Fuel

Expressions researched:
"fuel" |"fuels"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 3.39, Purport:

It is said in the Manu-smṛti that lust cannot be satisfied by any amount of sense enjoyment, just as fire is never extinguished by a constant supply of fuel. In the material world, the center of all activities is sex, and thus this material world is called maithunya-āgāra, or the shackles of sex life. In the ordinary prison house, criminals are kept within bars; similarly, the criminals who are disobedient to the laws of the Lord are shackled by sex life.

SB Canto 1

SB 1.11.12, Purport:

We find herein the mention of pious trees which produce seasonal flowers and fruits. The impious trees are useless jungles only, and they can only be used to supply fuels. In the modern civilization such impious trees are planted on the sides of roads.

SB 1.12.26, Purport:

In this age of Kali, regular license is issued for maintaining all of these different departments of quarrel. So how can they expect peace and morality in the state? The state fathers, therefore, must follow the principles of becoming wiser by devotion to the Lord, by chastising the breaker of discipline and by uprooting the symptoms of quarrel, as mentioned above. If we want blazing fire, we must use dry fuel. Blazing fire and moist fuel go ill together. Peace and morality can prosper only by the principles of Mahārāja Parīkṣit and his followers.

SB 1.13.31, Purport:

The householders are required to rise early in the morning, and after bathing they should offer respects to the Deities at home by prayers, by offering fuel in the sacred fire, by giving the brāhmaṇas in charity land, cows, grains, gold, etc., and at last offering to the elderly members due respects and obeisances.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.2.27, Purport:

While playing like a small child with His associates, the Lord killed many demons, including Aghāsura, Bakāsura, Pralambāsura and Gardabhāsura. Although He appeared at Vṛndāvana just as a boy, He was actually like the covered flames of a fire. As a small particle of fire can kindle a great fire with fuel, so the Lord killed all these great demons, beginning from His babyhood in the house of Nanda Mahārāja.

SB 3.8.11, Translation:

Just like the strength of fire within fuel wood, the Lord remained within the water of dissolution, submerging all the living entities in their subtle bodies. He lay in the self-invigorated energy called kāla.

SB 3.15.10, Translation:

As fuel overloads a fire, so the embryo created by the semen of Kaśyapa in the womb of Diti has caused complete darkness throughout the universe.

SB 3.28.43, Purport:

It is to be understood that the body is designated. Prakṛti is an interaction by the three modes of material nature, and according to these modes, someone has a small body, and someone has a very large body. For example, the fire in a big piece of wood appears very big, and in a stick the fire appears small. Actually, the quality of fire is the same everywhere, but the manifestation of material nature is such that according to the fuel, the fire appears bigger and smaller. Similarly, the soul in the universal body, although of the same quality, is different from the soul in the smaller body.

SB Canto 4

SB 4.4.34, Translation:

When the Ṛbhu demigods attacked the ghosts and Guhyakas with half-burned fuel from the yajña fire, all these attendants of Satī fled in different directions and disappeared. This was possible simply because of brahma-tejas, brahminical power.

SB 4.7.45, Translation:

The brāhmaṇas said: Dear Lord, You are sacrifice personified. You are the offering of clarified butter, You are the fire, You are the chanting of Vedic hymns by which the sacrifice is conducted, You are the fuel, You are the flame, You are the kuśa grass, and You are the sacrificial pots. You are the priests who perform the yajña, You are the demigods headed by Indra, and You are the sacrificial animal. Everything that is sacrificed is You or Your energy.

SB 4.9.10, Purport:

The position of karmīs is still more degraded. Their aim is to elevate themselves to the higher planetary systems. It is said, yānti deva-vratā devān: persons who worship the demigods are elevated to the heavenly planets (BG 9.25). But elsewhere in Bhagavad-gītā (9.21) we find, kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti: those who are elevated to the higher planetary systems must come down again as soon as the results of their pious activities are exhausted. They are like the modern astronauts who go to the moon; as soon as their fuel is used up, they are obliged to come back down to this earth.

SB 4.9.10, Purport:

As the modern astronauts who go to the moon or other heavenly planets by force of jet propulsion have to come down again after exhausting their fuel, so also do those who are elevated to the heavenly planets by force of yajñas and pious activities.

SB 4.9.10, Purport:

Dhruva Mahārāja appreciated that the results of devotional service are far more valuable than merging into the Absolute or being elevated to the heavenly planets. The words patatāṁ vimānāt are very significant. Vimāna means "airplane." Those who are elevated to the heavenly planets are like airplanes, which drop when they run out of fuel.

SB 4.12.30, Purport:

Material scientists are not even perfect in manufacturing a material airplane. In order to compare to the plane used by Kardama or the plane sent from Viṣṇuloka, they must manufacture an airplane equipped like a big city, with all the comforts of life—lakes, gardens, parks, etc. Their plane must be able to fly in outer space and hover, and visit all other planets. If they invent such a plane, they will not have to make different space stations for fuel to travel into outer space. Such a plane would have an unlimited supply of fuel, or, like the plane from Viṣṇuloka, would fly without it.

