Different types of body (Lectures, Other)

Expressions researched:
"different type of body" |"different types of bodies" |"different types of body" |"different types of material bodies" |"different types of temporary body"

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 20, 1972:

Pradyumna: (reading) "A living entity is offered a particular type of body as a result of his action in the present body. These activities are taken into account by superior authority known as daiva, or the authority of God. This daiva is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā as the prime cause of everything, and in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is stated that a man takes his next body by daiva-netreṇa, which means by the supervision of the authority of the Supreme. In an ordinary sense, daiva is explained as destiny. Daiva supervision gives us a body selected from 8,400,000 forms. The choice does not depend on our selection, but is awarded to us according to or destiny."

Prabhupāda: So material rasas. That is being experienced in different types of body. Just like somebody wants to taste fresh blood, flesh and blood. So he's given the next life a body like a tiger, like a other carnivorous animal, and he tastes very nicely blood and flesh. Nature gives all the facilities.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

(BG 3.27)

Prakṛti, nature is doing everything. I am desiring something. That means I am contacting, contacting the certain type of the modes of material nature. This is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Sad-asad-janma-yoni. Yoni means the source of birth. Mother is called yoni, and father is called bīja. Yathā yoni yathā bījam. According to bījam and according to yoni, we get body. So why you are getting different types of body? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya. He is contacting a particular type of the modes of material nature. There are three modes of material nature: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. So if I am associating with sattva-guṇa, then next life, I'll get a sattva-guṇa body. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā. (BG 14.18) Sattva-guṇa body means higher standard of life. So similarly, if I am associating with the modes of passion, then I'll get a body, next life, passionate.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 4, 1972:

Then the potency will act and you will, we shall become more devotees. Khanera gītā diya mora me pasile mora me pasile (?). It will act. And as soon as it will act, you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then your life becomes successful, above all sinful or pious activities. What is that? Samatītyaitān. Māṁ ca avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate, sa guṇān samatītyaitān (BG 14.26). Samatītya. Samyag atītya. You can perfectly overcome the influence of the guṇas, the three modes of material nature.

Because our suffering is due to association of the three guṇas. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). We are getting different types of body, either as a king or as a dog. Sat, asat. We think, "The king's body is very nice. Dog's body is not good." But whatever body we get, material body, that is not very good. Na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). Any body, any type of body you get, you must suffer. It doesn't matter, European body, American body or Indian body or this body or that body. If we think, "Now we are Americans. We are very happy. You are Indians. You are poor..." No. Either poor or happy, it is all unhappiness. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad. That is, means association with the modes of material nature. But if you engage yourself twenty-four hours in Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, in devotional service, then sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26), immediately you are on the brahma-bhūtaḥ position, liberated position. So just like one man is suffering from disease. Some way or other, if he comes in the, what is called, convalescent stage? Means freed from the diseased condition. But if he keeps that convalescent stage rightly, he do not, what is called, again...?

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

Pradyumna: (reading:) "...committed criminal acts but is not yet arrested for them. Now, as soon as he is detected, arrest is awaiting for him. Is awaiting him. Similarly, for some of our sinful activities we are awaiting distresses in the future, and for others, which are mature, we are suffering at the present moment. In this way..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is the chain of accepting different types of bodies, one after another. According to the sinful activities. On the total, without being sinful, nobody accepts this material body. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā we understand: yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpam, "One who has finished the reaction of his sinful activities," te dvandva-moha-nirmukta... (BG 7.28). Yeṣāṁ anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām... Puṇya-karma. Puṇya-karma means the sublime puṇya-karma is devotional service. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam (SB 7.5.23). This is the topmost puṇya-karma. Because, as it is stated in the Bhāgavata, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). Simply if we hear about Kṛṣṇa, that is puṇya. Even you do not understand, do not take it very seriously, if we simply give aural reception to the words of Kṛṣṇa, that activity itself is puṇya. Puṇya-śravaṇa kīrtanaḥ. So one who has got, I mean, advanced in hearing about Kṛṣṇa, that is the result of multiforms of multivarieties of pious activities. Vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ (SB 1.2.16). Vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ is the resultant action... Kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ (SB 10.12.11). These words are used. Just like when the cowherds boys were playing with Kṛṣṇa, Śukadeva Gosvāmī said that "These boys are kṛta-puṇya-puñjāḥ. Heaps of pious activities they have performed; therefore they have got this chance of playing personally with the Supreme Personality of Godhead."

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

So in order to dissipate our ignorance, we should receive perfect knowledge. Then we can stop our sinful activities. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā, Bhagavān says, Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyam. Kṛṣṇa appears, Kṛṣṇa lives here, He teaches, He acts. If we simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa from the devotee of Kṛṣṇa, then we become perfect, so much so that after giving up this body... Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti... (BG 4.9). Without being perfect, without being free from all sinful reactions, we have to undergo the tribulation of accepting different types of body. But as soon as we become perfect through the perfect knowledge, then automatically we become uncontaminated from this material world and we become liberated. Liberated means, as I have several times explained, to be situated in his original position. Just like a, a person gets fever. When his fever is subsided, he's liberated, he's called liberated from the fever. Similarly, when we have perfect knowledge... What is that perfect knowledge? The perfect knowledge: to understand that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa." This is perfect knowledge. This is perfect knowledge. Jīvera svarūpa haya nityera kṛṣṇera dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108). One has to understand this fact, that "I am not Kṛṣṇa. I am not like Kṛṣṇa. I am not equal to Kṛṣṇa. I cannot become Kṛṣṇa. I am Kṛṣṇa's eternal servant." This is taught by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Gopī-bhartur pada-kamalayoḥ dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80). He, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, says, "I am not a brāhmaṇa. I am not a śūdra. I am not a brahmacārī. I am not a sannyāsī." In this way... Because we identify with the varṇāśrama-dharma: "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am sannyāsī," "I am brahmacārī," "I am gṛhastha," "I am kṣatriya." These are our designations. But when we become designation-free, then "I am not brāhmaṇa, I am not brahmacārī, I am not this, I am not that. I am simply pure servant of Kṛṣṇa." This is knowledge. Our otherwise, anything we identify, that is ignorance. This is knowledge.

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

Prabhupāda: So... And when we come to this knowledge, that "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa," then I am liberated. Muktir hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). Hitvā anyathā rūpam. I am accepting a different type of body and different type of position, and I am identifying myself with that particular position. That is my ignorance. Although I am acting just like a perfect brāhmaṇa or perfect kṣatriya or perfect vaiśya, still, I am imperfect, because my perfection is not to act as a vaiśya, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, American, Indian, but to act as servant of Kṛṣṇa. That is liberation. That is liberation. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). Nirmalam means liberation. That nirmalam means sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam. The Vaiṣṇava process is to become nirmalam. Tat-paratvena. A real, pure Vaiṣṇava simply identifies himself as a servant of Kṛṣṇa; therefore he's nirmalam, he's liberated. He does not identify himself as a kṣatriya, brāhmaṇa, American, Indian. No. That is not his position. But so long I stick to this designation, I am not nirmala, I am samala, "with dirty things." So we have to be relieved from these dirty things and come to the original position of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then our sinful activities and its reaction will be counteracted. Go on.

Pradyumna: "There are many results of past sinful activities for which we are suffering at the present moment, and we may be suffering in the future due to our present sinful activities, but all of these reactions to sinful deeds can immediately be stopped if we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

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

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). We are becoming... We are seeing that "My child is growing." It is not growing; it is changing body just like the film spool. But because it is displayed in a very scientific way, we are seeing that "My child is growing." It is not growing. The actual fact is the child is a soul, and the soul is changing every minute the body. That is real understanding. Kṛṣṇa says, authority says, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prā... (BG 2.13). Dehāntara-prāptiḥ means accepting another body. So the child is speaking in one way now; so when he will get another body, a young man's body, he will speak in a different way. The dog is barking because it has got a different body, and a scientist speaking in a different way because he has got a different body. Similarly, every one of us, because we have got different types of body according to my desire, we are acting differently. So if we come back again to the spiritual platform, then we will not work differently. We shall work concomitantly. Everyone will agree with everyone. That is spiritual platform. But unless we come to the spiritual platform—we remain on the bodily platform—we shall speak differently. And as soon as we come to the spiritual platform, then we shall speak in one item only, how to serve Kṛṣṇa. This is the process.

So those who are too much materially affected, their progress is very slow. Especially in this age. In this age the symptoms of the human beings is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that prāyeṇa alpāyuṣaḥ.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 6.154-155 -- Gorakhpur, February 19, 1971 (Krsna Niketan):

So it is remaining in Brahman. Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam avyakta-mūrtinā, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni (BG 9.4). Everything is existing, maintained by Brahman. And when the whole manifestation annihilates, pralaya-prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikam—it enters into the energy, supreme energy of the Personality of Godhead. That is the way, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya. From the energy... In the Vedas also it is said, sa aikṣata sa asṛjata: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead glanced over." In the Bhagavad-gītā also, ahaṁ bijā-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). In the material energy, Kṛṣṇa gives the seed. Just like a father gives the seed, the semina, within the womb of the mother, and a living entity comes out, similarly, within this material world the Supreme Personality puts, impregnates, the material energy with the living entities, and they come out with different types of bodies, 8,400,000's. This is the creation.

So here Caitanya Mahāprabhu quotes one verse from Viṣṇu Purāṇa: viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā proktā (CC Madhya 6.154). You cannot say that the Absolute Person, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has no energy. Niḥśakti. The Māyāvādī philosopher says that the energy generates when impersonal Brahman enters into this material energy, or māyā. He has got a body of māyā. No. That's not the fact. Kṛṣṇa hasn't got the body created by this material world as we have got. Kṛṣṇa says, therefore, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam: (BG 9.11) "Those who are foolish persons, poor fund of knowledge, such person thinks that I assume a body with the help of material energy." Kṛṣṇa says Himself that sambhavamy ātma-māyayā (BG 4.6)—His own energy. That own energy is this viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā, spiritual energy. He does not accept a material energy, a body of material energy. Viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā proktā kṣetrajñākhyā tathā parā (CC Madhya 6.154). So kṣetrajña, these living entities, they are also parā-śakti, cit-śakti. As we can experience two kinds of śaktis... One is cit-śakti and one is jara-śakti. Just like so long the cit-śakti is there within this body, it is living, it is moving, and as soon as the cit-śakti, the soul, departs from this body, there is no more movement. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is the chief śakti, or..., not śakti, śaktimān, from whom—janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1)—from Him this material world is coming out. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8).

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.100 -- Washington, D.C., July 5, 1976:

He never said that anyone who has passed his M.A. degree or Ph.D. degree, he is paṇḍita. No. The test of paṇḍita is here, from moral instruction, that anyone who sees all other woman except his wife as mother, he is paṇḍita. Just see. This is the test. Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu and para-dravyeṣu, other's property as garbage in the street, nobody touches. And ātmavat sarva-bhūteṣu, and treat everyone as his own self. If anyone has learned these three things, then he is paṇḍita. And spiritually, when one sees that all living entities, may be in different types of bodies, he is spirit soul, part and parcel of God, then he is paṇḍita.

