging anything. You haven't got to pay anything. If you come in the morning and take part with us, we hold class.

Lecture -- London, August 26, 1973:

That we have got all of a sudden this nice house. It is 220,000-pound-worth. We do not expect to get such a nice house or such money. But sometimes it comes, actually. We are maintaining such hundred centers. But they have been given by the public. Kṛṣṇa sends. So because we have got such nice house, not that we have got this house... Of course, we are very much pleased because we are now able to accommodate Kṛṣṇa here, install the Deity and conduct the temple worship. That way we are happy. But not from material point of view: "Now we have got nice house." No. We can lie down on the street. So na kāṅkṣati. But Kṛṣṇa sends for the facility of our business. Kṛṣṇa gives us all facilities, that's a fact. Although we did not endeavor for constructing this house or so many other houses, but Kṛṣṇa sends us money, Kṛṣṇa sends us the means how to have nice house, how to accommodate the devotees nicely, how to have nice cars also, nice food, everything.

Lecture on Gurvastakam at Upsala University -- Stockholm, September 9, 1973:

The spiritual master's duty is to engage the disciples in Deity worship, śrī-vigraha. Śrī-vigraha. In our centers, all centers... We have got about..., more than one hundred centers all over the world. We have got the method of Deity worship. Here we have not yet established, but we worship the picture of Lord Caitanya and guru. But in other centers... In London, we have got two centers, two temples. In America we have got about forty centers. In this way, in each and every center, there is Deity worship. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā: to worship the Deity, to dress the Deity very nicely; to cleanse the temple very nicely; to offer nice foodstuff to the Deity and accept the remnants of the foodstuff as our eating. In this way, there is method of Deity worship. The Deity worship is done by guru himself, and he engages the disciple also in that business. This is the third symptom. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mār janādau, yuktasya bhaktāṁś ca niyuñjato 'pi. Not that he is not engaged. He is also engaged.

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is stated that whatever there is, property, on the land, on the sky, or on the water, anywhere, everything belongs to God. This is, some way or other, communistic idea, but it is spiritual communistic idea. The Communists, they are making their center as the state. The Bhāgavata makes the center as God. Everything belongs to God. The Communist says that everything belongs to the state, and the Bhāgavata says everything belongs to God. So from the idea, this is very nice idea. Now we are... Kṛṣṇa claims in the Bhagavad-gītā that "All the species of life, they are My sons. I am the seed-giving father." So the property is belonging to God, the supreme father, and we are the sons of God. Not only human being. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-yoniṣu: "All species of life." Therefore God has provided for everyone's sufficient necessities of life. For example, just like we are human beings, only 400,000's of species. But other species, they're eight million. Eighty hundred thousand species. In Africa, there are millions of elephants. They eat, at a time, fifty kilograms. Kg. What is that Kg?

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

Kilos. But they are also eating. There is no scarcity of food for them. So it is a fact that eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. But because we don't believe in God, we manufacture our own ideas; therefore we create simply chaotic condition.

So according to Bhagavad-gītā, as we are preaching, we are also opening centers, self-help center. In New Vrindaban, West Virginia, we have already opened a very big community center. We are going to open in California also, and we have already opened in India also, that we occupy a certain tract of land, we produce our own food, we keep our cows and take their milk, and there is no scarcity. Everything, there are. We don't require to go outside the land for our livelihood. So we are advising, we are making centers like that, that "Be self-sufficient. Save time for spiritual culture." That is human civilization. This was advised some thousands of years ago by Ṛṣabhadeva. I will recite some verses.

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

Guest (2): Is there a center in Geneva where this literature...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. Give...

Guru-gaurāṅga: We have a center in Petit-lancy, neuf(?) de Credo, with daily program, philosophy, classes, kīrtana, and general training.

Prabhupāda: You have not any literature having the address?

Guru-gaurāṅga: Yes. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Give them.