SB 4.16.11, Purport:

Araṇi wood is a kind of fuel used to ignite fire by friction. At the time of performing sacrifices, one can ignite a fire from araṇi wood. Although born of his dead father, King Pṛthu would still remain just like fire. Just as fire is not easily approached, King Pṛthu would be unapproachable by his enemies, even though they would appear to be very near him.

SB 4.21.35, Purport:

According to the body given by prakṛti, or nature, one's consciousness is present; according to the development of consciousness, one's activities are performed; and according to the purity of such activities, one realizes the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present in everyone's heart. The example given herein is very appropriate. Fire is always the same, but according to the size of the fuel or burning wood, the fire appears to be straight, curved, small, big, etc.

SB 4.28.65, Purport:

Idhma refers to wood that is taken to burn as fuel for a fire. A brahmacārī is supposed to take this idhma to ignite the fire used in performing sacrifices. By spiritual instruction a brahmacāri is trained to ignite a fire and offer oblations in the morning. He is supposed to go to the spiritual master to take lessons on transcendental subject matter, and the Vedic injunction is that when approaching the spiritual master one must carry with him fuel to perform yajñas, or sacrifices.

SB 4.28.65, Purport:

"To learn transcendental subject matter, one must approach the spiritual master. In doing so, he should carry fuel to burn in sacrifice. The symptom of such a spiritual master is that he is expert in understanding the Vedic conclusion, and therefore he constantly engages in the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12) By serving such a bona fide spiritual master, gradually a conditioned soul becomes detached from material enjoyment and invariably makes progress in spiritual realization under the direction of the spiritual master. Those who are misled by the illusory energy are never interested in approaching a spiritual master to make life successful.

SB 4.29.33, Purport:

In contemporary civilization we see that there are many automobiles manufactured to carry us swiftly from one place to another, but at the same time we have created other problems. We have to construct so many roads, and yet these roads are insufficient to cope with automobile congestion and traffic jams. There are also the problems of air pollution and fuel shortage. The conclusion is that the processes we manufacture to counteract or minimize our distresses do not actually put an end to our pains.

SB 4.29.48, Purport:

If one goes to the highest planetary system within this universe he still has to return after the effects of pious activities are finished. Space vehicles may go very high in the sky, but as soon as their fuel is finished, they have to return to this earthly planet. All these activities are performed in illusion. The real attempt should now be to return home, back to Godhead.

SB Canto 6

SB 6.1.15, Purport:

"My dear Uddhava, devotional service in relationship with Me is like a blazing fire that can burn to ashes all the fuel of sinful activities supplied to it." How devotional service vanquishes the reactions of sinful life is explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (3.33.6) in a verse spoken during Lord Kapiladeva's instructions to His mother, Devahūti.

SB 6.4.4, Purport:

When the government neglects agriculture, which is necessary for the production of food, the land becomes covered with unnecessary trees. Of course, many trees are useful because they produce fruits and flowers, but many other trees are unnecessary. They could be used as fuel and the land cleared and used for agriculture. When the government is negligent, less grain is produced.

SB 6.4.27-28, Translation:

Just as great learned brāhmaṇas who are expert in performing ritualistic ceremonies and sacrifices can extract the fire dormant within wooden fuel by chanting the fifteen Sāmidhenī mantras, thus proving the efficacy of the Vedic mantras, so those who are actually advanced in consciousness—in other words, those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious—can find the Supersoul, who by His own spiritual potency is situated within the heart. The heart is covered by the three modes of material nature and the nine material elements (material nature, the total material energy, the ego, the mind and the five objects of sense gratification), and also by the five material elements and the ten senses. These twenty-seven elements constitute the external energy of the Lord. Great yogīs meditate upon the Lord, who is situated as the Supersoul, Paramātmā, within the core of the heart. May that Supersoul be pleased with me. The Supersoul is realized when one is eager for liberation from the unlimited varieties of material life. One actually attains such liberation when he engages in the transcendental loving service of the Lord and realizes the Lord because of his attitude of service. The Lord may be addressed by various spiritual names, which are inconceivable to the material senses. When will that Supreme Personality of Godhead be pleased with me?

SB Canto 7

SB 7.3.23, Translation:

As soon as he was sprinkled with the water from Lord Brahmā's waterpot, Hiraṇyakaśipu arose, endowed with a full body with limbs so strong that they could bear the striking of a thunderbolt. With physical strength and a bodily luster resembling molten gold, he emerged from the anthill a completely young man, just as fire springs from fuel wood.