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā

na śocati na kāṅkṣati

samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu

mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

(BG 18.54)

So these are Vedic instructions, and Sanātana Gosvāmī, although he was a minister in Muhammadan government, Nawab Hussain Shah's, but in touch with Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he has come to his knowledge that grāmya-vyavahāre paṇḍita: "Actually, I am not paṇḍita, but in village, in ordinary common sense, because I happen to be a brāhmaṇa, they call me paṇḍita. I also accept as paṇḍita. But my real position is that I am such a paṇḍita, such a learned man, that I do not know what is good for me. This is my position." He is submitting to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, his guru. Why guru is necessary? Tad vijñānārtham. When we are perplexed that "I do not know what is my actually goal of life, what is benefit here for me..." Just like Arjuna did.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.112 -- Bombay, November 24, 1975:

Sarva-bhūtāni, all living entities, are wandering, wandering not only here. There are so many planets, so many up and down situation. So we are wandering within this universe, within this material world, sometimes in good body, sometimes in bad body, and this is our life. Avidyā-karma-saṁjñā anyā. Under the influence of this material energy, on account of our ignorance, we have submitted to the laws of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍha (BG 3.27). He is thinking, "I am independent. I am now this. I am now that." Avidyā-karma-saṁjñā. Bhramāyān sarva-bhūtāni. Everything you will find this. So prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ, ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. This ahaṅkāra, that "I am independent," this ahaṅkāra is making you obliged to accept different types of body in different condition of life within the universe. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu is mahā-vadānyāvatāra. He is very, very kind incarnation. Rūpa Gosvāmī accepted Him, namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te (CC Madhya 19.53). So He teaches, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). Under this avidyā-karma-saṁjñā trītīyā śakti, material energy, we are wandering throughout the whole universe. (aside:) This child should be moved. So ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva. So one who takes Kṛṣṇa consciousness, becoming happy, more and more happy. Karma-bandha. Narottama bhāgyavān jīva. Not the dur-bhāgyavān, jīva. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā (SB 1.1.10). Those who are unfortunate, they cannot take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says. Kono bhāgyavān jīva. Kono means somebody. That is also not all. That is confirmed by Kṛṣṇa. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Out of many, many millions of persons, one wants to become perfect or bhagavān. And yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ. So therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu also says the same thing, kono bhāgyavān jīva. Not always. Not the manda-bhāgyā. Sa bhagavān.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 32 -- New York, July 26, 1971:

And in Calcutta Museum, in our childhood—it may be still existing—we saw one skeleton of a fish that is bigger than this room, a skeleton. It is hanging on the ceiling. So there are very, very big, big fishes. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi. You get immediately information, without being a biologist, scientist, you can get information. The Darwin's theory, in most perfection, there is in the Padma Purāṇa: jīva-jatiṣu. The evolutionary theory is there. But Darwin is missing the real point: Who is, who is evolving? He's missing the spirit soul. He cannot explain. That is imperfect.

But in the Vedic scripture you have got perfect knowledge, how a living entity is developing different types of body. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi. First of all, nine lakhs' species of living entities within water. In the water, the living seeds are there. The other day I was showing our other devotees how from the stone the grass is coming. There is a crack in the stone, and the grass is coming out. How it is? Nobody has gone to put some seeds within the cracking of the stone. How the grass is coming? The grass is coming because the water penetrates within the crack, and as soon as it gets in touch with the earth, it sprouts. That means within water there are seeds of living entities. Some of them fall down from the higher planetary system. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: kṣine puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti (BG 9.21). As soon as their period of enjoyment is finished, they are again brought down on this earthly planet. Just like in your country the immigration—every country—the immigration department, if somebody has come, he has got a visa for six months or one year, or something like that. As soon as it is finished, immediately the immigration department notifies: "Please get out. Please get out."

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 35 -- New York, July 31, 1971:

You'll find that verse that "You are the same Śrī Kṛṣṇa, you have come to teach us vairāgya-vidyā." Vairāgya-vidyā means how to become unattached with this material world. That is called vairāgya-vidyā. Because our, we are accepting different types of body on account of our attachment. Because we are attached to this material world... We want to enjoy. That is illusion. We cannot enjoy, we are simply suffering, but we are accepting it as enjoyment.

Just like these karmīs. It is very distinctly visible wherever you go, so many congested work (?). All buses and cars are running, so many luggages being loaded in the street. Bharam udvahato. Great humbug, you see, great humbug. Prahlāda Mahārāja said māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43), actually they are taking so much trouble for loading these big, big cases, but because they're getting, say $40.00 a day, they say, think, "I am enjoying. I am enjoying." Actually he's working so hard, just like ass or hogs, day and night, but because getting some money and with that money because he is gratifying his senses, he thinks "I am happy." This is illusion. Illusion. He does not know what is real happiness for a second. The illusory material world happiness means sex life, that's all. How long does it stay? Say for minutes. But they're working so hard. This is called illusion. Actually he is being killed, but he thinks that "I am enjoying." This is illusion. Opposite.

So Prahlāda Mahārāja was very much sympathetic that "I am simply anxious for these rascals who have created a humbug civilization for temporary happiness," māyā-sukhāya. Māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). They have created ugra karma. This is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, ugra karma. Huge factory, day and night melting iron, and they are working, working. The special technologies, getting some money, they're happy. They do not know how they're wasting their valuable life. This is called māyā. Why so much work?

Festival Lectures

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

And according to some, twenty-five, and according to some, twenty-six. According to our Vaiṣṇava philosophy, twenty-six. According to Māyāvāda philosophy, this is twenty-five. And according to impersonal philosophy or void philosophy, it is twenty-four. So originally, it is eight. So in this way... Buddha philosophy means that this whole existence of our body or our self is the combination of matter. That is the way of thinking of modern scientists also, that this body is a combination of matter. Under Darwin's theory also, like that, "organic matter, inorganic matter." They are studying evolution of this matter, organic matter. But actually that is not the fact. The fact is that use, individual soul, that is the real fact. And that individual soul is the seed, and upon that seed, this body has developed. According to our Vedic understanding, the body develops on the seed. This is very practical. Why we have got different bodies, different types of bodies? Because the condition of the seed is different. The seed is the spirit soul, and by material contact it is covered by finer body, intelligence, mind, and ego. And according to the quality of that ego, we develop different kinds of this material gross body. Therefore somebody has developed the body in the modes of goodness, because material nature is divided into three qualities: goodness, passion, and ignorance. Somebody has developed body in the modes of passion. Somebody has developed body in the modes of ignorance. But the root is the spirit soul. And the finer cover is desire, ego, intelligence, mind. And the gross cover is this body.

Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima -- Hawaii, March 5, 1969:

"You surrender. Don't give Me pain. You just abide by My order. That will give Me pleasure. You will be happy." That state of consciousness, to abide by the order of Kṛṣṇa, is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's all.

So Kṛṣṇa comes personally to canvass, that "This is not your proper order of life. You are misusing your independence for sense gratification and wandering through various types of transmigration of bodies, sometimes human body, sometimes dog's body, sometimes cat's body, sometimes demigod's body, sometimes rich body, sometimes poor body." "So you stop this business," Kṛṣṇa says. Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). "You have manufactured so many duties. That duties means you are manufacturing so many bodies. That's all." Why you have got different types of bodies? We have manufactured it. God has given us facility. I wanted to become such and such. He has given us facilities, "All right, you become such and such." If I want to become a tiger, God will give me all the facilities to become a tiger. He will give me facilities, paws and nails and teeth so that immediately I can capture any animal, and with the instruments which He has provided within my body, I can immediately scratch it into pieces and eat. Similarly, you will find... You see the cranes. They have got big beaks. Why? Because they have to catch fish from within the water, so the beak must be very long. So there is facility. The hog has different mouth because he has to eat stool. So a different kind of body.

Ratha-yatra -- Philadelphia, July 12, 1975:

We do not belong to the material world. Some way or other, we are now in contact with this material world and material body, and the business is that although we are eternal living force, on account of our contact with this material body, we have to take four tribulations: birth, death, disease and old age. That we have to undergo. In this material world we are getting one type of body, and it is ended at a certain stage. Just like any material thing. You take, for example, of your dress. You are dressed with a certain type of garment, but when it is worn out, no more usable, then you throw it, you get another dress. So this material body is the dress of the spirit living force. But because we are attached to this material world, we want to enjoy this material world, we get different types of body. It is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā as a machine. Actually it is machine, this body. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said,

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ

hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati

bhrāmāyān sarva-bhūtāni

yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

(BG 18.61)

So we living entity, we desire. "Man proposes; God disposes." God is very kind. Whatever you desire, He will fulfill. Although He says that "This kind of material desires will never satisfy you," but we want. Therefore God supplies us, Kṛṣṇa, different types of body to fulfill our different desires. This is called material, conditional life. This body, change of body according to desire, is called evolutionary process. By evolution we come to the human form of body through many other millions bodies. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. We pass through 900,000 species of form in the water. Similarly, two million forms as plants, trees. In this way, by nature's way, nature brings us into this human form of life just to develop or awaken our consciousness.

His Divine Grace Srila Sac-cid-ananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura's Appearance Day, Lecture -- London, September 3, 1971:

"The bodily function was going like this; now it stopped. The blood corpuscles now cease. It is no more red; it is white; therefore life..." These are speculation. This is not actual knowledge. Actual knowledge you get from the authority, Kṛṣṇa. He says, tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati. Just like the soul is passing through different stages. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Deha, deha means this body. Asmin dehe, in this body, there is dehi. Dehi means who is the owner of this body. That is soul. That is passing through childhood, boyhood, babyhood, youthhood, old age. Everyone, you can perceive that you were a child, you were a baby, you were a boy. Now you are young man or old man. So you are there. So as you are passing through different types of bodies, similarly, when you give up this body you accept another body. What is the difficulty? Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). There is no question of becoming astonished, how transmigration of the self, soul, takes place. The vivid example is there. Simply you require little intelligence. That intelligence is developed through the instruction of ācārya. Therefore, Vedic injunction is not to acquire knowledge by speculation. That is useless. Athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvayaṁ jānāti tattvaṁ prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi, na cānya eko 'pi ciraṁ vicinvan (SB 10.14.29). Ciraṁ vicinvan. Ciram means for thousands of years you can speculate; you cannot understand what is God. That is not possible. But if you receive knowledge from the devotee, he can deliver you. Therefore Vedic injunction is that tad-vijñāna... (break) ...in order to understand tad-vijñāna... Vijñāna means science. If you want to know the transcendental science, then you must approach a guru. Tad-vijñānārtham, in order to... If you are at all interested to understand the spiritual science. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ (sa) gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). You must approach guru. Guru means this disciplic succession, as I have explained.

Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami's Appearance Day -- Vrndavana, October 19, 1972:

If he proves by his speaking that he has no knowledge in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he's simply well dressed, that's all... That we are finding all over the world. They are very nicely dressed, they have got very nice car, but if we ask him about God consciousness, they say, "Sir, after finishing this body, everything is finished." This is their knowledge. Therefore they are the lowest of the mankind. Lowest of the mankind means that in the human form of life he was supposed to know that life is eternal and the soul is changing different types of bodies on account of karma, different types of activities. But although the gentleman is well dressed, he does not know. He does not know what is going to happen in his next life. Neither he believes in the next life. This is the position of the modern civilization. So anyone in that ignorance is called the lowest of the mankind, narādhama. If you say, "How I can say this gentleman, nicely dressed gentleman, lowest of the mankind? He has already passed his university education. He has got big, big degrees. And how I can say that he's the lowest of the mankind?" the answer is given by Kṛṣṇa. I do not require to answer. The answer is given there: māyayā apahṛta-jñānā. Māyayā. Certainly he's educated. He has got degrees. That's all right. But the essence of his knowledge has been taken away by māyā. Māyayā apahṛta-jñānā asurī-bhāvam āśritāḥ. Essence of knowledge is Kṛṣṇa. That he has no idea, what is Kṛṣṇa. This is the position of asurī-bhāvam āśritāḥ. The mahātmānas tu daivī-prakṛtim āśritāḥ, and the narādhamas, there are, there are asurī-bhāvam āśritāḥ. Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu and his son, Prahlāda. Prahlāda is mahātmā. Daivī-prakṛtim āśritāḥ. And Hiraṇyakaśipu is demon. He is māyayā apahṛta-jñānā asurī-bhāvam āśritāḥ. There are two classes of men, daivī-prakṛtim āśritāḥ and asurī-bhāvam āśritāḥ.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

Arrival Lecture -- Los Angeles, June 29, 1971:

Accidentally I have got this body in America or India or Africa or in hell or heaven. That is accidental. Or by my karma. But actually, I am not this body. And if I am not this body... Generally everything we are accepting in this material world (is) on the bodily concept of life. Because I have got bodily relationship with some man or woman, I am thinking... There are thousands of men and women, but I am thinking, "This woman is mine," "This man is mine." This is a crude example. And similarly, children. Gṛha-kṣetra. Ato gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittair janasya moho 'yam (SB 5.5.8). This bodily concept of life increases our delusion and we become enwrapped, entangled in material world, and we get a different type of body.

So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for releasing all these conditioned souls from this misconception of life. Anyone, any intelligent man can understand that as soon as we identify our activities with the body, then we are fool number one. That is the verdict of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Anyone who is identifying himself with this body... Sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu. "And family members, wife, children, they are our own men. All others are enemies." Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. "And the land in which we have taken birth, that is worshipable." People are sacrificing their life in so many ways. The leaders are enthusing them, "Oh, you are national of this, national of that." Falsely they are working so hard. This is the basic principle, mistake, of the modern civilization—identifying oneself with this body, which he's not. So by Kṛṣṇa kīrtana, this bodily concept of life is..., in the beginning it becomes vanquished. A tacit example: you are all boys. You have forgotten that this body is Indian or American. You are Kṛṣṇa's. This is the first installment. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam (CC Antya 20.12). If this bodily concept of life is removed, immediately all the problems of the world solved. Immediately. All these great writers, thoughtful men, philosophers, politicians, diplomats, and the United Nations, they are trying to solve the problems of the world, but they are increasing the problems. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās (SB 7.5.31). How they can mitigate? It is not possible, because the basic principal mistake is there.

Arrival Lecture -- Los Angeles, April 13, 1973:

And further explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So if you simply read our books, follow the rules and regulations, chant sixteen rounds, it will be not very difficult. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). Things will reveal to you. So if you, in this life, simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa, then your life is successful. What is that success? Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). After giving up this material body, no more acceptance of material body; we remain in our spiritual body. We have got our spiritual body. That is now covered by the material dress, subtle dress and gross dress. So if we give up the propensity for material sense gratification, that is mukti. So long we have a pinch, a drop of desire to enjoy material happiness, we'll have to accept a body, different types of body, out of the 8,400,000. But if we become satisfied with service of Kṛṣṇa, then we have no more interest with this material happiness. That is mukti. When we shall be detestful with this material happiness... (indistinct) Just like Jagāi-Mādhāi. (indistinct) No more (indistinct). That is mukti. Kṛṣṇa will give you all facility. He'll give you facilities, whatever you want. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy a... (BG 4.11). Therefore we see varieties of life. It is arranged by Kṛṣṇa through the agency of material potency. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sar... (BG 3.27). It is going on. But if we say, "Kṛṣṇa...," to Kṛṣṇa, "Now, from this day, I surrender unto You. My Lord, I don't want anything material," then you are mukta, liberated. And if you keep the standard, māyā will not touch you. Just after giving up this body, you go back to home, back to Godhead. It is very easy.

So try to understand and be happy. Continue this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in right earnest. So Kṛṣṇa will help you. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam (BG 10.10). Anyone who's engaged with heart and soul in the service of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa will give him, everyone, He'll give you full intelligence: "Do like this. Do like this." Yena mām upayānti. He gives such intelligence by which you can go back to Him again.

Arrival Talk -- Aligarh, October 9, 1976:

In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly explained, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4). This is... Bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. This is separated. This is also nature, but inferior. Apareyam itas tv viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām. There is another prakṛti. What is that? Jīva-bhūto. This living entity. So living entity is also prakṛti, but because he has the tendency to enjoy this material world, he is sometimes described as puruṣaḥ. Puruṣaḥ means enjoyer and prakṛti means enjoyed. So the prakṛti forgets her position and artificially he wants to become puruṣaḥ. So this puruṣaḥ, prakṛti 'stho. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti 'stho bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. So long he's in this material world, he has to associate with the modes of material nature, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān. And on account of the influence of the prakṛti-jān guṇa, he has to take different types of bodies. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti 'stho bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). This is the kāraṇa. He's associating with a particular type of the modes of prakṛti-jān guṇān—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa—and on account of this he gets different types of body. You have to change your body. Dehāntaram. Tathā dehāntaram-prāptir. But different grades of body is awarded by the laws of nature according to our karma. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). So this is... Our material position is that we are associating with different modes of material nature, and that is infection. If you become infected with some disease, germ, then you have to suffer from that disease. You cannot check it. Similarly, this infection will give us our next body. That we do not know. This is a rascal civilization. They're kept into the darkness, that how things are going on. Their so-called education, university... So whatever they are doing, they are all being defeated. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. Ātma-tattvam. Unless one is inquisitive to understand "What I am?" whatever he is doing, he's being defeated. That's all. Parābhavaḥ.

Initiation Lectures

Initiation Lecture and Bhagavan dasa's Marriage Ceremony -- New Vrindaban, June 4, 1969:

Immediately if the state calls, "Come on. You sacrifice your body in the Vietnam," oh, you have to do that. So in this way, if you analytically study, you'll see the body does not belong to you. Then why should you be so much dexterous to satisfy? Just try to understand. I am not interested to satisfy the senses of your body; I am interested to satisfy the senses of my body. But if this body does not belong to me, then why should we be so much expert in satisfying the senses? Therefore they are called pramattaḥ, intensely intoxicated. It is philosophical vision that "This body does not belong to me." Therefore Kṛṣṇa's name is Hṛṣīkeśa. I am claiming this hand "my hand," but as soon as it is paralyzed it is no more my hand; it is physician's hand or Kṛṣṇa's hand or somebody's hand. So in this way we have to study. This is called philosophical vision. So Bhāgavata says they are mad after sense gratification, as a result of which he's getting different types of body. Because body does not belong to him. Just like if you pay different types of rent, you get different types of apartment. If you pay nicely, you get very good apartment in New York, in Fifth Avenue or something like that. Or if you cannot pay, then... Similarly, we are getting this apartment, body, under different condition. So we should understand that we have to get such a nice body that no more we'll have to change. That should be the destination of one's progress. That they do not know.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is just to put before this bewildered human society what is the destination of his life. The destination is... Everywhere in Vedic literature you'll find.

Initiation Lecture -- Hamburg, August 27, 1969:

Our present conditional state is like this. Śarīra avidyā-jāl, we are packed up in the network of this material body. It is just like a fish is caught within a net. Similarly, we are caught up by this network of this material body. Not only this body—we are changing this net in various phases of life. There are 8,400,000's of holes of this network. This is a network of ignorance, avidyā-jāl. Avidyā means ignorance. Śarīra avidyā-jāl jaḍendriya tāhe kāl. And this network, my imprisonment within this network of ignorance, is being continued on account of these dangerous senses. Sense enjoyment. So out of these dangerous senses, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, the tongue is the most dangerous. Tongue is the most dangerous. The tongue... If we cannot control the tongue, then the tongue will oblige me to take different types of body, one after another. If I am very much fond of satisfying my tongue by flesh and blood, then nature, material nature, will give me facility to taste flesh and blood fresh and give me a body of the tiger. If I do not discriminate of eating, then material nature will give me a body just like a hog, when we have to accept as our food stool.

General Lectures

Lecture -- Seattle, September 27, 1968:

You have served your senses so many lives, life after life, 8,400,000 of species of life. The birds, they are also under senses. The beasts, they are also under senses. The men, human being, and everyone, the demigods, everyone within this material world, they are after senses, serving the senses. But Kṛṣṇa says that "You just surrender unto Me. Just agree to serve Me. Then I take charge of you." That's all. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ. Because by the dictation of the senses we are committing sinful activities life after life; therefore we are in different grades of bodily presentation. Don't think that everyone is of the same standard. No. According to one's own work he gets a type of body. So these different types of bodies are due to different grades of sense gratification. So sense gratification is there in the hog's life also. Why he has been offered a body of the hogs? So much sensuous that it has no discrimination who is mother, who is sister, or who is this, or who is that. This is practical, you'll see. The dogs and hogs, they are like that. In human society also there are many who don't care who is mother, who is sister, or who is this. The senses are so strong. And this is our cause of all miseries, try to understand. The threefold miseries that we are suffering, that we are trying to make a solution, is due to this dictation of the senses. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is there. Kṛṣṇa is there. His name is Madana-mohana. If you try to transfer your love from sense to Kṛṣṇa, then you see the result. Immediately you'll find. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau (Brs. 1.2.234). So this false endeavor, that "I want to be master of all I survey," "I am the monarch of all I survey," this attitude should be given up. Every one of us is constitutionally servant. Now, at the present moment, we are servant of the senses. Now, this servitorship should be changed to Kṛṣṇa only. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. And as soon as you change your servitorship to Kṛṣṇa, then gradually, as you become sincere, so Kṛṣṇa reveals to you, and reciprocation of service between Kṛṣṇa and yourself will be so nice. Either you love Him as friend, or master, or lover, or...

Lecture -- New York, April 16, 1969:

If we take, "Oh, this picture is very nice," that's all—no. So we are passing through many phases of life, different dresses. Vāsāṁsi. Bhagavad-gītā says, vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Just like I am putting on this dress. If it is dirty or if it is very old, then I change; I accept another dress. Similarly, this body is also like that. When it is dirty or when it is old enough, not to be used, then we change to another body, and this body we leave. This is the whole instruction of all Vedic literature.