Guru-gaurāṅga: This is our monthly magazine which we publish in French language, and this is a presentation book which shows the scope of our activities in the world. Our center is open, admission is free. There is no cost or pain to come, and if you only learn one thing, where is the question of loss? Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that everyone can win something for the benefit of everyone else.

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

Yogeśvara: We have the Moscow Talks book here, your conversation with Professor Kotovsky.

Guru-gaurāṅga: You may see that in this presentation book we have a center in Māyāpur, in Navadvīpa, in West Bengal. We are distributing Kṛṣṇa-prasāda. There is no problem.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In all our centers, we distribute prasādam. Anyone who may come, "Take prasādam."

Guest (4) (Indian man): Has the movement involved itself in social philosophy, then? Because sometimes I'm sure you, if you propagate your good will, the moral path...

Lecture at World Health Organization -- Geneva, June 6, 1974:

We are getting a better response from the Western countries than in India. In India, we see that the leaders, they do not like it. They are now opening beef shop, wine shop, and we are preaching "No intoxication, no meat-eating." So actually, we are not very favorable to their propaganda. (laughs) They don't like us, the leaders. Now there are big, big signboards. In Juhu we have got a center, and the government has opened beef shop, very big. And wine shop, you'll find everywhere. And we are preaching, "No intoxication, no meat-eating." So how they'll like us? That is the difficulty. "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." But still, we are struggling.

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Atlanta, March 2, 1975:

So therefore we have prescribed four principles, regulative principles: No illicit sex. We don't say "No sex." No illicit sex. No meat-eating. There are so many things, nice things, especially in your country, America, so many nice fruits, so many nice grains, milk. Why should you kill? We are not. We have got hundreds of centers. We are strictly following. And you have taken our prasādam feast. How delicious they are. So why they should kill? The argument is sometimes offered: "The vegetable has got life." Yes, we admit also. But our process is to take the prasādam. Prasādam means we offer foodstuff to Kṛṣṇa and after eating, whatever He left, we take that. This is our principle. We don't take directly. What is the meaning of this temple? We don't use anything directly unless it is offered to Kṛṣṇa. So the vegetable has got life, but Kṛṣṇa says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, tad aham aśnāmi (BG 9.26).

Speech -- Vrndavana, April 20, 1975:

And you will be surprised. I invite you to come to our different centers in Europe and America, how they are chanting, dancing before the Deity, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Nityānanda or Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Recently I had been to Atlanta for the first time. But the boys and the girls there, they have taken three big, big houses. The middle house has been transformed into temple. How nicely they are chanting and dancing. You will be surprised if you go. So this movement is undoubtedly increasing in the foreign countries, and why not in our country? So the government, the leaders and the guardians, they should deeply contemplate on the serious nature of this movement and help us. Now we are bringing men from the foreign countries to preach. How long I shall bring? If we want to spread this movement all over India very seriously, then we invite educated, intellectual young men to come forward to study this movement. It is not blind; we have got books.

Lecture with Translator -- Sanand, December 25, 1975:

So we are sending all these sādhus all over the world, these European and American sādhus, because they have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness without any doubt. And it is becoming effective. Because we have got so many expansive centers all over the world, it is not possible for me to go everywhere. But these boys, because they have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness very seriously, they are doing very nice. And it is not difficult for them, because we have given this English translation of this book. We have got at least eighty books of four hundred pages, and they are preaching very nicely. And by the grace of Kṛṣṇa... You'll be surprised to understand that we are selling books, not less than one lakh of rupees per day. So the preaching is going on very nicely. We request all Indians to take part in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and be yourself happy, be yourself guru, and deliver all other persons who are in ignorance. And to become guru is not very difficult.

