Prabhupāda: So, in this way, as soon as we understand or become convinced that I am not this body, then spiritual education begins. (If) I am different, then the next question will be, then what for I am working? Naturally at the present moment we are working for this body, maintenance of the body. For eating, sleeping, having facility for sex life or sense gratification and to protect this body from being harmed. This is our business. But if I am not this body, then, I am spirit soul, then the next question will be, what I am doing for the spirit soul? When actually I am working for this body because I, spirit soul, is within this body. Just like we are keeping this room fit for habitation because I am living here. Three months or four months ago we are not in possession of this room. So we were not anxious about this room. Because we were not living.
Habitation
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 1 - 6
O Pārtha, happy are the kṣatriyas to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought, opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets.
As supreme teacher of the world, Lord Kṛṣṇa condemns the attitude of Arjuna, who said, "I do not find any good in this fighting. It will cause perpetual habitation in hell." Such statements by Arjuna were due to ignorance only. He wanted to become nonviolent in the discharge of his specific duty. For a kṣatriya to be on the battlefield and to become nonviolent is the philosophy of fools. In the Parāśara-smṛti, or religious codes made by Parāśara, the great sage and father of Vyāsadeva, it is stated:
- kṣatriyo hi prajā rakṣan
- śastra-pāṇiḥ pradaṇḍayan
- nirjitya para-sainyādi
- kṣitiṁ dharmeṇa pālayet
"The kṣatriya's duty is to protect the citizens from all kinds of difficulties, and for that reason he has to apply violence in suitable cases for law and order. Therefore he has to conquer the soldiers of inimical kings, and thus, with religious principles, he should rule over the world."
BG Chapters 7 - 12
In this material world there are classifications of people, but, after all, this world is not a happy place for anyone. It is clearly stated here, anityam asukhaṁ lokam: this world is temporary and full of miseries, not habitable for any sane gentleman. This world is declared by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be temporary and full of miseries. Some philosophers, especially Māyāvādī philosophers, say that this world is false, but we can understand from Bhagavad-gītā that the world is not false; it is temporary. There is a difference between temporary and false. This world is temporary, but there is another world, which is eternal. This world is miserable, but the other world is eternal and blissful.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Toilet. But they must be habitable. They may pass their stool on the...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Neighbor's land?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is not... But this must be habitable. Otherwise what is the use of engaging so many men?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about electricity?
Bhavānanda: Electricity is no problem.
Prabhupāda: Electricity also can be temporarily, immediately fixed up. That is not difficult. (break) ...saying that "Our work will go on." If you cheat us in this way, then I will not engage you."
Prabhupāda: Electricity also can be temporarily, immediately fixed up. That is not difficult. (break) ...saying that "Our work will go on." If you cheat us in this way, then I will not engage you."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we have ten years' work to do.
Prabhupāda: Yes. But you must finish everything within that period. Plumbing and electricity we shall see. That is not very important. But it must be habitable. So if he thinks that it is possible, then let him go. Otherwise you engage only fifty men. (break) ...he cannot say, "There was no money." That is not possible. If you pay money, he must give the result.
Ambarīṣa: I just came from Vancouver from the Habitat Conference. The U.N. is having a Habitat Conference in Vancouver, and they (indistinct) is not united, their discussions and arguments. Sometimes there are walkouts, so many things, and they're not able to reach any conclusions, they can't agree with each other.
Prabhupāda: How they can? Do you mean to say dogs simply barking, they will come to a conclusion? (chuckles) It is not possible. There is no aim, what is the actual aim of life. So this is very important movement. At least the intelligent class of men, they must understand it thoroughly. Just like there is body. There are different parts, different sections of the body, but the most important section is the brain. Similarly, the important section of society means one who is fully in God consciousness. I.... You can cut my hands, I shall live. You can cut my legs, I shall live.
Hari-śauri: We got it in Hawaii. Yes, it was for that Habitat conference.
Prabhupāda: So we are not politicians, but we give some idea. Is it not good?
