Therefore it is said, panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyaḥ (Bs. 5.34). Koṭi-śata-vatsara, millions of years, if you go with your sputnik with full force... Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara. Not this sputnik, but make your planes of mind speed. This is material speed. What is this speed? A few thousands, twenty thousand, fifty thousand. But do you know mind speed? You are sitting here, and immediately, within a second, you can go to India. This is mind speed. Immediately. So panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara sampragamyo vāyor athāpi (Bs. 5.34). By the air speed or mind speed. Vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām. And driven by great scientists, muni-puṅgava. Puṅgava means very expert, nara-puṅgava. So big, big scientists, expert scientists, if they can discover airplane which is running on mind speed or air speed... They are not, they cannot go by the air speed. They fly on the air, but not with the air speed.
Fifty thousand (Books & Lectures)
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 4
This indicates that Dhruva Mahārāja's time was in the Satya-yuga in the beginning of creation. During one day of Lord Brahmā, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, there are many Satya-yugas. According to the Vedic calculation, at the present moment the twenty-eighth millennium is current. It can be calculated that Dhruva Mahārāja lived many millions of years ago, but the description of the palace of Dhruva's father is so glorious that we cannot accept that advanced human civilization did not exist even forty or fifty thousand years ago. There were walls like those in the palace of Mahārāja Uttānapāda even very recently, during the Mogul period. Anyone who has seen the Red Fort in Delhi must have marked that the walls are made of marble and were once decorated with jewels. During the British period all these jewels were taken away and dispatched to the British Museum.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
That is not enjoying. Because why you are placed? Because I wanted to enjoy life like that. So puruṣa prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān (BG 13.22). And this profit is nothing but acceptance of the quality of material nature. And that is very practical. We can understand. Just like we are getting... I get, say, fifty-thousand dollars in a check. So I think that "I have got fifty thousand dollars." But what is this fifty thousand dollars? It is a piece of paper. You see? This is called illusion. In this way you study your life, you will see. If you are sober, if you are actually thoughtful, you will find that "This is not my life. This is not my life. But I am falsely thinking that I am enjoying life." Therefore frustration. Next stage is frustration. Everyone, we are frustrated because we are in this material world.
That, Prahlāda Mahārāja said, a great devotee, that... His father asked him, "My dear boy, what best thing you have learned?" He said, "My dear father..."
Arcanam, temple worship. You, in your country there is no temple worship. In our India there is temple. There are thousands and thousands of temples in India. And in Vṛndāvana, where my residential quarter is, Vṛndāvana... It is a small city, about fifty thousand people living there. But you'll be surprised to know, there are five thousand temples. For fifty thousand people, there are five thousand temples, in one small city. And out of that, there are about dozen very big temples. Very... Just like fort. Very big temples. So temple worship is very popular in India. Similarly, you have got your churches here.
If you have got means...
In India there are many thousands of Kṛṣṇa temples all over India, especially in Vṛndāvana. I have several times told you that Vṛndāvana is the city, only fifty thousand people, not even one hundred thousand, fifty thousand people within a small city. But there are five thousand temples, five thousand, all Kṛṣṇa temples. Now, in each and every temple you will find how nice foodstuff. According to the capacity of the temple owner, oh, very, I mean to say costly foodstuff are being offered. And those foodstuff is distributed amongst the poor class men.
Now, at the present moment, after the, we have got sva-rāja, or independence, the government has interfered with this sort of service. They say that "This is waste of money. Why you are offering?"
It was selling like anything. The trades manager of Macmillan Company reported that our books are selling more and more; others are reducing. Then recently, in this 1972, we have published this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, complete edition. And Macmillan Company published fifty thousand copies in others, but it was finished in three months and they are arranging for second edition.
So this Bhagavad-gītā should be read by every individual person to know the science of God. It is a great science. God is not a fiction or an imagination, as people take it. Not always, but in human society, everywhere in civilized human society there is some conception of religion, and the purpose of executing religious faith means to understand God. There is no other purpose of any religion. If in any religion the understanding of God is lacking, that is not first-class religion.