Lecture with Translator -- Sanand, December 27, 1975:

So they are accustomed to place their āsakti to cats and dogs. That means āsakti cannot be finished. That is not possible. So you haven't got to learn what is āsakti. Aśakti is there. Everyone has got experience. Simply that āsakti, that tendency of attachment, should be transferred to Kṛṣṇa. That is Vṛndāvana life. In Vṛndāvana the center of āsakti is Kṛṣṇa. There is Nanda Mahārāja, Yaśodā—they have āsakti to Kṛṣṇa. The young girls, they have got āsakti to Kṛṣṇa. The cowherd boys, they have got āsakti to Kṛṣṇa. The trees, they have got āsakti to Kṛṣṇa. The fruits, flowers, they have got āsakti to Kṛṣṇa. The water, Yamunā River, the āsakti to Kṛṣṇa. So if we make our central point of āsakti, then you can create Vṛndāvana everywhere. So this is the success of life. We have to change the āsakti to Kṛṣṇa.

Subha Vilasa Home Engagement -- Toronto, June 19, 1976:

At the end of his talk, one man asked Śrīla Prabhupāda that "We are very glad that you have come. Now you please come back again. When will you return again?" Śrīla Prabhupāda said, "I will return when you get a big temple for this center." He had seen different temples, including this big church. So Śrīla Prabhupāda's invitation to them was that they should make collection to purchase this temple. So Śubha Vilāsa and Viśvakarma and all the devotees actually worked so hard, and by Kṛṣṇa's grace they were able to purchase this temple.

So we can see that it is the desire of the pure devotee. Whatever Kṛṣṇa wants, He does not have to work at all. His desires are immediately fulfilled simply by His desiring. Everything is fulfilled. By Kṛṣṇa's finger signal the whole material creation is created, brought about, and it's maintained by His separate energies. And everything is annihilated by Kṛṣṇa's will and created again.

Tenth Anniversary Address -- Washington, D.C., July 6, 1976:

So we can see that actually Śrīla Prabhupāda has in almost a hundred centers and āśramas throughout the world, this has been established in less than ten years. One gentleman recently was saying, one respectable gentleman was saying, "I do not see how this society has spread all over the world (indistinct)." And I explained to him what we have done already has been in ten years. Just imagine twenty, thirty, forty years, like that. He was so surprised to see that actually in ten years alone all this has been accomplished. And revealing Kṛṣṇa's (indistinct) Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda's books are now printed in almost fifteen languages around the world and distributed in millions every year. The United States and Europe, South America and Africa, the Mediterranean, every country in the world is now benedicted by Śrīla Prabhupāda's translations.

Evening Lecture -- Bhuvanesvara, January 23, 1977:

Prabhupāda: We are living. You can see practically. We have got more than one hundred centers, and we are maintaining at least ten thousand men, just like these Europeans. And you have seen our opulence. We are advertised as fabulously rich. You can see here also. We have got at least four cars here. Who has got four cars? Don't you see how we are living?

Guest (5): Sir, what I meant... Supposing...

Prabhupāda: No. Your question is that... We are living very opulently because we are surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. That is point. So if you come to us you will also live very opulently. Surrender. Do that by practical seeing. We have no anxiety. Do you know what is our expenditure? In New York we are spending twelve lakhs of rupees per month. Only in New York. Similarly, in Los Angeles we have got huge expenditure. And our income is also, daily, five lakhs. You can see. Take our account. Audit. People do not touch as soon as one hears, "Oh, it is a religious group." And we are selling religious books, this Bhāgavata and Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, six lakhs of rupees daily. Can you imagine?

Departure Talks

Departure Lecture -- London, March 12, 1975:

That is spiritual world. In Vṛndāvana the cowherds boys, they are playing with Kṛṣṇa on equal terms. They do not know Kṛṣṇa is God. They simply know how to love Kṛṣṇa, that's all. There is no need of thinking that "Kṛṣṇa is greater than the other cowherds boy. They are living entities." There is no such sense. Kṛṣṇa wants that. That is Goloka Vṛndāvana worship. Simply the center is Kṛṣṇa, and all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, they love Kṛṣṇa, and they do not know anything except Kṛṣṇa. This is Vṛndāvana life. Everyone knows that "Kṛṣṇa is my very intimate friend." Somebody knows, "Kṛṣṇa is my son," somebody knows that "Kṛṣṇa is my master," and somebody is thinking, "Kṛṣṇa is my lover." But center is Kṛṣṇa. The cows, the calves, the friends, the gopīs, and the cowherds boy, Kṛṣṇa's father, Nanda Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa's mother, Yaśomatī, and... Everyone's center is Kṛṣṇa, "How Kṛṣṇa will be happy?" This is Vṛndāvana life. If we try to follow the footsteps of the residents of Vṛndāvana, how to love Kṛṣṇa, then our life is successful.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Prabhupāda: Just like so many radius, and it, everything middle points. You expand, you go, long, long, long.

