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Counterpart

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.1.20, Purport:

Any popular personality with a few traits of mystic powers will display some feat of jugglery and easily become an incarnation of Godhead by popular vote. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was not that type of incarnation. He was actually the Personality of Godhead from the very beginning of His appearance. He appeared before His so-called mother as four-armed Viṣṇu. Then, at the request of the mother, He became like a human child and at once left her for another devotee at Gokula, where He was accepted as the son of Nanda Mahārāja and Yaśodā Mātā. Similarly, Śrī Baladeva, the counterpart of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, was also considered a human child born of another wife of Śrī Vasudeva.

SB 1.13.56, Purport:

The material modes of nature (the guṇas) have their different modes of activities, but above the material modes of nature is a spiritual mode, which is absolute. Nirguṇa means without reaction. The spiritual mode and its effect are identical; therefore the spiritual quality is distinguished from its material counterpart by the word nirguṇa. After complete suspension of the material modes of nature, one is admitted to the spiritual sphere, and action dictated by the spiritual modes is called devotional service, or bhakti. Bhakti is therefore nirguṇa attained by direct contact with the Absolute.

SB Canto 2

SB 2.1.2, Purport:

The word medhī indicates jealousy of others. The gṛhamedhīs, being interested in family affairs only, are certainly envious of others. Therefore, one gṛhamedhī is not on good terms with another gṛhamedhī, and in the extended form, one community, society or nation is not on good terms with another counterpart of selfish interest. In the age of Kali, all the householders are jealous of one another because they are blind to the knowledge of ultimate truth.

SB 2.3.23, Purport:

In Vṛndāvana all the pure devotees pray for the mercy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the pleasure potency of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is a tenderhearted feminine counterpart of the supreme whole, resembling the perfectional stage of the worldly feminine nature. Therefore, the mercy of Rādhārāṇī is available very readily to the sincere devotees, and once She recommends such a devotee to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Lord at once accepts the devotee's admittance into His association.

SB 2.4.20, Purport:

Lord Caitanya was a strict sannyāsī, so much so that He did not allow any woman to come near Him, not even to bow down and offer respects. He never even heard the prayers of the deva-dāsīs offered in the temple of Jagannātha because a sannyāsī is forbidden to hear songs sung by the fair sex. Yet even in the rigid position of a sannyāsī He recommended the mode of worship preferred by the gopīs of Vṛndāvana as the topmost loving service possible to be rendered to the Lord. And Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the principal head of all such goddesses of fortune, and therefore She is the pleasure counterpart of the Lord and is nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa.

SB 2.7.47, Purport:

The conception of impersonal Brahman realization is the first step, due to His distinction from the illusory conception of material existence. In other words, impersonal Brahman is a feature of the Absolute distinct from the material variegatedness, just as light is a conception distinct from its counterpart, darkness. But the light has its variegatedness, which is seen by those who further advance in the light, and thus the ultimate realization of Brahman is the source of the Brahman light, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the summum bonum or the ultimate source of everything. Therefore, meeting the Personality of Godhead includes the realization of the impersonal Brahman as realized at first in contrast with material inebriety. The Personality of Godhead is the third step of Brahman realization. As explained in the First Canto, one must understand all three features of the Absolute—Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.14.41, Translation:

sMy dear King, of all persons a qualified brāhmaṇa must be accepted as the best within this material world because such a brāhmaṇa, by practicing austerity, Vedic studies and satisfaction, becomes the counterpart body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 4.29, Purport:

Yogamāyā is the name of the internal potency that makes the Lord forget Himself and become an object of love for His pure devotee in different transcendental mellows. This yogamāyā potency creates a spiritual sentiment in the minds of the damsels of Vraja by which they think of Lord Kṛṣṇa as their paramour. This sentiment is never to be compared to mundane illicit sexual love. It has nothing to do with sexual psychology, although the pure love of such devotees seems to be sexual. One should know for certain that nothing can exist in this cosmic manifestation that has no real counterpart in the spiritual field. All material manifestations are emanations of the Transcendence. The erotic principles of amorous love reflected in mixed material values are perverted reflections of the reality of spirit, but one cannot understand the reality unless one is sufficiently educated in the spiritual science.