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.6.19, Purport:

There are so many facilities afforded by cow protection, but people have forgotten these arts. The importance of protecting cows is therefore stressed by Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā (kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāvajam (BG 18.44)). Even now in the Indian villages surrounding Vṛndāvana, the villagers live happily simply by giving protection to the cow. They keep cow dung very carefully and dry it to use as fuel. They keep a sufficient stock of grains, and because of giving protection to the cows, they have sufficient milk and milk products to solve all economic problems. Simply by giving protection to the cow, the villagers live so peacefully. Even the urine and stool of cows have medicinal value.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.44.15, Translation:

The ladies of Vraja are the most fortunate of women because, with their minds fully attached to Kṛṣṇa and their throats always choked up with tears, they constantly sing about Him while milking the cows, winnowing grain, churning butter, gathering cow dung for fuel, riding on swings, taking care of their crying babies, sprinkling the ground with water, cleaning their houses, and so on. By their exalted Kṛṣṇa consciousness they automatically acquire all desirable things.

SB 11.3.12, Translation:

Then Vairāja Brahmā, the soul of the universal form, gives up his universal body, O King, and enters into the subtle unmanifest nature, like a fire that has run out of fuel.

SB 11.9.12, Translation:

The mind can be controlled when it is fixed on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Having achieved a stable situation, the mind becomes free from polluted desires to execute material activities; thus as the mode of goodness increases in strength, one can completely give up the modes of passion and ignorance, and gradually one transcends even the material mode of goodness. When the mind is freed from the fuel of the modes of nature, the fire of material existence is extinguished. Then one achieves the transcendental platform of direct relationship with the object of his meditation, the Supreme Lord.

SB 11.10.9, Translation:

Just as fire may appear differently as dormant, manifest, weak, brilliant and so on, according to the condition of the fuel, similarly, the spirit soul enters a material body and accepts particular bodily characteristics.

SB 11.10.13, Translation:

By submissively hearing from an expert spiritual master, the expert disciple develops pure knowledge, which repels the onslaught of material illusion arising from the three modes of material nature. Finally this pure knowledge itself ceases, just as fire ceases when the stock of fuel has been consumed.

SB 12.5.3, Translation:

You will not take birth again in the form of your sons and grandsons, like a sprout taking birth from a seed and then generating a new seed. Rather, you are entirely distinct from the material body and its paraphernalia, in the same way that fire is distinct from its fuel.

SB 12.5.7, Translation:

A lamp functions as such only by the combination of its fuel, vessel, wick and fire. Similarly, material life, based on the soul's identification with the body, is developed and destroyed by the workings of material goodness, passion and ignorance, which are the constituent elements of the body.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 10.84, Purport:

Actually, it is to be understood from the statement of Sanātana Gosvāmī that Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī and Vallabha went to Vṛndāvana under the instructions of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. First they went to Mathurā, where they met a gentleman named Subuddhi Rāya, who maintained himself by selling dry fuel wood. He was very pleased to meet Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī and Anupama, and he showed them the twelve forests of Vṛndāvana.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 24.61, Translation:

"As all fuel is burned to ashes by a full-fledged fire, all sinful activities are totally erased when one engages in devotional service to Me."

Nectar of Devotion

Nectar of Devotion 1:

As evidence for this, Rūpa Gosvāmī quotes from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Eleventh Canto, Fourteenth Chapter, verse 19. This verse is in connection with Lord Kṛṣṇa's instruction to Uddhava, where He says, "My dear Uddhava, devotional service unto Me is just like a blazing fire which can burn into ashes unlimited fuel supplied to it."

Nectar of Devotion 1:

The purport is that as the blazing fire can burn any amount of fuel to ashes, so devotional service to the Lord in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can burn up all the fuel of sinful activities. For example, in the Gītā Arjuna thought that fighting was a sinful activity, but Kṛṣṇa engaged him on the battlefield under His order, and so the fighting became devotional service. Therefore, Arjuna was not subjected to any sinful reaction.

Nectar of Devotion 21:

When prasāda is being served, the spiritual master is supposed to call each and every disciple to come eat. If by chance the spiritual master forgets to call a disciple to partake of the prasāda, it is enjoined in the scriptures that the student should fast on that day rather than accept food on his own initiative. There are many such strictures. Sometimes, also, Kṛṣṇa went to the forest to collect dry wood for fuel.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 22:

"My dear friends, I think they are glorified in this birth as trees. They are so careful to give shelter to others that they are like noble, highly elevated charitable men who never deny charity to one who approaches them. No one is denied shelter by these trees. They supply various kinds of facilities to human society, such as leaves, flowers, fruit, shade, roots, bark, flavor extracts and fuel. They are the perfect example of noble life. They are like a noble person who has sacrificed everything possible—his body, mind, activities, intelligence and words—for the welfare of all living entities."