Therefore the activities of this body is not all. And as there are different types of body, as we have come to this body, this status of body, passing through many, many types of abominable body—aquatics, beasts, trees, plants, microbes, reptiles, so many... Repeatedly we have said, 8,400,000's of bodies. So this is an opportunity. This life, this human form of life, is an opportunity to make further progress. It is not that after this human body is finished, then there is no life. This misconception, this misleading philosophy, that after death there is nothing, void, is killing the human civilization. Is killing practically. They do not know "What is my next life?" The next life is there. As there are, you can see so many varieties of planets, so there are lives also, different grades of lives, different standard of life. Take for example the moon planet. What do they know about moon? They are trying to reach there by some mechanical means. That is not possible. Anyway, even if it is possible, one should know what is the standard of life there. That you can get from Vedic literature. There is very vivid description. They are not ordinary human being like us. The scientist says that the temperature is 200 degree less than zero. Even here, in your Western countries, although sometimes the temperature goes down below zero, if it is below ten degree or twenty degrees, you become suffocated.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 11, 1971:

Therefore in spite of so much of conferences in the United Nations, the fighting is going on. The Pakistan is separated on the ground of religion: Hindu, Muslim. Now they are fighting between Muslim and Muslim. Why? Because that disease, hankering and lamenting, is there. It is not brahma-bhūtaḥ stage. And they cannot be on the platform of seeing everyone on equal terms. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. That is not possible. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu means when one is actually on the spiritual platform, he can see everyone on the same category because everyone is spirit soul. Then not only in human society—in other animal society also... Just like there are 8,400,000 species of life. That means the living entity is passing through different types of bodies. This is called learning. This is called understanding. Unfortunately, this learning and understanding, there is none throughout the whole world in any university. Therefore whatever education we are getting, that is not real learning. That is not real learning. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). If one gets actual learning, then he sees equally everyone. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ. Vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini.

Lecture -- Paris, June 26, 1971:

If anyone prepares himself to enter into the higher planetary system, which is said to be inhabited by demigods, we can go there. Similarly, in the Pitṛloka, Pitṛ planet, we can go, or if we like, we can remain on this planet. And at last, if we desire, we can enter into the planet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So it is all preparation only. But considering the point that any planetary system within this material universe, they are temporary... Maybe the duration is very, very long time, but they are to be annihilated. As our body... There are different types of body. A human body exists for hundred years, but an insect's body exists for twelve hours. So these different body exist relatively a long duration or short duration, but they are to be annihilated. But if anyone enters into the planet which is called Vaikuṇṭhaloka, the spiritual planet, then there is eternal life, blissful life and full of knowledge.

Pandal Lecture -- Delhi, November 13, 1971:

Even if you are able to count how many paramāṇus or atoms are there, still you cannot know what is the limit of God's expansions and qualities. So that God, Kṛṣṇa, is Vāsudeva, all-expansive. So He is sitting in everyone's heart and He is giving opportunity, everyone, whatever he wants to do. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He is situated there, and He is so kind that the living entity, whatever he is wanting, the Lord is giving him. So this body is also given by God. It is made by the material nature, but it is given by God. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni. Just like we take a vehicle and travel. Similarly, we are wanting to do something, it doesn't matter what, and Kṛṣṇa as Supersoul, who is sitting within my heart, He is asking this material nature that "You give him such-and-such body so that he can enjoy whatever he likes." So therefore we are getting different types of body, and there are 8,400,000 species of life.

So this body, if you like, you can get the body of a human being, or you can get the body of a tiger, or you can get the body of demigod, or you can get the body of Lord Brahmā, or you can get the body of the microbic germ in the stool. This will depend on your work. This is going on. There are innumerable planets, there are innumerable universes, and the living entities are all innumerable, and they are getting innumerable types of bodies, and every account is kept. Now just imagine what is the government of Kṛṣṇa. And this is being managed, ekāṁśena sthito jagat (BG 10.42). This whole worldly affair is being managed by one Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. This information we get from the śāstras.

Pandal Lecture -- Delhi, November 13, 1971:

Those who are not fixed up, they have got different desires. And because they have got different desires, they are getting different types of body. And because they are getting different types of body, they are rolling on, wandering in different situation, in different planets. But one who has come to the right conclusion of life, he is called vyavasāyātmikā buddhir eka. Eka means that Lord Viṣṇu. When our desire will becomes fixed up in Lord Viṣṇu, then our life is perfect. But that we do not know. Therefore, bahu-śākhā anantāś ca buddhi avyavasāyinām. Because our mind, because our desire, is not fixed up in Lord Viṣṇu, we are manufacturing different desires, because mind's business is concoction, accepting something, rejecting something. This is going on. But by intelligence we come to a certain conclusion. So one who is above the activities of the mind, manaso parā buddhi, one who has learned how to use his intelligence, that art is called buddhi-yogam. Yoga on the platform of intelligence. First of all in the beginning, our platform is sensuous. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur (BG 3.42). Material life means sensuous life. But those who are little above, they are on the mental platform—poetry, philosophy, mental speculation. Above this there is intelligence. That intellectual life required. That means we have to transcend the position of the sensuous life, we have to transcend the position of concocted mental speculation, we have to come to the intellectual platform. That intellectual platform is called brahma-jijñāsā. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī, when he approached Lord Caitanya, he very intellectually asked Lord Caitanya, 'ke āmi' kene more jāpe tāpa-traya: "Who am I? Why I am suffering these three kinds of material miserable condition of life?" This is intellectual platform. This is intellectual path. And when we exercise this intellectual path of our life, that is called buddhi-yogam. Buddhi-yogam. Therefore, in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said, kṛṣṇa ye bhaje se baḍa catura. The most intellectual person can become Kṛṣṇa conscious, not ordinary man. Why?

Pandal Lecture -- November 14, 1971, Delhi:

And according to the service record, one is promoted or degraded. Similarly, there is record in the God's accountant department, statistic department. Every moment, upadraṣṭā anumantā, God is within you, He is seeing all your activities. If you desire something, God will remind you. So that is good record. So all this record will be considered about your karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye. It will be decided that "This particular or this individual soul, he has to accept such-and-such body." Daiva-netreṇa jantur. Then that soul is transferred to the father's semina, and the father injects the semina in the womb of the woman. And then in the first night, by emulsification of the two seminas, there is a form like a pea, and that pea grows into the body. This is the secret of different types of body.

So we do not know, we are not certain that what kind of body I am going to get next, but we will have one body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). As I am getting one type of body from another type... In my this life, I was a child, I was a baby, I was a boy, I was a young man, now I am old man. As I am changing my body differently—I was a small child, I can remember personally. When I was about 6 months old, I was lying down on the lap of my eldest sister. She was at that time married, and she was knitting. I remember. I was seeing how she was knitting. I can remember. But where is that body? Then another body, another body, another body. Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Similarly, when I give up this body, then I must accept another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. But that I do not know. That will be considered by higher authorities, daiva-netreṇa, exactly as I told you that the service record is checked by higher authorities and he is promoted. So how one can know where one has gone? We keep one man's statue, but we do not know where the man has gone, where the soul has gone. But we keep the statue as if he is staying there. This is called illusion. We do not know where my leader has gone, but I am worshiping the leader's statue on the street, and it has become the place for passing stool on his head by the crows, and we are worshiping. But when you go to worship in the temple, it is idol worship. We are worshiping the statues, but when you go to worship in the temple, "That is idol worship."

Lecture -- Delhi, December 13, 1971:

Just like I'm entering different bodies in this life. I was a child, I enter another body. Just like this small child, Sarasvatī. According to the body, she is acting. She's acting sometimes nonsense, but we take it delight, because she is child. But the same nonsense if I do in another body, grown up body, that will be ridiculous. In this child body, she is naked, but people enjoy it. But when she is grown up and she is lady-like, she is young girl, if she becomes naked, oh that is ridiculous. So, here in this life also we see according to the change of the body, the duty is changed. The activities are changing. So, this body is changing, that's a fact. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Just like in this life we are changing different types of bodies, similarly dehāntara-prāptiḥ, another body. These rascals, they do not understand the simple reasoning. Simple logic they cannot understand, still they argue, "What is the proof there is transmigration of the soul?" Here is the proof. That this child, Sarasvatī, when she is a grown-up lady she'll not act like that. But everyone will accept her, Sarasvatī, the same character (?). Her father, mother, relatives, everything is there, Sarasvatī has got another body. So what is the difficulty to understand this logic? That the soul is immortal and the body is changing. What is the difficulty? Just try to understand, you have to preach immortality of the soul, transmigration of the soul. What is the difficulty? Simple logic. What is the difficulty? Can anyone say? No difficulty? Will you be able to convince others?

Lecture -- London, July 12, 1972:

What is that? Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66) "You give up all other processes of faith and religion. Simply surrender unto Me." Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ. Religion means to become purified, to become purified from our sinful activities. So Kṛṣṇa says that "If you surrender unto Me..." When I speak "Kṛṣṇa," you may understand "God." God is speaking that "You surrender unto Me and I'll give you protection from the reaction of all sinful activities." In this material world we are encaged in this material body for our sinful activities, different types of sinful activities. So our aim of life is to get out of these sinful activities and be situated in our own original position, constitutional position, spiritual position. Because we are part and parcel of God, we are as pure as God, but we have been contaminated by this material association, and therefore we have got different types of bodies, encagements. And according to the different types of bodies we have to enjoy or suffer the material atmosphere. This is our position. So bhāgavata-dharma means to surrender unto God. That's all. Very simple thing. And Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is teaching us this bhāgavata-dharma, how to surrender. He demanded that "You surrender unto Me." But still, people misunderstood Him.

Lecture -- London, July 12, 1972:

There are 8,400,000's of different species of life. Aśītiṁ catura. Aśītim means eighty, and catura means four. Eighty-four, lakṣāṁs, 100,000. Jīva-jātiṣu, there are different species of life. They are developing. Because after devastation, the whole universe is filled up with water. So in the water the first living beings are the fishes or the aquatics. Then that fish or aquatic means a living entity embodied by that fish body. Just like we are now, every one of us... I am also a soul, you are also a soul. We are embodied by this body, human form of body. Similarly, we had to accept the body of a fish. Because we are in this material world, when there is water only, where shall we go? We must live here in this material... Unless we are liberated, we must have to live... And according to the circumstances, we get different types of body. So from the aquatics, next promotion is trees, plants, then insects, then birds, then beasts. In this way, after millions, millions of years... You have seen that a tree is standing for thousands of years. If I get a body of a tree, then I'll have to stand in one place for many thousands of years. Therefore when you come by gradual evolution in the different species of life, by nature when you come to this point, to possess a human form of body, it is very, very rare. That is described: durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma. Durlabham. Duḥ means difficult, and labha means gain. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam. Adhruvam. He said durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam. Although it is also temporary. We shall not live forever with this body. The animals also, they'll also not live forever. The body will be finished after certain period of time. So he says, Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "My dear friend, this body, this human form of body, is very, very rarely we have obtained it. Although it is temporary, but there is a great gain." In the animal life, that is also temporary, and this human form of body is also temporary. But the animals cannot get that achievement which we can get. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam. Arthadam means... Artha means meaningful or some material profit or spiritual profit.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Hyderabad, November 29, 1972:

Tathā dehāntaraṁ-prāptir. Just like we have got different types of body in this life. I was a child, I was a boy, I was a young man, I..., I was a something else. Now I have got this old body. So as I am existing after changing so many different phases of body, therefore the conclusion should be that after annihilation of this body, I shall exist, and, which is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. After destruction of this body, actually we are not going to die. Our subtle body—the mind, intelligence and ego—that is, that is working. As it, the subtle body, works during my sleeping position, similarly, this body may be, gross body may be annihilated, but my subtle body carries me to another gross body as I desire. Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, is very kind. As we desire, He gives us opportunity. Any kind of body, any kind of enjoyment we want, He gives us the opportunity: "All right, you take this body. And you wanted to enjoy like this. All right, you enjoy." Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ. He is sitting in everyone's heart as the Supersoul, and even if we forget, He reminds: "My dear living entity, you wanted to do this; now you do it." So this is the process going on. But unfortunately, there is no educational system throughout the whole world about the activities of the soul, how he is working in different evolutionary process, what is his ultimate goal of life, wherefrom he's coming, where he's gone, what is the relation. So many things, we have to know. But we are placed in ignorance on account of blind leaders. We do not know the problems of life. We are blind, and we are led by other blind leaders into still blindness. Viśatāṁ tamisraṁ punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Ahmedabad, December 5, 1972:

These are very nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.