Śyāmasundara: Even when the wheel turns the center...

Prabhupāda: The spoke. Spoke, and what it is called? Hub. Hub.

Śyāmasundara: ...remains constant. That's his whole idea of history.

Prabhupāda: That is explained in Bhāgavata. Kṛṣṇa says, aham evāsam evāgre. All expansions take place but He remains the same.

Śyāmasundara: Does it, does the spirit, is it the divine idea being actualized by the evolution of history and social, biological and everything...

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: But if the truth is unfolding itself in history, in biology, in sociology...

Prabhupāda: Everything. Center is Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: So all events are leading toward what?

Prabhupāda: Then all, everything is emanating from Kṛṣṇa and after some manifestation, temporary, again going to Kṛṣṇa. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19).

Śyāmasundara: So everything is coming from Kṛṣṇa and going toward Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Going to Kṛṣṇa. Going back. In the mean time there is some manifestation.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Prabhupāda: That we are doing, whenever we are painting picture, art, music, we are praising Kṛṣṇa with it. Our music, our painting, our anything, we center Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: He says that of all arts, that music and poetry are the highest.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so therefore we write, Vyāsadeva has written so many nice poetries in praise of Kṛṣṇa. Brahmā is writing, cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam (Bs. 5.29). All sages, they write praise of Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: Poetry.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Śyāmasundara: The philosophy of Bhāgavata is not...

Prabhupāda: God-centered.

Śyāmasundara: But it's not purely conceptual, is it?

Prabhupāda: Well, it is religion in this sense that carrying out the order of God. That is religion. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Just like law means the law given by the state. Similarly, religion means the order given by God. That is religion.

Śyāmasundara: He says that philosophy is higher than religion.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: They say that the center of the earth is molten fire, fiery. It is liquid. Liquid fire.

Karandhara: (indistinct) insulated tube, insulated tube through the fire.

Prabhupāda: No. That portion may be avoided.

Śyāmasundara: Oh. Go around the crust.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore "I am going in subway, now here is the hard column, so I go this way." What is, what is that?

Śyāmasundara: If the worms can do it, why we can't?

Prabhupāda: Rats can do it. Snake can do it. Not snake. Snakes cannot. Rats can do. (break)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...the knowledge that we get from the so-called scientific theories of...

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Hayagrīva: He gives and example that's something similar to the Vedic. He speaks of "a center from which worlds shoot out like rockets in a fireworks display, provided, however, that I do not present this center as a thing but as a continuity of shooting out. God thus defined has nothing of the already made. He, that is God, is unceasing life, action, and freedom."

Prabhupāda: It is just like a wheel. A wheel is rotating. There are spokes, there are rims, there is a hub, and in the center, what is they call that, that supports the hub?

Hayagrīva: Axle.

Prabhupāda: Spindle, axle, axle. So He is the axle. So the round is going on, but He is the center. Everything is going on but He is the center. Aham ādir hi..., what is called? Devānām. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo (BG 10.8). So the central point is God, and other things are just like a big wheel, and the big wheel has got so many parts. The, it has got the rim, it has got the spokes, it is going in force, but the axle is the same, always in the center.

Philosophy Discussion on John Stuart Mill:

Hayagrīva: We should stop. (break) ...Mill was not only a utilitarian but a humanist, and he says, "A religion of humanity can have as excellent an effect, perhaps even to a greater extent, than a supernatural religion." The religion of humanity would cultivate unselfish feelings. That is a religion without God, religion with man at the center.