Squeezing, squeezing, they don't... They are frustrated, frustrated, moghāśā, baffled in every respect. Squeezing to take essence of this material pleasure, they are baffled. They are baffled. Don't you see this practically? "So much money, so much I have earned." They go to enjoy, fifty thousand dollars, hundred thousand dollars, squeezing—they do not find any pleasure. Simply squeezing, squeezing. Moghāśā mogha-karmāṇaḥ. That is not the process to find out real pleasure. If you have to find out real pleasure, then you have to take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You have to be trained up in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then you will have to change your habits in this way. You will find ananta. Ramante yoginaḥ anante (CC Madhya 9.29). Unlimited happiness which will never end, never end. Ramante yoginaḥ anante satyānande.
Just like, in our country, for national movement, so many rich men, they renounced everything.
One of, some of them, perhaps you know, there was one Mr. C. R. Das. He was earning $50,000 a month as a lawyer. So everything renounced. He joined this Movement. And, perhaps you have heard the name of Nehru. Nehru was very rich man's son. His father was very rich lawyer. His father's history is that... In those days, there was not a single day when he was not earning $500. The... So he was also very rich man's son. But he renounced everything, his father's property and everything, and joined this (Indian) national movement. He went to prison by the government. So renunciation has also attraction.
So the definition of God is there. Bhagavān. We should know who is God.
This morning one of our devotee has come from, Śyāmasundara, from London. Now our this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, is the topmost selling book in London. All the booksellers, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. So Macmillan Company is our publisher, and within one year they have published three editions, fifty thousand each. So real thing will have real value. One professor of religion from London University came to see me. He said, "Now we have rejected Dr. Radhakrishnan's Bhagavad-gītā." He said. What is the name of that professor?
It is not a rascaldom, that you speculate some interpretation, speculation. No, these things are not allowed, strictly. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, without any malinterpretation. This is the significance. And people are appreciating. Macmillan Company, our publisher, they printed fifty thousand copies of this book in August, and it was finished by October. Not in this country, of course. In Europe and America. We have got very good demand for our books, all these books. We are selling twenty-five to thirty thousand rupees' worth books daily all over the world.
So Kṛṣṇa warned... Here, the gentleman, he's not present here, who wrote me this letter? So it is the warning. Because ordinary man, they will simply spoil. They do not know what is the purpose of Bhagavad-gītā.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Simply what they actually require, that's all. Because they do not know how to utilize money. At the present moment, because the whole population are śūdras, as soon as they get money, they spend it for wine, women, and squander it away. Big, big rich men in America, they spend fifty thousand dollars in a week in Florida for seeing naked dance. Is it not? Is it not a fact? Because they are śūdras. They do not know how to spend money. And formerly, before this, people were little intelligent, or at least they had some religious faith. So they constructed temple, churches, mosque. Nowadays these things is stopped. As soon as one gets money, "How to spend it after sense gratification?"
So formerly there was no meetings of the śūdras. The meeting was held about, amongst the brāhmaṇas, saintly persons, to consider how people will remain happy, how their spiritualistic life will be advanced.
That is our propaganda. We are requesting not only the Hindus or Indians, but we are requesting everyone all over the world, "Take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and try to understand." We are therefore publishing so many books. We are very fortunate. I am very glad to inform you that we are selling our books, not less than forty to fifty thousand rupees daily. So our books are being well received, because in the Western world outside India, they never heard of this idea that God can be approached personally, we can talk with Him, we can live with Him, we can play with Him. These new ideas, of course, novel to the Western world. Therefore they are taking very careful attention. So why not India? Do not waste your time this way, that way. And the process is very simple. The process is very simple. We are recommending the followers of Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Just now I received one letter from Jaipur.
There is a report from the trade manager of Macmillan. He says, "While other editions are dwindling, going down, this edition is coming up." They published our, this present enlarged edition of Bhagavad-gītā, fifty thousand in the month of August. They are going to print again, second edition, August, September, October. So the reason is that if we present things as they are, it will be accepted. Without any adulteration. Sometimes, you know, people say that I have done miracles. They say everywhere. But I do not know anything, miracles or magic. If there is any miracle, that miracle is that we present things as they are. That's all. Without any adulteration. So that should be the principle. Present as it is. It will be accepted.