Krsna Book 37:

"My dear Lord, as the Supersoul of all living entities, You remain concealed within their hearts exactly as fire remains concealed in every piece of fuel. You are the witness of all the activities of the living entities, and You are the supreme controller within their hearts."

Krsna Book 54:

"The spirit soul is of the same pure quality in any embodiment of matter, but those who are not sufficiently intelligent see only the bodily differences between animals and men, literates and illiterates, rich and poor, which cover the pure spirit soul. Such differences, observed merely on the basis of the body, are exactly like the differences between fires in terms of the various types of fuel they consume. Whatever the size and shape of the fuel, there is no such variety of size and shape in the fire which comes out. Similarly, in the sky there are no differences in size or shape."

Krsna Book 80:

Kṛṣṇa continued to talk with His brāhmaṇa friend: "My dear friend, I think you remember our activities during the days when we were living as students. You may remember that once we went to collect fuel from the forest on the order of the guru's wife. While collecting the dried wood, we entered the dense forest and by chance became lost."

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.46-62 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1968:

Vīrabhadra: Then my second question was: When Kṛṣṇa came here, did He take a spiritual master too?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Vīrabhadra: He did?

Prabhupāda: Yes. He not only took, accepted spiritual master, but He took all the risk to go into the jungle to bring wood for the spiritual master. Fuel wood. One day it so happened the whole day they were in the forest, and Sudāmā Vipra and He, they both of them were entrapped. There was heavy rain, they could not come out, and the whole night they remained within the forest. So not that because He was Kṛṣṇa, He did not accept any spiritual master or work for him. He took so much risk. He went to the forest.

Lecture on BG 4.16 -- Bombay, April 5, 1974:

A brahmacārī, from the very beginning of his life, he is trained to act only for guru. That is brahmacārī. It is enjoined that a brahmacārī live at the shelter, at the care of guru just like a menial servant. Kṛṣṇa also, although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, when He was living as brahmacārī at His guru's house, Sāndīpani Muni, He was collecting wood, fuel, from the jungle. He was going daily. It is not that because He was Personality of Godhead, therefore He should not go. No.

Lecture on BG 4.16 -- Bombay, April 5, 1974:

You will find in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Kṛṣṇa Book, that when Sudāmā Vipra met him, he was talking with Him about His childhood stories. Kṛṣṇa reminded him, "Sudāmā, do you remember that one day we went to collect fuel for our Guru Mahārāja, and there was storm and rain, and we could not get out of the forest. We had to live overnight there. Then on the morning Guru Mahārāja came with other disciples and they recovered us from the jungle. Do you remember?" So Kṛṣṇa had to do this. This is training.

Lecture on BG 4.37-40 -- New York, August 21, 1966:

Edhāṁsi means "fuel." Sammidho 'gniḥ, "blazing fire." Bhasmasāt, "turns into ashes." "Just like blazing fire, whatever you put into it, any fuel, that becomes turned into ashes, similarly," jñānāgniḥ, "when your fire of knowledge will be ablaze, then sarva-karmāṇi, all reactions of your work, will turned into ashes." Because the reaction of our karma, reaction of our work, is the cause of our bondage.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.3 -- Caracas, February 24, 1975:

Vedic knowledge is compared with the tree, and the tree has got fruit. So this Bhāgavatam is the fruit of the Vedic tree. That means you keep a tree for some getting fruit. If there is no fruit, that is mean for fuel. It is useless tree. So here it is said, nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalam (SB 1.1.3), means "The Vedic literature is just like the desire tree, and the Bhāgavatam is the ripened fruit." And galitaṁ phalam means a fruit ripened in the tree. It is very, very delicious.

Lecture on SB 1.2.18 -- Calcutta, September 26, 1974:

So therefore people are not following the rules and regulations given by God or by nature's own way. They have invented their own way of living condition. Therefore they are suffering. Now we see in Calcutta or any other... Now it is a problem. Everywhere the problem will be food shortage and fuel shortage, power shortage. This is the prediction of many, many great scientists. Because people are committing so many sinful life, they must starve. That is the punishment.

Lecture on SB 1.2.32 -- Vrndavana, November 11, 1972:

In every wood, there is fire. A small wood, there is small fire; in big wood, there is big fire. The fire is the same, but according to the different size of the wood, fuel, the, the, what is, the flames of the fire appears to be different. The flame of the fire appears to be different because the living entity is different, of different types. They have got different desires, according to the contact of the material quality.

Lecture on SB 1.2.32 -- Vrndavana, November 11, 1972:

As like the dāruṣu, as the fuel wood are different, and therefore the flame appears to be different, similarly although Viśvātmā, the Supersoul, is one, because He's acting with individual soul different according to his different association, mentality, desires... Every account is kept. Just imagine how many numberless there are living entities. Asaṅkhya. Jīva-bhāgo sa vijñeyaḥ sa cānantyāya kalpate. There is no, you cannot... Innumerable. And each and every individual soul is doing according to his own desires and every account is kept.