So actually my position is that I can go everywhere. Just like we are trying. Because I have got the desire to go the moon planet, to the Venus planet, or any other planet, and they are trying with our, scientific knowledge. But because it is gross material, we are not yet successful. But the point is that I have got the desire to go this planet, to that planet. Just like we make tour, even on this planet. We want to go this place, that place, that place. So this is natural. Therefore here in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, sarva-gataḥ. You can go anywhere, everywhere. There are innumerable universes, and there are innumerable planets of different nature. And you can go. Sarva-gataḥ, sthāṇur acalo 'yam. So according to the different features, we get... Just like the aquatics. They have got a different type of body. They can very easily and very pleasingly, they can live within the water. But if you are pushed within the water, you'll die. You'll suffocate. So by nature's way, there are different types of body. They are going to the moon planet, but to live in the moon planet, you require a different type of body. That we get information from Vedic literature.

Rotary Club Lecture -- Ahmedabad, December 5, 1972:

Yes. Therefore your material method is imperfect to detect where is the soul. The soul is there, and the dimension is also there: one ten-thousandth part of the tip of your hair. So you have no eyes to see. But soul is there; that is evident. But as soon as the soul is gone, this body—is beautiful body—is a dead lump of matter only. That distinction is there. Therefore we have to hear from the authority what is that soul. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is describing... First of all, He said that there is soul within this body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehaṁ dehī, deha. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanam... (BG 2.13). Because the soul is there, therefore we are changing different types of body. Just like because you are living, therefore there is coat and shirt. But if you are not living, what is the use of this coat and shirt? There is no question of coat and shirt. Similarly, because the soul is there, therefore the body has developed, according to the desire of the soul. But it is very, very minute. With our, these blunt eyes and blunt senses, we cannot capture. But there is. We have to conceive it from the authoritative statement of higher knowledge, knowledgeable person. Just like we are trying to learn from the Bhagavad-gītā as it is. It is being taught by Kṛṣṇa. So things which are beyond your perception, you have to know it from authority. Just like the example: Who is my father? We cannot make any experiment. We cannot apply experimental knowledge to find out who is my father. That is not possible. But how we can know? The know it, I can know from the authority of the mother. The mother says, "This gentleman is your father," we have to accept. There is no other experimental... Similarly, the soul, which is beyond the perception of your material senses, you cannot make an experiment. You have no means. But you try to perceive that what is that thing, missing, that now the body is dead. Now, there is something. What is that something? That you have to learn from the authority, Kṛṣṇa. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). There is a dehī, there is a proprietor of this body, and he's changing from one body to another. This you have to understand from the authority.

Lecture at Indo-American Society 'East and West' -- Calcutta, January 31, 1973:

Asmin dehe, in this body, there is the proprietor of the body. That is soul. Asmin dehe, on this body, there is the proprietor of the body. this proprietor of the body constantly changing different types of bodies. The example is given that kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. Just like a child is changing his body to boyhood, the boy is changing his body to youthhood, and young man is changing, his body to old body. Similarly when the old man dies, he does not die. He accepts another body. This knowledge. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. One who's actually in knowledge, he's not surprised that a man is dead. He's not dead. And the example is given just you change your dress. Now some of you are present here with a coat, black color. You can change it tomorrow into white color. That does not make any difference, that you are dead. Similarly, when we change our body. Just like I was a baby. Everyone knows. I, I remember that I had a little body. I remember at least. But that body is missing now. I remember that I was young man. I had a very youthful body. But that is missing now. And my elderly person, he may also, he may also know that he has changed his body, but he's not dead. I know that I have changed my body. I have simply changed my body, but I am living. I remember the body. Similarly, when we change our body, it does not mean that I am dead. Tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati.

Lecture -- Jakarta, February 28, 1973:

Just like I, living entity, I am all existing in this body. I'm changing bodies so many times. I was a baby; I changed that body. I became a boy or a child. Then I became a boy; I changed my body. Then I became a young man; I changed my body. Then I became an old man; I changed my body. All those bodies, different types of body—babyhood, childhood, boyhood, youthhood—they are now gone, and now I'm existing in this old body. So it will also go. But that does not mean that I'll be finished. No. I'll accept another body. As I am changing different types of bodies, I am existing. Similarly, when I shall change this body, I shall exist in another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Dhīra means those who are sober. He's not bewildered. Adhīra. There are two kinds of men—dhīra and adhīra. Adhīra means senseless, crazy, and dhīra means with sense. He's not bewildered. He's called dhīra. So when somebody dies, one who is dhīra, he understands, "My father, my brother, or my relative, or somebody else, he has simply changed this body." Tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptir. "So what is the cause of lamenting?" These things are discussed in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Lecture -- London, August 26, 1973:

You have got already consciousness. Just like a child, a boy has got consciousness. He's sent to a school, colleges. He develops his consciousness. He can understand scientific truths. And then he becomes a very big man, or successful man. As there are such consideration in the material world, similarly, the development of highest consciousness is spiritual consciousness. That is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Spiritual consciousness should be cultivated, first of all understanding that we are all spiritual being; we are not this material body. That we have to first of all understand. The, within this material body there is the spirit soul, and that spirit soul, out of ignorance it is desiring material sense gratification; therefore he has to transmigrate into different types of bodies. And as soon as we accept one material body—it doesn't matter whether it is king's body or dog's body; it doesn't matter—because the spirit soul has accepted this material body, he has to undergo the threefold miserable conditions of material existence. This is the problem. Therefore Kṛṣṇa advises that mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). Our material understanding of pains and pleasure (is) on account of this body. When the body feels cold, we cover. When the body feels very warm, we uncover. The covering and uncovering is due to seasonal changes. Therefore this material world means changing always. It is called jagat. Jagat means always changing. On account of the material world's changing, we feel pains and pleasure on this material body. Kṛṣṇa advises, therefore, that mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. The material pains and pleasures, they are on account of this body. But we are not this body; we are spirit soul. Our main business is how to elevate the soul to its original position of eternity. That is our problem.

Lecture -- London, August 26, 1973:

This is the problem. But people have become so dull and rascal that they do not even care to understand this philosophy of life, that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul." Actually, even one's daily life, one can understand that he is different from this body. Just like every one of us, we had a child's body, a boy's body, a youth's body. Now I am old man, but I can remember that I had a body, a small body, baby's body. I remember personally when I was six months old I was lying down on my eldest(?) sister's lap. She was knitting. I still remember. So then I got another body, another body, another body, and according to development of body I had different consciousness, just like child's consciousness is different from the father's consciousness. So we are actually getting different types of body every moment, and the consciousness is changed also according to the body. This is a fact. But I remember that I had such and such body, I was doing such foolish things when I was a child. All these things I remember. Therefore I, the person, the soul, is existing, although the bodies are not existing. This is a fact. Those bodies, my childhood body, my boyhood body, my youthhood body, they are no longer existing. It is a fact. I have got now a different body, but I remember that I possessed such and such bodies. Therefore the conclusion is that, in spite of change of body, the spirit soul remains the same eternally. Similarly, when I shall change this body, I shall get another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir. That is called transmigration of the soul.

Lecture -- Hong Kong, January 31, 1974:

The sādhus, they know; the guru, he knows. So if you want to be learned in the science you can become, because śāstra is there, guru is there, and sādhu is there. Sādhu-śāstra-guru-vākya. Then you will be able to understand what is Kṛṣṇa, why He advents, why His activities are transcendental. So if you try to understand these things, then what will be the result? Result will be tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). After giving up this body, no more material body. No more material body means no more death. The death takes place on account of this material body; otherwise the living entity, nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Living entity is eternal; he does not die, he does not take birth. Na jāyate mriyate vā kadācit. Eternal. Then why he dies? That death is of this material body, not of the eternal soul. So although we are eternal, nityaḥ śāśvataḥ, still we have to accept different types of body. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Dehino'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). So this transmigration of the soul from one body to another is not very good business. Who wants to die? Nobody wants to die. But he has to die. He must die. There is no question of he likes or not likes. Nobody wants to take birth, again enter into the womb of mother. And nowadays it is very risky, because mother is killing the child: the ultimate end of Kali-yuga. The mother's shelter, a child feels very happy on the lap of mother, and that is the arrangement of nature. Mother should take care of the child. But in this age the people are so, I mean to say, contaminated that even mother is killing child. Just imagine what is the position of birth and death. Birth and death is not very good business. Therefore if you want to stop this birth and death then take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, try to understand Kṛṣṇa.

Lecture at the Hare Krsna Festival at La Salle Pleyel -- Paris, June 14, 1974:

So death means when the subtle body carries the soul to another gross body, not this gross body, that is called death. So this subtle body—means mind, intelligence and ego—that carries me to another body according to the nature of my mind. At the time of death, as the mind is absorbed, I mean to say, full of thoughts, according to that full of thoughts, we are given another gross body. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that anta-kale, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6). Bhāvam, the attitude, the modes of the mind at the time of death, will carry me to the next gross body. Therefore it is necessary to prepare ourself what kind of body we are going to get after death. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, "After death, the soul," tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), "gets another body." Now, we can see in our experience, there are so many different types of bodies. There are 900,000 species of bodies in the water. There are two million different types of bodies in the vegetables kingdom, means the trees and plants. There are eleven hundred thousand species of life in the insect kingdom. There are one million types of bodies in the bird kingdom. And there are three million types of bodies in the beast life. And there are 400,000 species of body in the human society. Out of them, the civilized man is considered to be perfectly in bodily situation.

So this human form of body is given to us by nature to understand God. In other forms of life there is no chance of understanding God. Therefore it is our duty, everyone's duty, before the next death comes, we must understand what is God. If we simply misuse this body like cats and dogs, then we are missing the chance. We cannot say that we are free. That is not possible. We are completely under the control of the material nature. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:

Public Speech -- Bad Homburg, Germany, June 22, 1974:

We have to pass through 900,000 forms of aquatic body within the water. Then gradually we come to the form of trees and plants. They are two million varieties. Then we get the bodies of the insect. There are 900,000 forms of body. Then we enter into the species of birds, one million forms of body. Then after bird's body, there are three million different varieties of beast's body. Then after this period, we become human body, but there are 400,000 species of human body. And thus we get this nice human form body with good brain and good consciousness. So it should be utilized properly. By the laws of nature... Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). This is the law of nature. Gradually we develop different types of body and different types of consciousness. So when we come finally to God consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is the perfection of life.

So we are living in this planet, but in other planets also there are different forms of life. So there is one planet... There are many millions of planet. Specifically, there is one planet within this universe that is called Siddha-loka. There is other planet also, heavenly planet, Brahmaloka planet, and in different planets there are different species of life, different standard of comforts, but in the higher planetary system, the standard of comfort is more and more, thousand times more, thousand times more, in this way. Just like in this planet we have got different standard of life. In your Western countries your standard of life is... At least, it is to be understood more comfortable than other standard of life. In this way, if you promote yourself to the topmost planetary system, which is called Brahmaloka, then you get your duration of life, many millions of years. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). In the Brahmaloka planet, the residents, they have got their one day. One day means daytime, not nighttime, twelve hours, say. That is equal to... Their twelve hours is equal to our millions of years, sahasra-yuga. Sahasra-yuga means forty-three hundred thousands of years multiplied by one thousand. That is called sahasra-yuga. Such is the, the such duration of time is equal to twelve hours in the Brahmaloka planet. So even if you go to the Brahmaloka planet... You read that, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna. Read it.