Prabhupāda: So without God, how it can be religion? Religion means, I have already explained, the order of God.

Hayagrīva: Finally on immortality and miracles, he says that there is no evidence for the immortality of the soul and none against it, but...

Prabhupāda: How he can be convinced? There are so many evidences. That is the misfortune of the human society. A learned person like Mill, he cannot understand, what to speak of the others. This is simple truth. Any child can understand but due to misfortune they cannot understand.

Philosophy Discussion on William James:

Hayagrīva: Four, he sees, "a shifting of the emotional center toward loving and harmonious affection, toward yes and away from no, where the clangs of the non-ego are concerned." That is to say, agreeing with God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is asking always that "You agree to obey My orders," and as soon as we accept this principle, we immediately becomes liberated: "Yes, from this point I shall now fully agree to the the orders of Kṛṣṇa, or God." That is liberation. The liberation is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: to give up a mode of life other than devotional life. Muktiḥ hitvā anyathā rūpam. Our life is meant for rendering devotional service to the Lord. As soon as we give up this principle of life, devotional service to the Lord, that is our anyathā rūpam, means our living condition otherwise, except devotional service. That living condition otherwise than the devotional service is called conditioned life. And as soon as we come to this platform of devotional service, that is mukti, liberated life. Muktiḥ hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ. To remain in one's own constitutional position is called mukti, or liberation. (break)

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like we are. Our concern is Kṛṣṇa. At ārati, we stand before Kṛṣṇa. The integrity is that Kṛṣṇa is the shelter. We are all serving, chanting Kṛṣṇa, ārati, someone is chanting, someone is dancing. The center is Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, when you go to preach, when you write books, when you go to the play, the center is Kṛṣṇa. Then all our activities are on the platform of liberation.

Śyāmasundara: The idea is there also in this philosophy, that all of us know what is the real position, but that either due to weakness or a poor fund of knowledge or defiance...

Prabhupāda: Therefore we require guidance of the spiritual master so that we may not fall down.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are learning how to love God, and we are teaching the same principle to the whole world, without any discrimination, that "God is one." Not that there are different Gods of different faiths. God cannot be two. Eko brahma dvitīyaṁ nāsti. God is one. There cannot be any competitor. His name is Asamaurdhva; nobody is equal to Him, nobody is greater than Him. Therefore God is great. Nobody is equal. So in any form of religion, if love of God is instructed, that is first-class religion. It doesn't matter whether it is Christian religion or Hindu religion or Muslim religion. The test is how the followers have learned to love God. And now God being the center of love and everything being God's expansion, so a lover of God is lover of everyone. He does not discriminate that "Only man should be loved, and man should be given service." No. He is interested with all living entities, never mind in which form he is existing. So he is interested in..., lover of God loves everyone, and the love reaches everyone. The example is given in this connection. Just to water the root of the tree means to expand nourishment for all other parts of the tree, namely the trunk, branches, leaves, twigs, everything. Or to supply food in the stomach means satisfying the necessities of all parts of the body. This is the fact.

Philosophy Discussion on Soren Aabye Kierkegaard:

Prabhupāda: Therefore an embodied soul is always in difficulty with the unmanifest, both at the time of practice and at the time of realization. Every living soul is partially independant, and one should know for certain that this unmanifested realization is against the nature of his spiritual blissful self. One should not take up this process. For every individual living entity the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which entails full engagement in devotional service, is the best way. If one wants to ignore this devotional service, there is the danger of turning to atheism. Thus this process of centering attention on the unmanifested, the inconceivable, which is beyond the approach of the senses, as already expressed in this verse, should never be encouraged at any time, especially in this age. It is not advised by Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Prabhupāda: That is material life. That we say always that yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). Here, those who are addicted to material world, their basic principle is maithuna, sex intercourse. So this strong desire for sex, that will continue so long you are in the material existence, because that is the center of all pleasure. But when we get taste of Kṛṣṇa pleasure we can give up this. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). By same superior pleasure they give up this inferior.