Lecture on SB 1.5.11 -- New Vrindaban, June 10, 1969:

Grāmya-kathā means any book, any poetry, or any novel, or any drama... There is some hero and heroine, a man or woman, about their loving affairs, tragedy, comic, like that. Actually, it is grāmya-kathā. The same thing as we are experiencing daily, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam, this eating, sleeping, mating, that's all. What is the value of such literature? What do you gain by that? No. Simply mental agitation. And if it is sex literature, then it is very appealing. So that means it is something like haviṣya kṛta(?)... Just like if you offer fuel on the fire, the fire will go on and it will, I mean to say, consume as much as you go on giving fuel. But there is no śānti. The fire will never be extinguished.

Lecture on SB 1.7.11 -- Vrndavana, September 10, 1976:

Just like if you have got dry wood, then the fire ignites very easily. And if you bring wet fuel, it takes time. Of course, as soon as there is fire, the wetness of the fuel will dry. But it will require extra energy. And if you put dry fuel, then it ignites very easily. So in order to keep us dry without being wetted by the impious activities, then spiritual progress will be very quick. We should remember that.

Lecture on SB 1.8.26 -- Mayapura, October 6, 1974:

Everyone is thinking that "I have got something." I have seen long, long ago, maybe fifty years ago in Howrah station. I was going somewhere. So one man, his luggage was the half-burned some fuel wood and some rejected things. He was carrying as luggage half-burned fuel wood. He thought that "This is my possession. I have saved this." So he was taking to his home. That means everyone, even though it is very insignificant, still, everyone thinks that "I have got something." This is the material disease.

Lecture on SB 1.16.5 -- Los Angeles, January 2, 1974:

So the qualitative distinction must be there. You cannot make them classless. It is all imagination. The crow class, the swan class, the pigeon class, the dog class, even in the animals, even in the birds, even in the plants... There is a plant, rose tree, and there are other plants, useless, no fruit, no flower. It is simply meant for becoming fuel. So by nature there are so many distinctions. You cannot make equal everything. This is called variety.

Lecture on SB 3.1.10 -- Dallas, May 21, 1973:

Brahmacārī is supposed to live in gurukula at the place of guru just like a menial servant. Even Kṛṣṇa, He also lived as a menial servant. His teacher asked Him to bring some fuel from the jungle, and He went with Sudāmā Vipra, and while collecting these dry woods there was a storm and there was heavy rain, and they became lost in the jungle, Kṛṣṇa and Sudāmā Vipra. Then his teacher, Sāndīpani Muni... With the assistance of other boys, they were rescued. So this is the position of the brahmacārī, that they go to collect alms, all kinds of, for gurukula.

Lecture on SB 3.25.2 -- Bombay, November 2, 1974:

So this is for everyone. Don't think that "Only the culprit is President Nixon, and we are, I am very safe." There is a Bengali proverb: ghuṇṭe pore gobar hase.(?) Gobar means cow dung, and ghuṇṭe means... What is called in English? The dried cow dung. So dried cow dung is used for fuel. So when the dry cow dung is being burned into the oven, the safe oven is laughing, "Oh, you are being burned. I am in safe side." (laughter) He does not know that when he'll be dry, he'll be put into the fire also. So we are laughing that "President Nixon is in trouble. I am very safe. I have got so much bank balance." No, nobody's safe.

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Vrndavana, October 23, 1976:

Just like we trample over the grass; they do not protest. Tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣnunā. And tolerant, humbler than the grass and tolerant than the tree. A tree gives us all benefit, but in return we give the tree so much trouble. We snatch away the twigs, we snatch away the leaves. Sometimes for our fuel we cut down. But there is no protest.

Lecture on SB 6.1.1 -- Honolulu, May 5, 1976:

The cats and dogs, they are also trying to find out where it is, food, where sleeping comfort, where sex life, and where defense. If the human form of life is also utilized for this purpose, pravṛtti-mārga, then it is, as I was talking in the park, it is just like using sandalwood for burning fuel.

Lecture on SB 6.1.32 -- San Francisco, July 17, 1975:

One tree is supplying mango, so this mango tree is respect, and another tree, which is producing nothing, they are cut and made into fuel, because useless, no use. So amongst the trees, also you will find first class, second class, third class.