Public Speech -- Bad Homburg, Germany, June 22, 1974:

So unless your body is completely competent to live in such planet, you cannot go there. Just like the scientists say that in the moon planet the temperature is two hundred degrees below zero. Similarly, in the sun planet, the temperature is very, very high, hundred and thousand times degrees above the normal. So in this way every planet has got different atmosphere, different temperature, different standard of life, different duration of life. So one has to become competent to transfer himself in a particular type of planet. So we, as spirit soul, dehi, the possessor of this body... Dehi means one who possesses this body or the occupier of the body, the spirit soul. That is eternal, changing body only, but eternal. Therefore we should not be interested to these different types of temporary body. That is not very good intelligence. So we have to prepare ourself, if we want. There are the full description of each and every planet, and we can prepare ourself according to our desire which planet we wish to go. But Kṛṣṇa says, mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām: (BG 9.25) "Persons who are engaged in My occupational duties, they will come to Me."

La Trobe University Lecture -- Melbourne, July 1, 1974:

So we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement on the platform of the spirit soul, which we do not see with these material eyes. This is great ignorance. After death we cry that "My father is gone," "My son is gone." But where he has gone? He is lying on the bed. Now, even still, we do not come to the understanding what is the difference between the living body and the dead body. There are so many theories, but as I have already told you that we receive knowledge from the perfect person, Kṛṣṇa. He says that within this body the owner of the body is there, and on account of the owner of the body presence, the body is changing. The owner of the body is sometimes in the childhood body; the owner of the body sometimes in a different boyhood body; the owner of the body is sometimes in the youthhood body. Similarly, as he is changing different types of body during this duration of life, similarly, after this annihilation of this body, when it is old... Just like old garment or old coat, old shirt cannot be used—it is thrown away; another new shirt, new coat is taken—similarly, this body, being annihilated, the soul accepts another body. This is a real knowledge. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). This is explained in Bhagavad-gītā very broadly. Just like here it is said that,

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya

śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ

āgamāpāyinaḥ anitya

tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

(BG 2.14)

Our real business, real education, is to understand, "What I am? I am not this body." But that education is lacking. So our main business is to understand that "I am not this body, and the bodily pains and pleasure, they are due to the change of season only." Just like now it is winter season. We are covering our body. In the summer season we do not like so heavily dressed. So this feeling of pains and pleasure is due to this material body.

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

The law, even this material law, is so strict, and you can imagine how much strict are stringent laws of the nature. So this is the material life, that knowingly or unknowingly we are infecting a particular type of modes of material nature, and our next body is being created. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Sad-asad life, there are different varieties of life, 8,400,000 varieties of forms. So why there are different forms of life, different standard of life? Why? The answer is in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kāraṇam, the reason, is guṇa-saṅgaḥ, his particular infection with a particular quality of material nature. This is going on perpetually. "Perpetually" means we do not know when this process of life began and when it will be ended; therefore it is perpetual. So our this privilege, to possess a human form of life, is great advantage in this sense, that we can study all these things—what is the living entity, how he is being infected and how he is taking different types of bodies, and account of the body, the standard of life, nice or bad, is going on. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, in the very beginning of His teaching of the Bhagavad-gītā, He is trying to impress that "I am not this body, or we are not this body. I am the owner or occupier of the body." This is the first instruction.

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

What is your religion? Is that very good philosophy, that you shall kill your father and mother and eat them?" This was the first question. According to Vedic civilization, cow is to be given all protection. The Hindus or followers of the Vedic religion, why they are interested to give protection to the cows, not to the..., not so much to the other animals? And Lord Christ is more liberal. He said, "Thou shalt not kill." He does not name any animal's name. Every animal. Every animal should be given protection. That is also the Vedic idea. Why these poor animals should be killed? By killing, killing, killing, you become sinful and entangled. Therefore now it has begun—one is killing his own child.

So this is going on. So in this way we cannot be happy. We shall become more and more entangled in sinful resultant action. And we have to take different types of body. So perpetually it will go on. Therefore this movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is to awaken every man to God consciousness and just to stop his activities in sinful life, so that he will be purified and he will understand God. Without being purified, nobody can understand what is God. That is not possible.

Life Member House Lecture -- Hyderabad, April 14, 1975:

To serve māyā means to continue this material existence one after another. Now I've got this body, you've got this body, and if we do not change our attitude to serve Kṛṣṇa, then we get again next body. There are 8,400,000 different forms of body. We can see. There are so many trees, plants, insects, animals. They're all living entities. Also there are nice body—Americans, Europeans, beautiful body, or demigod's body. There are different bodies, eight million... So long we shall remain māyā-dāsa, we have to change this body one after another. It may be of higher standard or it may be of lower standard. That will depend on my work. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa jantor deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). This is the philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You are... We are not independent. We are completely under the control of material nature, and we get different types of bodies on account of associating with different modes of material nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅga asya sad-asad janma yoniṣu (BG 13.22). Sat, asat, there are two kinds of status quo, sat and asat. Sat means nice, or eternal, and asat means not very nice. So either you can get the body of the human society or you can get a body in the hog society, dog society. But the activities of the hogs and dogs and human being, if it is carried on in ignorance, eating, sleeping, mating... Then there is no difference. There is no difference. There is no difference to become a hog or to become a man. A man is also eating; hog is also eating according to one's taste. The man is also sleeping; the hog is also sleeping, according to the position. So that does not make any difference between a human being and a hog. But at the present moment we are taken this civilization that hog is eating stool, and if we are eating very nice plate, then you're civilized. But śāstra says no. Eating and the taste of eating is the same. Always enjoying eating stool, and you're enjoying eating something else—the taste of eating is the same. There is no difference. You like something; I like something. But the common formula is that you eat, I also eat. Therefore we have to change this formula. If you simply waste our time like the hogs—eating, sleeping, sex-life and defense—then that is not human life.

City Hall Lecture -- Durban, October 7, 1975:

So therefore we have to first of all establish our relationship with God. Your establish..., is already

established. Just like the father and the son—the relationship is already there. It is not... But still, sometimes the son goes out of home and may be forgetting his father. Similarly, we are out of home. We have come from the spiritual world in this material world. We have forgotten our father. So we have to revive this relationship with our father, or God, or Kṛṣṇa. That is the main business of human life. In other species of life lower than the human being it is not possible to revive our old relationship with God. But in this life... Therefore this is the greatest opportunity. After all, we are under the grip of material nature's law. That is explained in there. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). According to our desire, we are creating a different type of body, and after death, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Just like the child is become a boy, the boy is becoming young man, the young man is becoming middle-aged man, and the middle-aged man is becoming old man. So what is next after the old body? The next is tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: you have to accept another body. This is called chain or cycle of birth and death, or transmigration of the soul. This is going on. So if you want to... But nobody wants to die. Nobody wants to change this body. But this is a problem. One should know it. That is the first instruction given by Kṛṣṇa... (break) ...Arjuna, that we are changing. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. So this is the opportunity, human life. If we want to stop this repetition of birth and death under different obligation and different circumstances, we should take instruction from Kṛṣṇa, try to understand Kṛṣṇa—that is Bhagavad-gītā—and make our life successful so that... Understanding Kṛṣṇa means, as it is stated, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). We have come from God; we again go back to God if we simply understand Kṛṣṇa, or God.

Lecture -- Bhuvanesvara, January 29, 1977, (with Oriyan translator):

"If you hear from a Māyāvādī, nirākāravādī, then you are doomed." You cannot understand about God at any time. (break) So our request is that if you at all want to understand what is God, don't go to the Māyāvādī or Śūnyavādi, but try to understand about God from God Himself. Sometimes they may say that "What is the use of understanding God? What is the necessity of understanding God?" No. That is not the right conclusion. Human life is meant for understanding God. (break)...God, you may say there is no God, but there is God. There is no doubt about it.

So we must know what is God, what is our relationship with Him and how we shall act in that relationship. You cannot say, "There is no God," from logic also. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya: (BG 14.4) "I am the bīja-pradaḥ pitā, the seed-giving father." He says that sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ. There are different types of body, and we can see that all types of living entities, they are coming from the earth. So everything is coming out of the earth, beginning from the grass to the big, big animals or other thing. Therefore this pṛthivī, or the earth, is our mother. Everything is coming from the earth. So mātā is there, mother is there, and the offsprings or children are there—there must be father. Without father, mother cannot beget any children. So when you see so many varieties of life, the mother is the... We say dhātrī-mātā. We have got seven mothers. One of them is the earth.

Lecture -- Bhuvanesvara, January 29, 1977, (with Oriyan translator):

Īśvara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramātmā, is sitting in everyone's core of the heart, and He is witness, witnessing everything. So according to our karma, we are getting a body or a machine for movement given by māyā. So therefore we are getting different types of body. The reason is kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). The different types of body we are getting on account of association with the material qualities. So if we want to stop this business of repetition of birth and death in this cycle, we must understand. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. We must understand. It is compulsory. We must understand "What is God, what is my relations with Him." Then we can get release from this repetition of birth and death. That process is being described by Bhagavān Himself, that mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha. You have to increase your attachment for Bhagavān. Āsakta. Āsakta means attachment. You have to increase your attachment for Bhagavān. (break) ...recommended process, you can understand Bhagavān. This process of increasing our attachment about God, or Kṛṣṇa, is called bhakti-yoga. Mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ. Mad-āśrayaḥ: "taking shelter of Me or taking shelter of My devotee." Mad-āśrayaḥ. That yoga is called bhakti-yoga. Mad-āśrayaḥ means "taking shelter of Me" or "taking shelter of the person who has taken shelter of Me."

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā very nicely, that the soul is in this material world, and he is influenced by the three modes of material nature. So according to his position under the influence of three different kinds of modes, he is getting this body. It is on account of his free will. Just like if he wants to eat anything and everything up to stool, then he is given the body of a pig. If he wants to eat direct blood, sucking, then he gets the body of a tiger. And if he wants to eat first-class nutritious food, then he is given the body of a brāhmaṇa. In this way we are getting different types of bodies according to our desire. We are creating different types of desires, that "We shall be happy in this way, we shall be happy in this way." Just like we see practically, somebody is going to the restaurant, he thinks, "By eating here in restaurant I shall be happy." And somebody is going to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness temple, he is thinking that "I shall be happy by eating here." So Kṛṣṇa has given everyone the chance, but he is trying to be happy but he is not becoming happy, because he is misusing his intelligence, cent percent abiding by the orders of God; therefore he is suffering. As such, Kṛṣṇa comes personally and induces him that "You don't desire in this way. You give up all this material desire. You simply desire to act according My order, you surrender unto Me, and I will give you all happiness."

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Karandhara: So the angle of vision is not from the bodily, it's from the closeness of the soul to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as far as they're able...

Prabhupāda: Unless you accept soul and consciousness, there cannot be question of culture.

Śyāmasundara: But when the scientists say "species," they mean different types of bodies.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We say 400,000 different forms of body, so human body, just like Negroes, they are also human beings, and you are also human beings. So this, scientists will say they are all one species, human being. But we say that Negro culture and the Āryan culture is different.