CC Adi 4.83, Translation:

"The transcendental goddess Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the direct counterpart of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. She is the central figure for all the goddesses of fortune. She possesses all the attractiveness to attract the all-attractive Personality of Godhead. She is the primeval internal potency of the Lord."

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 6.171, Purport:

Thus the Lord's energies, though factual, are simply beyond the power of the common brain to understand.

When the atheistic philosophers or the Māyāvādīs, being unable to understand the inconceivable energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, imagine an impersonal void, their imagination is only the counterpart of materialistic thinking. Within the material world, there is nothing inconceivable. High-thinking philosophers and scientists can tackle the material energy, but not being able to understand the spiritual energy, they can simply imagine an inactive state, such as the impersonal Brahman. This is simply the negative side of material life. By such imperfect knowledge, the Māyāvādī philosophers conclude that the cosmic manifestation is a transformation of the Supreme. Thus they must necessarily also accept the theory of the illusion of the Supreme (vivarta-vāda).

CC Madhya 23.68, Translation:

“"The transcendental goddess Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the direct counterpart of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. She is the central figure for all the goddesses of fortune. She possesses all the attraction to attract the all-attractive Personality of Godhead. She is the primeval internal potency of the Lord."

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.2:

Those who cannot understand this truth remain far from the science of devotional service, while those who do understand it are strengthened in their devotional life. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the supreme male. So, when the supreme male is present, automatically material nature, his female counterpart, is there to serve Him. Those who falsely pose as the Supreme Person claim to have the material nature at their disposal and conclude that nature is no longer at Lord Kṛṣṇa's beck and call. Naturally this is absurd, and only fools will make such a claim.

Similarly, those philosophical schools which propound that the Supreme Person is subservient to prakṛti, or nature, are also far from the truth. When one thinks about nature and nothing further, the thought is left incomplete.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- London, August 21, 1973:

You cannot get unadulterated happiness or unadulterated distress. No. That is not. You'll get distress and happiness both.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa has explained in the previous verse, here also: yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha (BG 2.14). Here in this material world there is winter and the counterpart summer also. In the winter we aspire, "If it would have been warmer." That means you want summer. And again summer you'll require, you aspire had it been, I mean to say, cooler. You apply cooling machine. So this is our struggle. In the summer, we apply cooling machine, and in the winter, we apply heating machine. So undisturbed happiness, either in coolness or warmth, you cannot have. This is not possible. Therefore we have to become callous. But the materialist persons, they are disturbed. A little winter, little chilliness, immediately, "Bring electric heater, immediately."

Lecture on BG 7.16 -- Bombay, April 7, 1971:

So four kinds of men, those who are leading pious life, sukṛtino 'rjuna... Because they have no other alternative than to approach God for mitigating their distress. Actually our inventions or so many distressed mitigating instruments... Just like medicine. Take for example. When a man is diseased, generally the counterpart is physician and good medicine. But śāstra says that actually they are not counteracting agents, because it is found that a man suffering from certain type of disease, although attended by the first-class physician and although offered first-class medicine, he dies. Why? Because there is no sanction of the Supreme Lord.

So our counteracting method, even though they are very efficient, still, unless it is sanctioned by Guru and God, they will not be effective.