Lecture on SB 7.12.5 -- Bombay, April 16, 1976:

Kṛṣṇa was supposed to be kṣatriya and Sudāmā Vipra was brāhmaṇa, so brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas are especially meant for going to the gurukula and live very strictly according to the principle of gurukula. So Kṛṣṇa and Sudāmā Vipra went to collect dry fuel from the woods.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

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

Pradyumna: "As evidence for this, Rūpa Gosvāmī quotes from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Eleventh Canto, Fourteenth Chapter, 18th verse. This verse is in connection with Lord Kṛṣṇa's instruction to Uddhava, where He says, 'My dear Uddhava, devotional service unto Me is just like a blazing fire, which can burn into ashes unlimited fuel supplied to it.' The purport is that as the blazing fire can burn any amount of fuel to ashes, so devotional service to the Lord in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can burn up all the fuel of sinful activities. For example, in the Gītā, Arjuna thought that fighting was a sinful activity, but Kṛṣṇa engaged him on the battlefield under His order, and so the fighting became devotional service. Therefore, Arjuna was not subjected to any sinful reaction."

Prabhupāda: Yes. So the example is that the, in the fire, you go on giving fuel perpetually, it will burn into ashes. Similarly, it doesn't matter. To become sinful... Without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, everyone is sinful. So to become sinful is not disqualification, because everyone is sinful. But if one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is just like the fire, and the sinful activities are just like wood. But when the wood is in touch with the fire, so the fire would burn all the woods, fuel, into ashes. But we should not... Once we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we should stop the pillars of sinful activities. Whatever we did in our past life, that is excused, but if we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and if we go on with our sinful activities, that will not help us. Just like the same fire: you take the fuel and add to the fire, it will burn into ashes. But, at the same time, if you pour some water also, then it will be useless. Similarly, our past sinful activities, that can be burned into ashes provided we don't add any more. Don't take it: "Now it will burn into ashes. So go on, this business and that business." No. That business means pouring water into the fire. It will not burn.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.172 -- New York, December 14, 1966:

Just like wood is produced from the earth, and fire is produced from the wood, similarly, although it, production, the source of production, is the same, but still, I require fire. I cannot have fire from the earth or from the, just tree. I have to take the wood, fuel. This example is there. Although the source is one, still, unless I get fire, my purpose will not be served.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.385-394 -- New York, January 1, 1967:

Just like we are in the fire. Unless we put some fuel, fuel, it is not possible to continue the temperature. But there, the supply is so, so sufficient that there is no end of temperature.

Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures

Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 34 -- San Francisco, September 13, 1968 :

Just like here in your country, as soon as you go outside the city there are hundreds and thousands of trees, there is neither fruit nor flower, but they are meant for fuel or some other purposes.

Initiation Lectures

Deity Installation and Initiation -- Melbourne, April 6, 1972:

Prabhupāda: Yes. All right. Bow down. Now begin the fire. Give help. Ignite the fire. Come on. First of all... First of all... Burn, fire... Very fine. Oh, this is not. Very fine one put in the beginning. Yes, like that. (japa) Have you got little straw?

Devotee (7): Straw?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that will help. Oh, you do not know. You never done it.

Devotee (7): Yes.

Prabhupāda: How is that, it is...? Do. Do. Do. Yes. Let him. Let him do one more. Now you can put it. Simply... That's all right. Don't... Yes. Go on. Yes, like that. There is no need of... Do that. Yes. Yes, like that. Go on. You know the mantras? Then you can do. Go on putting fuel in. Yes. Yes. Like that.

General Lectures

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

Just like earth. Earth, then from earth, you have got wood, fuel. From fuel, when you get fire, first of all there is smoke. Then, after smoke, there is fire. And the fire, from fire, you can take work. Now, beginning from earth, from earth there is wood; from wood there is smoke; from smoke there is fire. There is a link between the fire and the earth. But the work of the fire, the benefit of the fire, can be had at the last stage, when there is real ignition of fire.

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

In spite of distributing for millions of years heat, the reservation of heat in the sun is intact. It is not diminished. But everyone knows that for millions and billions of years the sun is distributing heat. Nobody knows the history, how long. Your distributing center, the powerhouse, if you fail to supply coal or oil, then after one hour the whole New York City will be dark. So just you can imagine who is supplying the fuel in the heat of the sun so that for millions and billions of years the heat of the sun is in the same temperature. So this is only one of the creation of the God, God's creation. But just imagine.

Pandal Lecture -- Delhi, November 12, 1971:

Even Lord Kṛṣṇa, He accepted this brahmacārī āśrama. When Sudāmā Vipra met Him when He was king in Dvārakā, so friendly talks, Kṛṣṇa reminded Sudāmā Vipra, "My dear Sudāmā, do you remember that one day we went to the forest to collect fuels, and there was heavy rain and we could not come out. And then we stayed the overnight on the top of the tree. Then next day Guru Mahārāja came and he took our..., rescued us. Do you remember that?"

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 30, 1972, San Diego:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Does this remind you of Vṛndāvana, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Is this like Vṛndāvana?

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana is different. This is man-made.

Devotee (2): Is this like Dvārakā, when Krsna was living in Dvārakā, they had...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Dvārakā, yes. Vṛndāvana trees are all full of fruits and flowers. These are for fuel, these trees.

Devotee (1): For fuel.

