Cetana means

Expressions researched:
"Cetana means"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Cetana means living being, two living quality. So the singular number is maintaining the plural numbers.

Lecture on BG 4.13 -- Johannesburg, October 19, 1975:

What is the difference between the chief and ourselves? Now, the difference is eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. There are two chiefs, two eternal... One is... Two eternal and two... Cetana means living being, two living quality. So the singular number is maintaining the plural numbers. Eko yo bahūnām. We, we living entities, we are plural number, many. Jīva-bhāgaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ sa anantyāya kalpate (CC Madhya 19.140). Jīva...

Just like the sun and the sunshine. What is the difference? The difference is... You see the sun globe. That is also number one. And what is the sunshine? The sunshine is a combination of very, very small, atomic, bright particles, the sunshine. Molecules. In the science they are called molecules.

Cetana means living.

Lecture on BG 7.28-8.6 -- New York, October 23, 1966:

So as we have several times explained that we are all Brahman, but we are part and parcel of the Brahman. Now here it is said that paramaṁ brahma, the Supreme Brahman. The Supreme Brahman means one who does not come into this material contamination. He is called Supreme Brahman. The impersonalist school, they do not distinguish between these two Brahmans. They say, "Brahman is one. This individual Brahman, this conception of individual Brahman, is māyā, illusion." That is their doctrine. But according to Vaiṣṇava doctrine, they do not accept this. Their question is, "If Brahman is Supreme, then how He comes in contact with the māyā?" A Supreme cannot be under the subordinate, subordination of anything else. If something is under subordination, he cannot be Supreme. He cannot be Supreme. That is their argument.

Therefore the Brahman who comes under the clutches of this material māyā, er, energy, that Brahman is not the Supreme Brahman, and that is accepted in the Vedic literature, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām: (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13) "There are eternal, but out of the eternals, there is one supreme eternal." Nityaḥ. Nityaḥ means singular number, and nityānām means plural number. So plural number, we are plural number. Nityo nityānām, cetana. Cetana means living. I am also living. God is also living. He is also a living being like us, but He, His distinction is like this: eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān: "That eka, that singular number Brahman, He maintains all these plural number Brahmans." Therefore, this plural number Brahman, this jīvātmā, these living entities, they are supported by the Supreme Brahman, Bhagavān.

Cetana means with consciousness.

Lecture on BG 9.5 -- Melbourne, April 24, 1976:

So how God is situated. He is explaining. Na ca mat-sthāni bhūtāni paśya me yogam aiśvaram. Aiśvaram. Aiśvaram means supremacy. How supreme He is. Everything is resting on Him; still, everything is without Him. That is very easy to understand, that we cannot exist without God's mercy. Without the potency on which... This potency is life. Try to understand what is this life. We have got this material body. Material body means... This gross body is made of earth, water, air, fire, ether. This is the gross body, and the subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego. We are situated in this body. Therefore what is this, these energies? It is Kṛṣṇa's energy. Therefore we are situated in the energy, material energy of the Supreme Lord. We are ourself also energy of the Supreme Lord, marginal energy. So although we are situated in God's energy, we are forgetful. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni: (BG 9.4) "Everyone is existing on My energy; still, I am not there." "I am not there" means the living entity has forgotten or cannot understand God, that he is within the God's energy, God's material power or energy. Still, he cannot understand.

And another person, na ca mat-sthāni bhūtāni paśya me yogam, bhūta-bhṛn na ca bhūta-sthaḥ. Bhūta-bhṛt, He is maintaining everyone. But that does not mean that He is one of them. He is also being maintained. That is mistake. This is explained in the Vedic literature, that nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Two kinds of living entities, nityo nityānām. He, the Supreme Lord, is also eternal; we are also eternal. We are plural number, and He is singular number. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Cetana means with consciousness. We are also conscious, and Kṛṣṇa is also conscious, so He is the supreme conscious.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Cetana means living entity.

Lecture on SB 1.16.21 -- Hawaii, January 17, 1974:

So our principle is that Kṛṣṇa should be accepted as the leader because Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). Kṛṣṇa is the supreme leader. Eko bahū..., nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Leader means he must... Just like father. Father is the leader of the family. And why father is the leader? Because he earns, he maintains the children, wife, servant, and establishment; therefore naturally, he's accepted the leader of the family. Similarly, you accept the President Nixon as the leader of your country because in dangerous time he gives direction, in peace time he gives direction. He's always busy how to make you happy, how to make without any cares, anxiety. This is duty of the President. Otherwise, why you select one President? Any man can live without any President, but no, it is required.

So similarly, the Veda says, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. There are two sets of living entities. One... Both of them are nitya. Nitya means eternal. And cetana means living entity. So nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. This is the description of God, that God is also a living entity like you and me. He's also living entity.