Lecture on BG 9.3 -- Melbourne, April 21, 1976:

So you cannot be unhappy: "I have not got this thing, that thing." Because here we are creating wants. Kāṅkṣati. This material civilization means simply creating wants, that's all, big want or small want. That is called kāṅkṣati. And another counterpart of this material life is whatever you have got, if it is lost, then you cry. One side is you are hankering after something which you do not possess, and if your possession is lost, then you cry for the loss. This is two business, kāṅkṣati, śocati. But if you become brahma-bhūtaḥ, self-realized, these two things will be absent immediately. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 2.3.22 -- Los Angeles, June 19, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa is the original form. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). But He expands in different forms. The original form is Kṛṣṇa. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, Kṛṣṇa, advaita, one. There is no second, I mean to say, counterpart. But He expands. Advaitam acyutam. Acyuta. Acyuta means which does not fall down. Acyuta. Cyuta means "fall down." So God's another name is Acyuta, never falls down. Just like we living entities, we fall down. From spiritual world, we fall down. Because we have fallen down, therefore we have got this material body. But Kṛṣṇa, or God, never falls down. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Ananta, endless. You cannot count how many forms are there of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They have been compared with the incessant waves of the river. Just like, in the river you stand, on a flowing river, you will find the waves are day and night flowing, flowing, flowing, flowing.

Lecture on SB 2.3.23 -- Los Angeles, June 20, 1972:

In Vṛndāvana all the pure devotees pray for the mercy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the pleasure potency of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is a tenderhearted feminine counterpart of the supreme whole, resembling the perfectional stage of the worldly feminine nature. Therefore, the mercy of Rādhārāṇī is available very readily to the sincere devotees, and once She recommends such a devotee to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Lord at once accepts the devotee's admittance into His association. The conclusion is, therefore, that one should be more serious about seeking the mercy of the devotee than that of the Lord directly, and by one's doing so (by the good will of the devotee) the natural attraction for the service of the Lord will be revived."

Lecture on SB 3.26.21 -- Bombay, December 30, 1974:

Then why shall I try for happiness? It will also come." This is very right conclusion. If without my endeavor distress comes upon me, so there are two things, distress and happiness, two counterparts. So if distress can come upon me without any endeavor, so the happiness also will come without any endeavor because this is another counterpart. So why shall I waste my time for this material distress and happiness?

That is the injunction of the śāstra:

tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido
na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ
tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ
kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā
(SB 1.5.18)

Tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukham. Just like distress comes upon me without endeavor, similarly, according to my destiny... Destiny means to some extent we suffer, and to some extent we enjoy.

General Lectures

Sunday Feast Lecture -- Los Angeles, May 21, 1972:

So eternally engaged in enjoyment, in the association of the gopīs. Gopī-jana-vallabha. And His only business is how to please the gopīs. Just like here, in this material world, the young boy who loves a young girl, he tries to please the girl always. This is natural. Because originally, the same thing is there in God. It is a pleasure. It is a pleasure for the male to please the female counterpart. That is originally created. Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir ahlādinī-śaktiḥ. These Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa love affairs is the originally there. Rādhārāṇī, the female counterpart, is the manifestation of ahlādinī-śakti, pleasure potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He has got many potencies. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). God, God means with His potencies. Just like ordinarily, we are part and parcel of God, a minute particle; still, we have got so many potencies. Every man, every living entity... Not only man, the animals also, they have got various potencies, creative energy. So you just imagine how much creative energies and potencies are there in God. This is the understanding.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Hayagrīva: As to the identity of life and death, he says, "The wisest of all philosophies, the Indian, expresses this by giving to the very God that symbolizes destruction, death, by giving, I say to Śiva, as an attribute not only the necklace of skulls but also the liṅgam, the symbol of generation, which appears here as the counterpart of death, thus signifying that generation and death are essentially correlatives which reciprocally neutralize and annul each other." So it's not death that is the solution.

Prabhupāda: Then what is?

Hayagrīva: What dies will be born again.

Prabhupāda: So what is the solution?

Hayagrīva: The solution is the annihilation of the will to live.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs) In the morning they begin fishing, this walking, and golfing, no engagement. These poor fellows, they have been not informed that there is better engagement. They do not know. This is their civilization. And here, Kṛṣṇa conscious young men, they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference. They appreciate the Kṛṣṇa conscious boys. "Bright faces," they say. The priests and the common gentlemen, they say, and they inquire, "Are you American?" They see it. Come and see in our Los Angeles temple, in every temple, how these younger boys and girls are sitting so peacefully, look so nice. Is it not? A year ago, all hellish. Hellish. The same boys, the same girls. That's a fact. Just the counterpart of our society is the hippies-frustrated, all disappointed, mad. They should come forward now to cooperate with this movement. The other day one somebody came to solve the problems of the hippies.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: More... Bhāgavatam, I told you, it is a counterpart. Just like when you have passed the school examination then next you admit yourself for degree or graduate degree. Similarly, Bhāgavata is the end of education. Everyone is progressing. When one comes to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and understands it then his education is complete.