Hayagrīva: Well as, as to the nature of the world, Schopenhauer is vague, but he sees material life as basically irrational and whimsical.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's a fact. Therefore you are changing body. Material mind is not fixed up; rejecting and accepting. This is going on. That Māyāvāda philosophers say as well. The Buddhists also say this material pains and pleasure is account to the material combination. It does not say material combination of this body. Soul is different, but he did not say because during his time they could not understand it. So he did not say that the..., there is soul, but he simply said that this body is combination of material thing; that is the cause of pains and pleasure.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Prabhupāda: That is not very difficult. Just like this International Society. Originally I started, so in any center, I am there. I am there. My photograph is there, I am there, accepting, Bhaktivedanta Swami. So personally I am not there, but I still am there by my expansion of energy. So similarly, Kṛṣṇa is the original Brahman. Whatever we see, we perceive, experience, it's all Kṛṣṇa's expansion of energy. That's all.

Śyāmasundara: His attack, then, is not upon your statement "Everything is Brahman," because you are also proposing other propositions which show how to experience that everything is Brahman. His attack is upon philosophy that is empty or devoid of sense contact.

Prabhupāda: That is not empty. Suppose...

Devotee: He would say that if we can demonstrate that everything is Brahman, then it is not empty philosophy; then it is factual philosophy.

Philosophy Discussion on Sigmund Freud:

Hayagrīva: Freud's..., this is Freud's final conclusion on this point: "True, without religion man will then find himself in a difficult situation. He will have to confess his utter helplessness and his insignificant part in the working of the universe. He will have to confess that he is no longer the center of creation, no longer the object of the tender care of a benevolent providence. He will be in the same position as the child who has left the home where he was so warm and comfortable. But, after all, is it not the destiny of childishness to be overcome? Man cannot remain a child forever. He must venture at last into the hostile world. This may be called education to reality. Need I tell you that it is the sole aim of my book to draw attention to the necessity for this advance?"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: Self-centered.

Devotees: Self-centered, yes.

Devotee (5): An extrovert is also self-centered, he keeps himself in the center of a large social structure. He only considers his own personality without interacting with others.

Devotee (3): One has more or less one or the other...

Prabhupāda: But how do you say that man is a social animal? How can you avoid society?

Śyāmasundara: An introvert doesn't avoid society, but in all his activities he doesn't relate to others actively. He'll go to school, he goes to the things that he has to do, but he's always very quiet and timid, shy.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Śyāmasundara: But in the male, so-called male species, there's a different temperament. There's dominance, there's aggressiveness...

Prabhupāda: No, no. There is no difference in temperament. The real (indistinct), the center (indistinct). Just like in your country it is the women is very (indistinct) that why they shall not be treated exactly like men. And the same thing is coming in our country also.

Śyāmasundara: And the men also want to have long hair and...

Prabhupāda: Actually, the real position is that every living entity is female, originally. But falsely he is imitating to become a male, enjoy. This is called māyā. Actually he is female, but he is trying to imitate the supreme male, Kṛṣṇa. That is called māyā. This is not fact. So our proposition is, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that you come to the original state, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You are not predominator, you are predominated. Predominated means female.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Śyāmasundara: So he gives a definition of the cell. He says that "The cell is a center or an organization within the personality which seeks to develop towards a goal of maturity and integration, the harmonious bonds of conscious and unconscious disposition." So he says that within the personality there's a center, which strives to organize the personality in such a way that anything is integrated, unconscious and unconscious. Unconscious and conscious states are all integrated, in harmony. This is the cell.

Prabhupāda: What is the explanation, unconscious?

Śyāmasundara: Well...

Prabhupāda: Soul, soul at the present moment as we take it, that is... Present moment his real consciousness is covered. That we are always discussing.

Śyāmasundara: He doesn't see a soul, per se, he sees that a personality or a...