Śyāmasundara: They also say their bodies are different, Negroid bodies or Caucasian bodies, or Oriental bodies...

Prabhupāda: Then you can say species. Species and the different bodies.

Śyāmasundara: Species means different bodies. too

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Karandhara: So the consciousness, the body, or my form, it's pertaining to my consciousness, the development of my consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You and your brother may be of the same type of body; there may not be a different, same type of consciousness.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: I already said that. Why don't you listen? Species, definition of the scientists is different from ours. We say class.

Śyāmasundara: I'm trying to understand, because you said class but then you also said bodies. Negro bodies are different from white Caucasian bodies.

Prabhupāda: Maybe difference of bodies. But that does not...; therefore our classification on the basis of soul. The soul is equal. In spite of different types of body, the soul is one. There is no change of the soul. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that he does not see the species or the class or definition. He sees one: paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Paṇḍita, one who sees to the (indistinct), the soul, he does not find any difference of these species or (indistinct). This is our point.

Karandhara: So Darwin and similar material scientists, they have no information of the soul, but yet they're...

Prabhupāda: There they're missing the whole point.

Karandhara: But they're trying to find out information for themselves, and for others around them, but not knowing who they are, they're drawing on a material platform which is infinite, or at least infinite as far as their capacity to understand. So not only will they never be able to understand the material, the construction of the material arrangement, but at ultimate issue it has no pertinence, anyway. It doesn't mean anything.

Śyāmasundara: No. It does mean something if you accept that forms are evolving from simple to complex. That means that we can expect in the future that mankind will even be of a more superior nature than they are now.

Prabhupāda: Forms are... One form is superior than the other form. (indistinct) you said.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: But because both, we say that both of them are ignorant about the beginning. So if both of them are ignorant, so either you say six thousand, seven thousand, or six million, this is all imagination. It is not fact. But the six thousand or seven thousand, that is not the fact-millions and millions of years. But the fact is this, that God created this cosmic manifestation, and He impregnated the living entities to appear in different types of body according to the soul's desire. That I have already explained. The soul... "Man proposes; God disposes." Not only human form of life but all the animal forms of life, they are also from the very beginning. Not like Darwin's theory that there was no human form of life in the beginning. That is a wrong theory. All the forms of life were there, and the, actually the body is external; within the body there is the soul. So the body is created by material nature and the soul is part and parcel of God. This is the real idea. So how they can refute this idea if they have no idea about the beginning of life?

Hayagrīva: It was very difficult on the basis of the Bible. The Vedas date the creation back, oh...

Prabhupāda: That it is a question of time, and it is the beginning.

Hayagrīva: The beginning of the creation was when? No...

Prabhupāda: No. There is no question of when. It may be seven thousand years or seven millions of years, but the beginning should be taken like this, that God created this cosmic manifestation. And wherefrom the living entities came? That also came from God. That is explained clearly in the Bhagavad-gītā, that this material creation is composition of earth, water, air, fire..., like that, that this is also God's energy. The ingredients of this material world coming from God, that is called prakṛti and pradhāna. He is the creator. And then the living entities, they are also coming from God. So this material energy is explained as inferior energy, and the living entity is explained as superior energy, both of them coming from God. So the beginning of life simultaneously. It is not that matter later on developed to become life. That is a wrong theory.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) (pause)

Devotee: (indistinct) the understanding, understand Bhagavad-gītā by our intelligence, (indistinct).

Devotee: (indistinct)

Śyāmasundara: With the creative process advancement in ever higher levels up into the level of immortality.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You are getting different types of body, and when you are properly or perfectly Kṛṣṇa conscious, then no more this material body; you get spiritual body.

Devotee: Does that mean that I am, if I don't make it to immortality, I (indistinct)?

Śyāmasundara: No. The life force is eternal but it advances to higher and higher levels.

Devotee: It's eternal, but I don't realize its eternality (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: No. The forms. The life force itself is eternal but the forms will change up to the stage of immortality.

Prabhupāda: Material forms have changed. The living force has not. The same example: the living force is there, the forms babyhood to childhood, childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, the form is changed, but the person whose bodies have been changed, he is permanent, he is spiritual, he is not changed. But when he identifies with the body, he thinks that "I am changed." The example is, just like in the rainy season, at night there is cloud, and the cloud is moving, but if you see, you see the moon is moving, moon is moving. But actually the moon is not moving, the cloud is moving. You have any experience?

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is the demigods? They are also rotting in this material world. So devotees are not concerned how to become a demigod. They do not care. That is said by Prabodānanda Sarasvatī: vidhi-mahendrādiś ca kīṭāyate. Vidhi means Lord Brahmā, and mahendra means the king of heaven, Indra. So he says, "I think this Brahmā and Indra, Candra, the demigods just like as good as the germs and small insects." He says that. Vidhi-mahendrādiś. You have to attain such a position that you think this Brahmā and Indra and demigods, they are as good as the insects. Vidhi-mahendrādiś ca kīṭa. Kīṭa means a small insect. So actually that is the position. Everyone has got a different type of body according to his karma, either Brahmā's body or ant's body, so he is under material laws. So that is not the position of freedom. One has to become above these material laws. That is brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). So anyone who has actually attained that position, what is the importance of Brahmā's body or Indra's body? He is not concerned with the body, just, therefore devotees are not interested to be elevated to the higher planetary system in the heaven. They are not interested. They are interested going back to home, back to Godhead. So devotee's position is different. Just like we can see practically our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we have got so many members. We are not perfect, but still it is not our ambition how to become a Rockefeller or big rich man. This is not our ambition. Is it our ambition, like that? We don't care for this Rockefeller or big, big man. We want how to become a perfect devotee of Kṛṣṇa. You can see practically. Our endeavors, activities, are not like the karmīs'. The karmīs are trying "How many motorcars I will possess. How many buildings I shall possess." We do not mind, but we are constructing temples. That is for Kṛṣṇa's service. We are getting money by Kṛṣṇa's mercy. You are envious of that money for Kṛṣṇa's service. Not to that to make a big bank balance and declare that "Now I have become as good as Rockefeller," or this or that. We are not interested. So a devotee is not at all interested to be promoted in the higher planetary system or become demigod. That is not their business. Kīṭa janma hau yathā tuyā dāsa. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that bahir-mukha brahma-janme nāhi mora āśa, "I don't care to become a Brahmā, I, better I shall prepare to become a small ant in the house of a devotee." This is our ambition. I shall be very much satisfied remaining a small ant in the house of a devotee, a dog of a devotee, but I don't want, forgetting Kṛṣṇa, to become like Brahmā, Indra, Candra. This is Vaiṣṇava philosophy.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Prabhupāda: That idea is illusion.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. But he says that will is the ultimate reality. Something is...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, will is ultimate reality, we also admit. Because we desire, we will like this. We will that we shall be enjoyer of the material world. Idea was that "I shall become like Kṛṣṇa." This was the idea, and therefore I will. And Kṛṣṇa gave us chance, "All right, you come here and fulfill your desire." So they are implicated in so many karma, and becoming more and more involved. So according to karma he is getting different types of body, and there is no end. It is going on.

Śyāmasundara: Yes, he says that the will is eternal, and it is always incarnated in one body after another. But he describes it as a force...

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is a force.

Śyāmasundara: ...an impersonal force.

Prabhupāda: Impersonal or personal, that will be discussed later on. First of all there is force, and he is being forced. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). He had associated with one of the modes of material nature, and as such he is being forced to act according to the nature. Just like you met your friend, she is forced. Nobody likes that, a wretched life, but she is forced, because she has associated with a certain material modes of nature. Just like these hippies, they are forced. They are coming from respectable family, there is no scarcity of money, and still they are lying on the street in wretched dress, wretched habits. So that this nature is forcing, "You do this." Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni. Because he has associated with a certain type of quality of the nature, he will be forced. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgasya sad-asad-yoni janmasu. The different types of species of life, the cause is kāraṇam, cause, is guṇa-saṅgasya. As he is associating with the material qualities.

Śyāmasundara: But is this force irrational and blind? This is what he thinks.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Prabhupāda: Yes, he has read it. It is taken from Indian... It is called vāsanā. Vāsanā means desire. So that desire, material desire, but the living entity cannot be desireless. Desireless..., nirvāṇa means material desires finished. But because living entity is eternal spiritual being, he is, he has got spiritual desire. Now it is covered. The desire is there, desire is constant companion, but because it is materially covered, we are thinking this temporary world as reality, and it is not reality; therefore it is changing. We are having different types of desires according to the body we get, and the soul is transmigrating in this material world from one body to another, and he is creating a certain type of desires, will. And to fulfill that will he is getting a different type of body by the Supreme Will. He is willing, and the Supreme Will, God, Kṛṣṇa, understanding his will, giving him facility to accept a certain pattern of circumstances, body, to fulfill his particular desire. That is going on. Therefore this vāsanā, or will, is the cause of his material existence, constantly changing, and on account of changing will he is changing body. This is the complication of material existence. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to teach the living entity that as living being you must have desires. If your desires are stopped, then you become like stone. So you have to cleanse this desire, diseased form of desire. That is bhakti. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). Now the desires are according to the upādhi, according to the body. A man gets the body of American, he thinks, "America is my home. American nation, they are my brother. American upliftment is my business," so on, so on. And as soon as it is changed, you are Chinese man, again he thinks, "I am Chinese." Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). He has to change. He has got the material body of a dog, he is barking, "I am dog. This is my business, to bark." So this is all desires. So these desires are temporary. By one desire I get one body, then I desire another body, another body, it is going.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Prabhupāda: Therefore that is bhakti. Sarvopādhi, this willing... Why? This willing is (indistinct), because this willing is according to the body. So I get one body and will again, we get another body. So I am willing, but I am. So I have now identified with this willing situation. That is my trouble. When I understand that I have nothing to do with this material world, with this, the production of my will, material will, and I am spiritual, so when I will spiritually, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is wanted. Materially willing means I get different types of body, that's all. That is dream life. But what he says?

Hayagrīva: Well, he sees that the basis of life is sex.

Prabhupāda: He has to...

Hayagrīva: That this, that the will is asserted mainly due to sex.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is material life.

Hayagrīva: Yes.

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.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Hayagrīva: He sees the pleasure of the world as ultimately frustrating. Eternal becoming endless flux characterizes the revelation of the inner nature of will. Finally, the same thing shows itself in human endeavors and desires, which always delude us by presenting their satisfaction as the final end of will. As soon as we attain to them, they no longer appear the same. Therefore they soon grow stale or forgotten, and though not ultimately disowned, are yet always thrown aside as vanished illusions.

Prabhupāda: So this is going on. He is getting, therefore, different types of body.

Hayagrīva: He says we go..., there's a constant transition from desire to satisfaction and from satisfaction to a new desire, a rapid course of which is called happiness, and the slow course sorrow, and does not sink into that stagnation that shows itself in fearful boredom that paralyzes life. So it's this flux from desire to satisfaction that characterizes the will's activities in the phenomenal world. But for Schopenhauer, outside of all of this flux there is only..., the only solution is nirvāṇa or extinction.

Prabhupāda: No, that is not the fact. One has to study that willing and satisfaction of the willing. So behind this willing and satisfaction of willing there is the person who is willing. He does not take that person into consideration.

Hayagrīva: No.