Prabhupāda: That's all. For burning. There is no fruits and flowers.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 5, 1974, Los Angeles:

Devotee (3): ...in Holland wasn't any fuel Sundays, and the people could go outside with the cars, and then the statistics say that the fight between the family increased so, so much the police went... They went to the houses to, just to separate the people because there was fighting so much because they didn't have anywhere to go on Sundays. (devotees laugh)

Prabhupāda: Just see. It has become a problem, ah, to remain at home.

Morning Walk -- March 6, 1974, Mayapura:

There is that story that one old woman, she was suffering. And she had to collect woods from the forest and sell in the market. So one day, how do you say, she was praying to Kṛṣṇa, or God, that "Kindly help me. I am in very poverty-stricken." So one day, she was carrying that load of fuel. It fell down. So nobody was there to help him. So she began to cry, "Who will help me?" So she began to pray to God "Kindly help me." And God came: "What do you want?" "Who are you, Sir?" "I am God." "Kindly help me to take this burden on my head." Yes. "All right." From God, she's asking, "Please help me to get this burden on my head." That's all.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So there is no coconut tree, mango tree, banana tree. Huh? These are all useless tree, simply for becoming fuel. That's all. They're also condemned. Yes. Sinful trees. There are pious trees and sinful trees.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. "I have no money. But when I go to pass stool, I ride on a horse." They cannot pay parking fare, but still they keep a carriage. (laughs) (Bengali). Because the villagers go to the field for passing stool, so this gariba man, this poor man, goes on a horse. Leaves can be also utilized as fire, but they do not know that. In India they collect, poor man, and use as fuel, they cook food. All this dry twigs and this, that can be used as fuel, at the same time the ground will be cleansed.

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Just like wood. There is fire. Everyone knows. But that will not serve your purpose. Fuel wood, unless there is fire... So there is fire, but it has to be increased. The wood... First of all set fire. Then there will be smoke. The smoke is also not fire. Smoke is another condition, symptom of fire, but smoke is not fire. The smoke must come into blazing fire. Then it can act.

Walk Around Farm -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Nityānanda: Pine trees.

Brahmānanda: You can use those for making the cabins, cottages?

Nityānanda: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...natural arrangement. Jungles—you cut the tree, make your home, and balance you make fuel. And the ground, plow and grow your food. That's all, natural.

Jagadīśa: Everything.

Prabhupāda: In India still, in the villages they do not know, other than this wood fuel, anything else. They are misusing these trees by cutting, manufacturing paper, heaps of paper, in each house throwing daily. They do not read, but they are supplied heaps of paper and cutting these trees. Simply waste. Now wood and paper shortage all over the world. It takes so much time to grow, and one day they cut hundreds of trees like this and put into the paper mill. And heaps of paper is given every house, and he throws away. Then you bring garbage tank. In this way, waste.

Morning Walk -- August 7, 1975, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Only fuel. They are called fuel. They are meant for using as fuel.

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: This is a type of tree. There's many of them like this.

Prabhupāda: What is this? Fuel? (?) Now... Just see how fresh it is. You can take some foodstuff and eat very nicely.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1976, Madras:

Prabhupāda: No, fish is not water, but he has got a body suitable for the water.

Acyutānanda: So the people on the sun have earthly bodies...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Acyutānanda: ...who can tolerate heat.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no heat. They live.... Just like.... They are not suffocated. They don't feel any inconvenience. They enjoy. Against the waves they enjoy. You cannot go against the waves. They can go, even small fish. You'll find within this there are so many animals, so many. How they are living?

Acyutānanda: Also science cannot explain how it is burning. Where is the fuel supply?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes.

Acyutānanda: And there is no smoke, no waste.

Prabhupāda: Nothing. They are all.... Therefore we say simply "rascals." We have given this title to them everlastingly. All rascals, mūḍha. Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. How Kṛṣṇa is working, they do not know.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The college preaching in the month of April is the very best. (break) Do you think something could be written on this wall?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, advertisement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This prasādam pavilion wall...

Prabhupāda: (break) ...used for fuel. This crust, this, that can be used for burning. Yes.

Jayapatāka: They are the fuel for the...

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) When dismantling will begin?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When will the dismantling begin?

Prabhupāda: This gentleman, he will do that. He can do it immediately.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda said it can begin immediately. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...are standing properly? These walls, they are standing in right angle? This wall?

Jayapatāka: I think so, yes.

Prabhupāda: No, you have measured?

Bhavānanda: Standing up properly on the boundary of the land, you mean?

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Madhudviṣa: Vertically.

Jayapatāka: I saw the masons measuring when they bricked it, but I never measured myself.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What do you think might be wrong, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Then, in due course of time, it'll fall down.

Indian devotee (1): You mean the foundation?

Prabhupāda: No the wall, if it is like this.

Bhavānanda: If it is leaning.