Cetana means consciousness.

Lecture on SB 3.26.2 -- Bombay, December 14, 1974:

Nitāi: "Knowledge is the ultimate perfection of self-realization. I shall explain that knowledge unto you by which the knots of attachment to the material world are cut."

Prabhupāda:

jñānaṁ niḥśreyasārthāya

puruṣasyātma-darśanam

yad āhur varṇaye tat te

hṛdaya-granthi-bhedanam

(SB 3.26.2)

What is jñāna, knowledge? We have got... Jñāna means consciousness or living symptoms. That is jñāna. Cetana. Cetana, ce..., nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Nitya and cetana. Cetana means consciousness. Two things we find, generally, conscious and unconscious. Just like this table is unconscious, but a small ant, it is conscious. That ant is coming this side, you try to stop it, it will struggle, it will resist. Because it is conscious. But the table, you take it and throw it away, it will not protest, because it is unconscious. So, this consciousness is the symptom of life, and that develops one after another.

Cetana means conscious, and nitya means eternal.

Lecture on SB 6.1.13-14 -- Los Angeles, June 26, 1975:

And in the Vedas it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām, eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). God means He is also nitya, eternal, amongst the eternals. There are many... We living entities, we are many, plural number. Nityānām. Nityānām means plural number. And nitya, singular number. So God is singular number person, and we are plural number. We are many. God is one, but living entities are many. Not that God also is many. No. God may have many expansion—that is another thing—but God is singular number. God is not plural number. Nityo nityānām. So what kind of singular number? That He is chief singular number. Just like leader. There are many followers. Take any example: in the class room or here, a teacher is one, but the audience they are many. Similarly, God is one, but the living entities are many. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). And what kind of living entity? Now, living entity means living entity, he is also living force. He is not dead. Just like just now we were taking that "God is dead." No. Nitya, cetana. Cetana means conscious, and nitya, eternal. We are also conscious and eternal.

Cetana means living.

Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 6, 1968:

They are putting the population theory, but I don't believe in it. The population theory, that "Population is increasing; therefore it should be stopped by contraceptive method," Malthus's theory, in economics, they are following that. But actually there is no such problem, because if we understand from Vedic literature, from Upaniṣad, it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān: (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13) "That Supreme Personality of Godhead is one, and the living creatures are many, many, without any number." Asaṅkhya: you cannot count how many living entities are there. So both of them are eternal, God and the living entity, nityo nityanānām. Cetanaś cetanānām. Cetana means living. So He is also a living entity, God, and we are also living entities. But what is the difference? That eka, eka, that one singular number living entity, or Kṛṣṇa, or God, eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān, He is supplying all the necessities of other living entities. So how there can be any population problem if God is supplying everything?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Cetanā means life, knowledge

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Devānām asmi vāsavaḥ, indriyāṇāṁ manaś cāsmi bhūtānām asmi cetanā. "I am the..." Cetanā means...?

Prabhupāda: Life. Knowledge, knowledge.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Cetana means activity.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Yaśodānandana: They say to see that our vision of difference, that our vision of difference, that is ignorance. When we understand the jīvātmā to be different from God, from Bhagavān, that is ignorance.

Prabhupāda: No. No.

Yaśodānandana: That your vision of seeing God...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So we admit that, that when we see that "I am separate from..." Then the same example: If the finger thinks that it is separate from the body, that is ignorance, because the finger is required by the body to serve the body. So if he thinks, "No, I'll not serve you because I am different," that is ignorance. That is ignorance. That is going on. These Māyāvādīs, they refuse to serve God. That is ignorance. If they are part and parcel of God or one with God, how you can refuse to serve? That is ignorant. Here the finger is my part and parcel of the body. It cannot refuse to serve. I say; immediately it comes. So if the finger thinks that "I am one. Why shall I serve the whole body?" that is ignorance. Cetana. Cetana means activity. So if I am one with God, then my activities should be simultaneously with God. That is oneness. I don't disagree. God says, "You do it." I disagree. God says, "You surrender unto Me," but I refuse. That is ignorance. If I am actually one with God, just I am asking, "You do this"—you do immediately. But if you do not do it, that is ignorance. Gurur avajñā. Then he becomes aparādhī. Similarly, oneness means no disagreement. That is oneness, cetana. Cetana means I can disagree or agree. Two things are there. That is cetana. So cetana, cetanaś cetanānaṁ. So when God says that "You do it," you must do it. That is agreement. That is oneness. If you refuse, that is ignorance. How can you refuse? Suppose you.... Take the whole family, and the head of the families asks somebody to do something. If he refuses, then that is rebellious condition. In the state the citizen must agree with the government. Cetana. Cetana means he has got both the things. If he likes, he can agree; if he likes, he does not agree.