Prabhupāda: He takes only that the willing and satisfaction willing, that is the only business. But he does not see the person who is willing. That is his defect.

Hayagrīva: Supreme Person.

Prabhupāda: Not Supreme Person.

Philosophy Discussion on Arthur Schopenhauer:

Hayagrīva: As an example of suicide, he gives the..., he says that at the procession of Jagannātha in 1840, eleven Hindus threw themselves under the wheels and were instantly killed. And he also mentions the satī rituals of the woman throwing herself into the sacrificial fire, the fire of her husband's funeral pyre.

Prabhupāda: This is not suicide. This is... Our life is continuation, but on account of impure understanding we are getting different types of body and you are suffering different varieties of miseries. So this suicidal, this is not suicidal, that voluntarily accepting death, so that by dying, if he thinks of the spiritual life, he gets it. Just like Kulaśekhara, he has got a poetry that... In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajanty ante: (BG 8.6) we get next life according to the desire at the point of death. So generally, when death takes place, one sometimes remains in coma, all the bodily functions becomes defunct, he dreams in different ways and so on, so on. So he cannot dream or think independently. Therefore sometimes the intelligent class, they think that "If I meet death in sound health, then I can think of my next life, go back to home, back to Godhead, and I achieve it. Because at the time of death my thinking will be taken into consideration. So if by thinking of Jagannātha if I die, then I go back to Jagannātha."

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is not suicide. That is voluntarily accepting death so that immediately he can return back to the spiritual world.

Hayagrīva: And that works?

Prabhupāda: What?

Hayagrīva: That's an actual...?

Philosophy Discussion on Martin Heidegger:

Prabhupāda: That is also not proof. As soon as he gets a body, his thing is settled up. Just like you have got this body—white body. You cannot become black body. Or a man who has got black body, he cannot become white man. This is wrong philosophy. How you can settle up? Because he is considering the of body, he is considering the existence means the manufacture of the body from the womb of mother up to the destruction of the body. So this body, as it is made, there are different types of body. So that cannot be changed.

Śyāmasundara: What about if someone can choose to become a doctor or a lawyer or a physician or anything like that.

Prabhupāda: That is quality; that is not the body.

Śyāmasundara: No. He doesn't say body, he says that he can choose his different kinds of being, how he will be, whether he will be a lawyer or a doctor, like that. He can be good, he can be bad...

Prabhupāda: First thing is that if he has no clear idea of existence, then what he can be, that will depend on the idea of existence. So as he is thinking of to become doctor or lawyer and teacher, similarly he should know that he eternally exists, then he can also make a program what he can become next time.

Śyāmasundara: He says that that is the essence of existence, that we can become something which we choose, of our own choosing.

Prabhupāda: That means he is talking of this existence. According to him, the existence finishes after death. That is poor fund of knowledge.

Philosophy Discussion on Jacques Maritain:

Prabhupāda: Intuity, also past experience. What you call intuition is past experience. Just like when a child is born, by intuition it seeks mother's breast. Because the child does not know where is food, but by intuition, as soon as the mother's breast is given, pushed in its mouth, he is satisfied immediately. So by..., this is called by intuition. But actually it is its past experience. The same child, as the soul, may have taken something else in a different body. So the fact is that the soul is wandering in different types of bodies, and when he comes to a particular type of body, he remembers everything from his past experience. Just like fifty years ago, when I was a businessman, so at that Gauḍīya Math, as soon as I go there, I remember all those things; I am again fifty years back. That is actual... So this, suppose if I say I am going, I do not require to be directed that "Here is this thing, here is that thing." Immediately I enter that town I will understand that if I have to go to the toilet, "Here it is." If I go to the kitchen, "Here it is." So you may call it intuition, but actually it is experience, past experience. There is no, nothing such thing as intuition. That is a vague expression. Actually it is past experience.

Śyāmasundara: He says that God, He is pure actuality. There is no potentiality.

Prabhupāda: Absolute.

Śyāmasundara: He is Absolute. He is pure existence and essence together, but that the..., everything else that exists besides God has these two characteristics of potentiality and actuality.

Prabhupāda: That potentiality, actuality, it is material relativity. In the spiritual world there is same—potentiality, reality—they're one. Just like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, the rascal scholars, they think that Kṛṣṇa's body and Kṛṣṇa's soul is different, as it is, what is called, expressed by Dr. Radhakrishnan. But that is not the fact. There is no such difference. Kṛṣṇa also says, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā (BG 9.11). Because He comes in a human form, rascals think of Him as ordinary human being. But He is not that. He is absolute. He has nothing to do with the body and soul as we have got. He is body and soul together-potentiality and the actuality. Similarly, anyone who gets a spiritual body, he also gets the same position. There will be no difference between actuality and potentiality.

Philosophy Discussion on Bertrand Russell:

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. That is nonsense. That we have already discussed, that if evolution of bodies, then just like this Darwin says that some monkeys, eh? So where is the direct proof that a monkey body is changing to a human body? We say that there are different types of bodies always, just like different types of apartment. But the living entity, the soul, is transferring from one apartment to another just like we change. We are in this room, we may go to another room—but that room is already ready. But I am entering a certain type of apartment according to my means. If I can pay more rent, I can get very nice apartment. If I do not pay, I cannot pay, then that is not possible. Similarly, according to our karma, nature is offering us different apartments, and these apartments are already there, fixed up, 8,400,000 species of life. So as you make yourself fit, you enter accordingly. It is not fixed up that because you are now in a very nice apartment you cannot go down or go up. If you are fit for entering into better apartment, that is also ready. And if you are unfit for entering a better, then lower class of apartment, that is also ready. So these things are already there.

Dr. Rao: (indistinct) between chance of from one apartment to another?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is said... Just like you step forward. You first of all put your leg. When you see that it is fixed up, then you get up (indistinct). Unless you are firm, that "Now I am solid," then you take up the other leg. Similarly death takes place when it is ascertained that this soul has to enter such-and-such body, when it is settled up by higher authority, then he gives up this body and enters into (another) body.

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

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that nature develops towards that point. The body develops better and better to that point.

Prabhupāda: That is another..., the same rascal proposal. Body never develops. There are different types of body and the soul take shelter of one particular body. The same example, that in the tailor shop there are many shirts and coats. It is not that a shirt is developing into coat, neither the coat is developed into shirt. But there are many varieties of shirts and coat. If you go, you put on, and when the shirt or coat moves, the rascal thinks that it is the shirt and coat is moving. Shirt and coat never moves. The man, or the living entity, within the shirt and coat, he is moving. And therefore as soon as he is out, the shirt and coat, this body, is dead. It has no value.

Śyāmasundara: So according to the desire of the soul, he...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the statement in the Bhāgavata. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa jantor dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). Karmaṇā. Just like you get a shirt and coat according to the price you pay, similarly, by your karma, you get a particular type of body.

Śyāmasundara: So if one was prepared to pay for such demigod existence, he could have it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Demigod... That is called puṇya-karma. Just like they are going to Candraloka. According to Vedic scripture, yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). If you worship the particular demigods, then you are promoted in that loka.

Śyāmasundara: It's not that accidentally nature will evolve a race of demigods on this planet.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Prabhupāda: That is Vedic conception. The soul, he, as he is, he is part and parcel of God, but he is imprisoned in different types of body. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that "I am the seed-giving father of all different forms of life, and the mother, material nature is the mother." That is actually very logical. Through the matter different varieties of living entities are coming out. From water, from earth, from air, even from fire, ether, everywhere, sarva-gataḥ, life, living entities are visible. Therefore the combination of five elements—earth, water, fire, air—that is the body of the living entities. And the soul is the part and parcel of the Supreme, and the souls are impregnated within this material world by God, and they come out through the womb of the mother, nature or individual mother, whatever you say. The soul is coming out of matter but it is not matter. The living entities, part and parcel of God, assuming different types of body, either you say according to pious or impious activities, or according to his pious and impious desires. Vāsanāḥ. So the desire actually is the cause of higher and lower grades of body, but the soul is the same. Therefore those who are advanced in spiritual consciousness, they see the same soul in, in each and every body. Either in the body of a dog or in the body of a brāhmaṇa, the same soul is existing, but according to different desires and karma one gets a different types of body.

Hayagrīva: Augustine believed that all men came from Adam, that is the first man or one man, and that this one man God created—this one man—and this one man is the root of all mankind. He writes, "God knew how good it would be for this community often to recall that the human race had its roots in one man, precisely to show how pleasing it is to God that men, though many, should be one."

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Hayagrīva: He conceived of the spiritual world as a place where the bodies are very beautiful, are very happy, they move with, with grace. The... God is the source of every satisfaction and is the consummation of all desires. The people in the spiritual sky never cease praising God, never tire of praising Him. There is no envy, and bliss is all-pervasive. Sin has no power of temptation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When he, we remain in contact with God, the sin cannot touch. That is the explanation given in the Bhagavad-gītā: daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). According to our desires we are associating with the different qualities of material nature, and we are getting different types of body. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya. Nature is the agent of Kṛṣṇa, God, so as we desire, Kṛṣṇa gives us the facility by giving us a body which is a machine. Just like father and the son. The son insists, "Father, give me a cycle." So the affectionate father gives him a cycle. And he says, "Father, give me a motorcar." So affectionate father gives him a motorcar. So this is the relationship between the father and the son. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, that,

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ

hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati

bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni

yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

(BG 18.61)

The father, or Kṛṣṇa, is there within the core of heart of every living entity, and as he desires, the father supplies him a type of vehicle manufactured by the material nature. So this body is given by God because we desire it, but the body is manufactured by the material nature. This is very reasonable. So we are in different types of body means in different types of vehicle, sometimes as acting on the vehicle of a pig, and sometimes we are acting on the vehicle of a very important person or demigod. But we desire such thing, and God gives us such vehicle manufactured by the material nature.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Prabhupāda: Wrapped up. But there are different identities. Intelligence... Everyone has got mind, but the mind acts under intelligence. But the intelligence of different living entities are different. Similarly mind is also different. A dog's intelligence is not equal to the intelligence of the human being. A dog's mind is not equal to the human being's mind. So actually the soul, being put under different types of body using different types of intelligence, and different some mental, psychic action, thinking, feeling, willing. So according to the body, the mind and intelligence are different.

Hayagrīva: Well, this..., thinking in this way Augustine writes, he says, "We do not apply 'Thou shalt not kill' to plants, because they have no sensation, or to irrational animals that fly, swim, walk or creep, because they are linked to us by no association or common bond. By the creator's wise ordinance they are meant for our use, dead or alive. It only remains for us to apply the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' to man alone, oneself and others." So...

Prabhupāda: So that is imagination of Augustine. But Jesus Christ does not say such qualitative killing. He says frankly, "Thou shalt not kill." When he says that, he means, "You should not kill." But when there is absolute necessity, just like he says that "One life is food for the another life..." Does he not say it like that?

Hayagrīva: He says, uh... (break) He says..., this is, this is Augustine writing. He said, "Some people try to stretch the prohibition 'Thou shalt not kill' to cover beasts and cattle and make it unlawful to kill any such animal, but then why not include plants and anything rooted in and feeding on the soil? After all, things like this, though devoid of feeling, are said to have life and therefore can die and so be killed by violent treatment."

Prabhupāda: No, that is not Vedic philosophy. Vedic philosophy admits that one living entity is the food for another living entity. That is natural.