Prabhupāda: What is that personality? As soon as we come to the personality... Entity, that we call soul. Individual entity, adding personality, that is soul.

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: He has no idea of the soul. Poor fund of knowledge.

Śyāmasundara: He calls it the center.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He is missing the point.

Śyāmasundara: He says that the self is very rarely complete or unified. Very rarely do we find someone who is unified, or have balanced their life, integrated their life. So his idea is that everyone must strive to achieve the self, that they must realize the self. This is the purpose of our lives.

Prabhupāda: That we are preaching. (Sanskrit) "Now we are human form of life, you can understand your position." That is our repeated request, repeated request, that don't waste this opportunity.

Revatīnandana: So when he says that the self is rarely completely balanced or integrated, so we say the self is always very stable. The self is always existing, always balanced, unchanging. So he's considering...

Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: Because these materialistic persons, they do not want emptiness, they think that "After finishing this life everything will be empty. So let me enjoy as much as possible in this life." That is their view, that "I am going to be empty. Now before becoming empty, let me enjoy as far..." And the sense enjoyment is the center of material life. Therefore these materialistic person(s) are so much after sense enjoyment. Propriety is one of them. Because their life is empty after death, so because, be..., "Before it becomes empty, let me enjoy as far as possible."

Hayagrīva: He believes that karma brings rebirth. He says, "If a karma still remains to be disposed of, then the soul relapses again into desires and returns to life once more..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Philosophy Discussion on Jean-Paul Sartre:

Hayagrīva: But if God exists, then...

Prabhupāda: God exists, must exist!

Hayagrīva: ...then He must be the center.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Hayagrīva: Then He must be the center.

Prabhupāda: No, no. He has to accept that God exists. He cannot deny it, because practically we see. You may be intelligent, more intelligent than me, and he may be more intelligent you. So go on, go on, and find out, if you have got power, that we come to a person there is no more more intelligent than Him, as God defines: mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). And Kṛṣṇa, "Above Me there is no more intelligent person." There is not. So you cannot deny this existence, a superpowerful, superintelligent person, because we practically see. Not that everyone is on the equal level. That is not the case. He is a philosopher, another philosopher more intelligent than him, another philosopher more intelligent. So you go on searching. Anyway, either in richness or in intelligence or in power, strength, beauty, there is comparative superlative degrees. So God means the superlative degree in everything. How he can deny this existence? That is not possible.

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

Prabhupāda: So that is fortunate. If you can protect... Therefore I repeatedly said that our Dallas center should be taken as very much important place. All our children must go.

Śyāmasundara: Make the environment perfect.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That I have repeatedly said.

Devotee: The reason he built the box, he could not control the environment.

Prabhupāda: No, no, box, you are speaking box, (indistinct) different box. That is another thing. But the perfection is required.

Devotee: His supposition of being able to control the environment completely is imperfect, because he can't control the environment perfectly. Even if he builds his child a box, what if there is a fire in the house and the box burns down? How he can control that environment?

Philosophy Discussion on B. F. Skinner:

Prabhupāda: You cannot be. It is simply dream. If you simply dream, it will be never be fruitful. But our philosophy is that everyone is thinking as servant of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we have no competition. We want to serve Kṛṣṇa center.

Śyāmasundara: He says that's the main difficulty. He says there is still competition going on.

Prabhupāda: So much more, because he has not changed the mind. The mind is thinking how to become master. So as soon as you want to become master, I want to become master, he wants to, there must be some... But our teaching is different. We become servant, servant of Kṛṣṇa. Even there is competition, but that competition is center in Kṛṣṇa.

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Prabhupāda: No, there is no question of separation, that if we accept God as the supreme father. Now the Christian religion believes God as the supreme father. So if the supreme father is there, and if we become obedient to the supreme father, then why, where is the difference of opinion? But we do not know the supreme father and we do not obey the supreme father. That is the cause of dissension. The son's duty is to become obedient to the father and enjoy father's property. So if we know the supreme father, and if we live according to the father's order, so there is question of antagonism, dissension. It is all our own, father being the center. That, the difficulty is that we call supreme father but we do not accept the father's order or what is the order of the supreme father. That is the defect.