We have seen it. In Calcutta there was a big man. You have heard. Mr. C. R. Das, Gandhi's lieutenant, he gave up his practice. In those days he was..., fifty years ago he was earning fifty thousand rupees. So that is not joke. So he became mendicant. All Gandhi's followers, they became mendicant. Without becoming mendicant, you cannot do any welfare activities. That is the Vedic process, sannyāsa. So but he could not live. After giving up his job as a lawyer, he could not live for more than one year, because he was living very opulently and all of a sudden he became a mendicant. He could not tolerate. That we have seen. But here we see that the Gosvāmīs, they were also very big men, ministers, but how they lived?
Kovidaḥ means very intelligent person. He should work for that purpose. What is that? Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). Now we have invented so many instruments for flying in the space. Upary adhaḥ means very upward, fifty thousand miles up, and again down, you can travel. But the real goal of your life is not to be achieved in that way. Bhramatām upary adhaḥ. Suppose if you reach the moon planet or sun planet... There are so many planets higher and higher, bigger and bigger. That is not your goal of life. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). Your goal of life is that which you cannot achieve even by traveling the whole space. What is that? That goal of life is to search out God and your relationship with God. Because you are part and parcel of God, and somehow or other, you have been entrapped by this material atmosphere, and you are not happy.
So his father died insolvent. His father was also very respectable man, but later on he became so much debtor that he died insolvent. Declared... This Mr. C. R. Das, he did not get any property from the father, but by his practice as a barrister he became very rich man. In those days his monthly income was fifty thousand rupees. So he called all the creditors of his father and paid paisa to paisa, that "My father died in debtor. Now I have got money, you can take." So this is the duty of the son. But if one is poor man, he cannot pay. So he becomes a subject matter of criticism. Under the circumstances the father becomes the enemy. So therefore the Cāṇakya Paṇḍita's enunciation, ṛṇa-kartā pitā śatruḥ. And mātā śatrur vyabhicāriṇī. And if the mother, either she becomes prostitute or marries for the second time in the presence of elderly children, she is enemy.
That I have learned." Tvad-vīrya-gāyana. "I learned or not learned, but whenever I chant, then I merge into the ocean of nectarean."
A similar is stated about the Gosvāmīs. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tuccha-vat. We have seen it practically. One big politician in Calcutta, C.R. Das. He was earning fifty thousand monthly. In those days. Fifty thousand means... I am speaking... He died in 1925. That means fifty years ago he was earning fifty thousand per month. Now fifty thousand means fifty lakhs nowadays. He was so rich man. But on the Congress resolution that the prominent members of the Congress, they should not cooperate with the government... And one of the item of noncooperation was they should not practice in the British court because there is no justice. That was Gandhi's order, that "In the British court there is no justice. So why should you go there? Don't go."
So why should you go there? Don't go." So this C.R. Das, on the resolution of the Congress... He was one of the prominent members. He gave up. So he had no income. So he had no income. The Congress was giving him five hundred rupees, pocket expenses. Because he was such a rich man. What is five hundred rupees for him? He was earning fifty thousand rupees and spending. So he could not bear that inconvenience. He died within a year. He was a rich man. He could not provide. And he was very charitably disposed. If somebody would come to him he would say, "I have lost my all income. Now I have got this five hundred rupees. You can take it." He was such a charitably disposed. So anyway he could not tolerate.
Those who are not moving, they're just like trees, they do not move. So, if we do not move to the places where Viṣṇu's forms are there... Just like in India, we have got many places of pilgrimage. Just like Vṛndāvana. There are... A small city, about fifty thousand utmost population. But there are five thousand temples, big and small. Out of that, about one dozen temples are very, very big, just like fort. And there are small temples.
So altogether, it is a city of fifty thousand population, but there are five thousand temples, Kṛṣṇa. All Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. So this is a chance, that "Come to Vṛndāvana, and wherever you go, you see Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. That will make your life successful." By seeing, seeing, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, seeing, seeing, you'll get an impression. And if you continue...
That's all. Minimum. Minimum necessities of the body. But how they lived? They were so big men. How they adopted such life and lived? Because if a man, rich man, adopts immediately renunciation, that affects his material condition of life. That we have seen. Just like in Bengal, C.R. Das, he had fifty thousand rupees' income in those days, and he gave up everything and joined Gandhi's movement. He died within one year, because he could not tolerate. So without spiritual engagement, one cannot give up this material engagement. That is the real fact. One must... Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati... They gave up this material enjoyment. That's all right. How they lived? Gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī-kallola-magnau muhuḥ. They dipped into the ocean of the transcendental loving affairs of the gopīs with Kṛṣṇa. That was their asset. Therefore they lived very peacefully and very happily.