Prof. Hopkins: Then would it be, would it be dangerous for someone who is not at that level to study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or would they simply not understand it?

Prabhupāda: Dangerous means if one is not completely educated of self-realization he has the risk of degradation.

Prof. Hopkins: He has what?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: "...Tīrtha Mahārāja, who was then known as guru-preṣṭha, most dear to his guru, and also known to the disciples of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura as Kuñjada, giver of shelter. In all the missionary works and the management of the maṭhas, Śrīla Bhaktivilāsa Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja was the right hand of his Gurudeva. By his constant, unstinted service rendered to Śrīla Prabhupāda, whose most intimate disciple he was, he almost became a counterpart of that great saint."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. This is not... "Counterpart." Jumping... Trying to equal...

Prabhupāda: So those who are not accepting him, so they are all fools.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is very bad, Prabhupāda. It says he wanted to be... He almost became counterpart. That means he is trying to become equal or superior to guru.

Prabhupāda: Superior.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So a similar counterpart leaflet you should, that "International Society for Krishna Consciousness, world organization, established by His Divine Grace, and anyone can come here and take foodstuff. We have got arrangement," like this. In suitable words you write and issue another pamphlet.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bengali.

Prabhupāda: In Bengali and in English. Which may not touch there, but we write in our own way that "By the order of his guru he went to America. Then he..." That's a fact. What is the fact, that should be written. Give the list of the books and so on, so on.

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Oh. They say that due to their āśīrbād?

Jayapatākā: No, he is saying that he is the counterpart, that he's got the āśīrbād.

Prabhupāda: No, āśīrbād, but what you have done for the āśīrbād. You are licking up the āśīrbād.

Child: Jaya Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Jaya. He is also. (break) Vedic conception is that the birds and beasts, they should not be driven away. Let them eat as much as it like. They must eat also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we shouldn't do that in our field?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the Vedic.

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Sa bhaktaḥ prākṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ. The beginning is arcā, arcana. And because he was given the chance of arcana, if he thinks that "I become paramahaṁsa," then he's a foolish. It will take time. The process is there. Therefore preaching is madhyama-adhikārī. One should take to preaching work gradually. When the preaching... Preachers, they have got discrimination, "Here is abhakta; here is bhakta." But in the paramahaṁsa stage, uttama-adhikārī, he sees "Everyone is devotee. I am not devotee." That is uttama-adhikārī. Just like Kavirāja Gosvāmī said, purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha (CC Adi 5.205). Sanātana Gosvāmī said that "I am born in low-grade family. My work is low grade." (break) ...issued that complaint? "I am the counterpart."

Śāstrījī: Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī.

Correspondence

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Vrndavana Candra -- Los Angeles 24 June, 1970:

So accepting always Krsna as the Supreme advisor and always begging for his mercy, go on with your progressive march—and I am very satisfied with your activities. I am so glad to learn that your good wife is also helping you. That is the duty of a faithful companion of life. If the wife is helpful in the spiritual progress of life, she is the best friend and philosopher. So in Krsna Consciousness the wife is never a burden, but she is completely a counterpart. So set example to your countrymen how younger generation can live peacefully, husband and wife, being engaged in Krsna's service. There are many examples of this type of husband and wife working in our different centers for propagating this sublime message.

Page Title:Counterpart
Compiler:Sahadeva, RupaManjari
Created:13 of Sep, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=7, CC=4, OB=1, Lec=8, Con=6, Let=1
No. of Quotes:27