Philosophy Discussion on The Evolutionists Thomas Huxley, Henri Bergson, and Samuel Alexander:

Prabhupāda: No. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, the most confidential part of knowledge, that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This will give you happiness because constitutionally you are made like that. Therefore in the Vaikuṇṭhaloka there is happiness, eternal happiness because they are all surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. Just like in Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana, ell the gopīs, all the cowherd boys, all the cows, all the trees, everyone—simply center is Kṛṣṇa. How Kṛṣṇa will be happy.

Śyāmasundara: So everyone is striving to return to that stage...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: ...and they have simply perverted their drive...

Prabhupāda: Therefore they are confused and frustrated. This is called māyā.

Śyāmasundara: Their advancement is misplaced.

Philosophy Discussion on George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:

Hayagrīva: He writes, "The lifting of the spirit to God occurs in the innermost regions of spirit upon the basis of thought. Religion as the innermost affair of man has here its center and the root of its life. God is in his very essence thought and thinking, however His image and configuration be determined otherwise."

Prabhupāda: His image, if God is absolute, His image is also God. If God is absolute, then His words are also God. That is absolute conception. That iw not different. So the image which we worship in the temple, if it is actually image of God, then it is as good as God. God is absolute. God says that "This earth, water..., so everything is My energy." So even if you say, "This image is made of stone," but the stone is God's energy, bhūmi, earth. So there is a regulative principle, just like a wire, a copper wire, it is carrying electricity. Although the copper wire is not electricity, but it is carrying electricity. Similarly, if you take even material-otherwise spiritually everything is God, that is another thing—but materially if we distinguish that the copper wire, it appears as copper wire, but if you touch, "Oh, there is electricity."

Purports to Songs

Purport to Bhajahu Re Mana -- Los Angeles, January 7, 1969:

Bhajahū re mana, śrī-nanda-nandana-abhaya-caraṇāravinda re. This is a song composed by Govinda dāsa, a great poet and Vaiṣṇava. He says, addressing his own mind Because mind is the center of all elevation. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that if you have your mind controlled, then your mind is the best friend. But if your mind is uncontrolled, then he is your greatest enemy. So we are seeking after friend or enemy. So both of them are sitting with me. If we can utilize the friendship of the mind, then we are elevated to the highest perfectional stage. But if we create mind as my enemy, then my path to hell is clear. Therefore Govinda dāsa Ṭhākura, he is addressing his mind. The yogis try to control the mind by different gymnastic process. That is also approved. But it takes a long time, and sometimes there are failures. In most cases they are failures. Even a big yogi like Viśvāmitra, he also failed, what to speak of these teeny and nonsensical yogis.

So Govinda dāsa advises that "You just engage your mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then mind becomes automatically controlled." If the mind has no chance of being engaged in any other business except Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he cannot become my enemy. It is automatically my friend.

Purport to Gaura Pahu -- Los Angeles, January 10, 1969:

Therefore we are advocating this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, society. Actually, you'll find, one who comes to this society, by associating a few days, a few weeks, he becomes conscious and he comes forward for initiation and further advancement. So this association is very important. And the, those who are conducting different centers and temples, they should be very responsible men. Because everything will depend on their sincere activities and character. If they are insincere, then that will not be effective. One may come and associate with us, but if we are insincere, then it will be not be effective. But if the devotees are sincere, anyone who will come in contact with a devotee, he'll change. That is the secret. Sat-saṅga chāḍi asatyera vilāsa. And as soon as we give up the association of these devotees, immediately māyā will catch me. Immediately. Māyā is just side by side. As soon as we give up this company, māyā says "Yes, come in my company."

Page Title:Center (Other Lectures)
Compiler:SunitaS, RupaManjari
Created:06 of Aug, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=140, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:140