So Bhāratvarṣa, the devatās, the demigods, they desire to take birth in India because here is the opportunity. Still, so much broken, you will find, you have seen, that when we hold this Hare Kṛṣṇa festival, twenty thousand, fifty thousand men come automatically. You will find never in any other country. Still in India you will find that. Why? Because they have taken birth in India the facility is there. So it is very unfortunate that Indians are trying to forget Kṛṣṇa. Very unfortunate. Kṛpaṇa. If you have got money, if you don't utilize is properly, that is your misfortune. Similarly, in India, those who have taken birth, they have got the opportunity. Bhagavad-gītā was spoken in India, but they are reluctant. They're reluctant. This is their misfortune.
Generally, people are busy how to earn money, how to get money and satisfy senses. That's all. That is their end of life. Get money. Somehow or other, get money and expend for sense gratification. In America I have heard that people, they have got money. They spend fifty thousand dollars weekly for seeing naked dance. You see? So money is being misused in this way. Everyone wants sense gratification. And for sense gratification, they want money. And they are earning money somehow or other and applying that in sense gratification. But the result is confusion and frustration. That's all. Result is confusion and frustration. Therefore this is not new thing.
All his good qualities. Naṣṭa-sadācāra. Why naṣṭa-sadācāra? Dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ: "Simply by association with a prostitute." Dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ. This Bhāgavata was written five thousand years ago, and this story... Śukadeva Gosvāmī said, "I am speaking an old story." That means this incident of Ajāmila was not less than fifty thousand years ago. At that time, five thousand years ago, Śukadeva Gosvāmī is narrating "a very old story." And very old sto..., at least forty thousand, fifty thousand years old. So just see how Vedic civilization was planned from the very..., time immemorial. Simply by association of illicit sex life so many qualities became null and void.
Just like if I offer you that if you do this work, I shall give you immediately fifty thousand rupees. So, who will believe me? "This man is a beggar, sannyāsī, how he'll give fifty thousand rupees?" So there is no śraddhā. But we cannot do so with reference to Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66), that is a fact. That is not a bogus promise, because Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all-powerful. Whatever He likes, He can do. This is called faith.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
A very rich man, coming to the lowest standard of living...
We have seen, practically. In Calcutta, Mr. C.R. Das. he was earning, say, about fifty years ago, fifty thousand, sixty thousand rupees per month. But on Congress resolution, he gave up his practice and practically he had no income. In one meeting, he was asked by somebody... Everyone thought that he's very big, rich man. Somebody asked him to give him, them some subscription. So C.R. Das admitted that "Now I have no income, by my party, Congress Party, they gave me five hundred rupees per month for my expenditures. So I give you everything." So... Because that was his habit. If anyone would approach him, ask him something, the day's income he'll give him, immediately. But he could not live more than one year.
And Arjuna said that "I want You." Just like the same thing happened in general politics also. When Gandhi started the movement, noncooperation movement, so he selected some very big men of India, big, big lawyers like C. R. Das, Motilal Nehru. So C. R. Das, at that time, about fifty years ago, he was earning about fifty thousand rupees per month by his legal practice. He said that "Gandhiji, you take all my money, but let me practice. Don't ask me to boycott the British court." But that was on the, one of the programs. So Gandhiji said, "No, I don't want your money. I want you." And actually that was very effective. So similarly Arjuna also decided that "I don't want Your soldiers. I want You." So these are different rasas.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Now, one may inquire or may question, "How stone can float?" Why stone cannot float? If this big, big lump of matter, earthly planet and other planets, they are floating in the air, why the stone cannot float? If God likes, it will float. That is God desire. It is God's plan. Now, you can see that a ship on the ocean with 50,000 tons, it is floating. And take a grass and put it, or take a, I mean to say, a small needle. Put it on the ocean; it will go at once down. It is simply question of arrangement. A small needle will go down immediately to the depth of the sea, and a ship with 50,000 tons of loading, it is floating. So if a man can make such arrangement by some way or other that he can float a 50,000 tons of ship floating on this, I mean to say, ocean, is it not possible for God to float a stone on the ocean? Is there any reason to disbelieve it? There is no reason. And we can see. By God's energy these big, big lumps of planet, they are floating in the air.