Prabhupāda: So you have not tested it?

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Bull will not supply milk, so there is no use. It must be killed. Otherwise they are ferocious animal. You have made this law. The cows may be given some time to be killed, but the bulls should be killed immediately. This is their law.

Hari-śauri: Nor do the farmers actually want to keep them anyway.

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: They are useless animals.

Prabhupāda: Simply expensive. But here in India they know how to utilize bulls—for transportation, for plowing and so many other things.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Such a shortage of fuel, but there is no shortage of fuel with a bull.

Prabhupāda: No, rather, it will supply you gobar, fuel. Whatever he will eat, he will give you fuel.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In return.

Prabhupāda: In return.

Morning Walk -- May 25, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Passion is there. Just like fire, if you fan it, it blazes more. Similarly, with passion, the fire is more powerful.

Devotee (4): Then the passion is like the fuel.

Prabhupāda: Lust is sometimes described as fire, kāmāgni. Heart burns, the lusty desire burns.

Devotee (4): What about tamo-guṇa? Does tamo-guṇa have a relationship with the body?

Prabhupāda: Tamo-guṇa is laziness. It is ass. Neither fire. Ignorance. Civilized man, they're working, making some material arrangement nice. That is mode of passion. But the uncivilized, he doesn't want to work. Just like this Hawaii was under the Hawaiians' control, they could not do anything. Ignorant, lazy. Tamo-guṇa, darkness, is no work, no reason. Simply like animals, sex-life. And rajo-guṇa, there is activity to create material facilities. And sattva-guṇa, "Why you are working? What is the aim of my life?" That is sattva-guṇa.

Devotee (3): So it's better to be in the mode of passion than the mode of ignorance?

Prabhupāda: Eh? No. We have to come to the mode of goodness. That is wanted. Neither passion nor ignorance. But passion is better than ignorance. That is comparative. But best quality in this material world is goodness.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: That's for drainage. For when the water goes out into the sewer, and goes out into the field and drains.

Prabhupāda: You can utilize this water for fertilizing, drain water.

Kīrtanānanda: Well, first of all, we have to satisfy the health department.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...wood as fuel so that gradually this jungle will be clear. Thank you very much.

Devotees: Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Hailstorm. And they became entrapped in the jungle whole night. And in the morning guru with other disciples came to search out them. And this Sudāmā Vipra and Kṛṣṇa was stranded, and they were found out, then taken back. So even Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He served the guru as menial. The guru's wife asked Him, "Bring some fuel from the jungle," and they went immediately. This is gurukula. No, I mean to say, prestigious position. "Guru has said—has to be done." This training.

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: With three rupees they can maintain, the husband and wife. And two rupees still there. He can spend for other purposes. I have seen it. Fresh vegetables, rice, this and... Just like with banana leaf. The pots were of earthen, the wife is cooking and she's utilizing dry foliage as fuel, a little temperature, everything is cooked. The husband takes one banana leaf and spreads, and the wife gives sufficient rice, vegetables. And things were so cheap. I have seen it. And fresh.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, we can utilize the gobar in different way.

Indian man: No, but gobar gas is not good, that's why...

Prabhupāda: No, no, not good. But we have to arrange for this plant, generate gas. So why not direct?

Indian man: No, but the fuel is achieved, but the fertilizer is lost. Gobar, there are two elements. One is a methane gas and one is fertilizer. If you burn it you are burning the fertilizer which is very, very important, and very, very useful against the fuel that we get.

Prabhupāda: No, that ash is very good.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Conversation -- April 29, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So after it is cooked... They have got ghee. That ball soaked in ghee and the ḍāl, it is so nice when taken. That is called baṭī. Very quickly made. And after eating, with that ash the two or three utensils, mean the loṭā and the plate, they'll cleanse it very nice and walk away. And that food is sufficient for twenty-four hours. Within twenty-four hours he will not be hungry and feel very strong. The two things. And you can cook anywhere without any difficulty. In India, especially in village, you can get so many dried cow dung. So fuel is ready. The āṭā is packed up. And ghee in a pot. That's all. How simple life. Simply they'll sit down where there is water, and they'll take water. Then everything is arranged. No hotel.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Hayagriva -- Montreal 14 June, 1968:

In India of course, a cow is protected and the cowherdsmen they derive sufficient profit by such protection. Cow dung is used as fuel. Cow dung dried in the sunshine kept in stock for utilizing them as fuel in the villages. They get wheat and other cereals produced from the field. There is milk and vegetables and the fuel is cow dung, and thus, they are self-independent in every village.

Letter to Kirtanananda -- Los Angeles 8 December, 1968:

You have asked whether you may use charcoals to use for fuel during the winter and since this is the simplest thing to use in your present situation certainly it is all right. In all such questions as this you need only use your good common sense and depend upon Krishna as always to guide you nicely.