Festival Lectures
Because they cannot control the senses. The same thing, same thing, the same sex life in different way. Sometimes a naked dance, sometimes in this way, sometimes in that way. Therefore it is called punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām. I have heard that some people go to Florida and they spend fifty thousand dollars per week for organizing naked dance. So naked woman he has seen so many times, but still he spends more money to see it in a different way. That is called punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), "chewing the chewed."
So persons who are too much attached to sense gratification, and they have made it their conclusion that "We shall be happy within our family life or this social life..." Vidyāpati sings, tātala saikate vāri-bindu sama suto-mita-ramanī-samāj(?). Our society means...
General Lectures
Prabhupāda: In Germany also. We sold fifty thousand records in Germany. And there is another record, govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi **. That is also selling very nicely. And recently another record you produced? What is that?
Yamunā: Yes, that will be a long-playing record, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's name is Bhaja Hūre Mana, Mana Hū Re.
Prabhupāda: Ah, bhaja hūre mana, śrī nanda-nandana, abhaya-caraṇāravinda re.
So our program is to serve the human society, to save them from the pitfall of entering again into the cycle of birth and death. That is our great mission.
So I was very much engladdened to learn that I had to speak this night, but because I was pre-engaged for going to San Francisco, because tomorrow there will be a great Ratha-yātrā festival... About fifty thousand people will participate in the festival, and they have advertised my presence, so I am going this afternoon to San Francisco. So you will excuse me because I am not personally present. But I hope to come back again by the second week of July. If sufficient arrangement is made I shall be very glad to meet the enlightened people of this city and try to make them convinced about the importance of this great movement. And that will be beneficial for our mission as well as your welfare.
The ultimate aim of life is sense gratification, that's all. I have traveled all over the world. Especially in the Western countries, they are simply after sense gratification. They have no other objective. In America, some rich man goes to Florida and spends $50,000 a week simply for seeing naked dance. That means they have no other information than sense gratification. Wine and woman, that's all. That is gradually being spread all over the world. In our country also, working day and night, whole day and night, but the objective is sense gratification.
So śāstra says that this human form of life is not meant for this purpose. The human form of life is meant for tapasya: tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattva (SB 5.5.1). Satya means my existence. We have to purify our existence.
Prabhupāda: So I have heard that there are about fifty thousand Indians in Toronto. So why they are not coming? They want to become bara sahib only?
Indian man: Yes, they are here to make the money, that's all they are doing.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) They have no other purpose? So this is not good. What is their objection? They don't want their own culture?
This is Indian culture, they should be proud that Indian culture is being accepted by the foreigners. And they are living, they are becoming bara sahib? What is this? Now it is your duty to deliver these bara sahibs. That they are not taking interest in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So is there any other outsider Indian present?
Indian man (1): I've been coming to temple for six years now here in Toronto.
Prabhupāda: Well, you are coming, all right. But I have heard that there are fifty thousand Indians. So why they do not come?
Indian man (1): Maybe it's catching up now
Prabhupāda: Is there any special reason, they can discuss with me, if one is interested.
Indian man (1): (Hindi) discrimination may be (Hindi) the society here to accept this kind of thing, and people maybe don't want to align themselves with this kind of thing so that they are not ridiculed by others. This could be one of the reasons. Because, you know...
So their mission was to establish the Rādhā-Govinda Mandir, as many as possible. They first started in Vṛndāvana, Madana-mohana temple. Most Indians present here, they know. There are... (break) ...temples in Vṛndāvana. There are five thousand temples in one small city of fifty thousand population, but the most important because they were established by the Gosvāmīs. Rūpa, Sanātana, Bhaṭṭa Raghunātha, Śrī Jīva, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa, Dāsa Raghunātha, the Six Gosvāmīs, direct disciple of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The Sanātana Gosvāmī established first the Madana-mohana temple. Then Rūpa Gosvāmī established Govindajī's temple. Then Jīva Gosvāmī established Rādhā-Dāmodara temple, then... (break) ...Gosvāmī established Rādhā-Madana-mohana temple. Śyāmānanda Gosvāmī, he established Śyāmasundara temple. These are important temples.
| Page Title: | Fifty thousand (Books & Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 10 of Jun, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=33, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 34 |