Kīrtanānanda: We have political philosophy.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is our movement: Take instruction of God, follow it, and you'll be happy. What is this?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is the end of that article, then the magazine goes on.
Prabhupāda: They have not replied even. (break) "Simple Living, High Thinking." "Then and Now: the Right to Distribute the American Dream." Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So instead of giving books to the members, they can read the books in the magazines. One magazine should be given free always to the members.
Prabhupāda: Then the answer is the chicken is better than you. He can give you life within seven days. Dr. Chicken is better... They are shameless. Not ordinary, because ordinary a human being will become shameful to speak something nonsense. But they are shameless. In that Bengali, duḥkhānvita(?) One man, one ear was cut off. So in order to hide his cut-off ear he was keeping this side to the river side and this side to the habitation side. So then again his two ears were cut out. Then there is no question of hiding. Both of them were cut out. So these people are duḥkhānvita. When both the ears cut out, there is no shame. They will go on talking all nonsense. Because they are accepted. So many millions of years have passed in the history, nobody could do that, and they are giving hope that life will come after millions of years.
Surabhi: Yes, I got a letter from Dharmādhyakṣa in Surat two months ago. He was invited to the White House after our... He had an exhibition at Vancouver, that habitat. So it was a world conference of solution to life, living. So he was invited. He met some of the officials there. He was invited to Washington, but he had to wait for Carter to become the President because then it would be fifty percent more favorable because they had a relationship. There these people... Then he said there's a great chance they will help us in India. So he is going to go there and speak with the...
Prabhupāda: In India.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Gurudāsa went there, eh? Gurudāsa?
Hari-śauri: No. He went to that Habitat Conference. That was different thing.
Gargamuni: So this man, he saw he was outnumbered, so he said, "All right, let us not talk." (Prabhupāda laughs)
Prabhupāda: A bogus.
Gargamuni: He's Chatterjee. He's Calcutta demon. I think Chatterjee is brāhmaṇa name, but he is talking like demon.
Prabhupāda: The Rāvaṇa was also Chatterjee. He was the son of Kaśyapa, brāhmaṇa. Bankim Babu wrote one book. The name of the book was Chatterjee and Bannerjis. So they're being distributed prasādam? No. (crowd can be heard in background)
Correspondence
1967 Correspondence
And as soon as one becomes engaged in solving these problems it is very difficult to make any progress in Krishna Consciousness. If one is serious to make any success in the matter of Krishna Consciousness, one should avoid the association of woman as far as possible. Married life is a sort of license to the incapable man who cannot avoid sex life. On this statement, you can understand your real position. I do not agree with your wife's statement that New York is unfit for human habitation. A real Krishna Conscious person can adjust things nicely even in hell. A fully Krishna Conscious person is always in transcendental position and he is not afraid of any place which is so called, unfit for human habitation. A Krishna Conscious person is always satisfied whether in Vaikuntha or in hell. His satisfaction is not the particular place but his sincere service attitude towards Krishna.
1973 Correspondence
Yes! why not? You may write yo the other temples and ask them to contribute something to the program, that is approved by me. I simply want to see that the work is going on vigorously, and the money shall not be used to pay bad bill. The money should simply be used for construction.
Another thing is that my living quarters may be finished by this coming October, or at least habitable so it may be used if I go to Vrindaban by Kartika Vrata.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
There is no cause of quarrel between the two countries China and India over land which is not very suitable for habitation, and certainly there is no cause for fighting on this issue. But due to the age of quarrel, Kali, which we have discussed, there is always a chance of quarrel on slight provocation. This is due not to the issue in question, but to the polluted atmosphere of this age: systematically there is propaganda by a section of people to stop glorification of the name and fame of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, there is a great need for disseminating the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all over the world.
The best method is that one should live at a place where the transcendental form of the Lord is worshiped. The temple of the Lord is a transcendental place, whereas the forest is a materially good habitation. A neophyte devotee is always recommended to worship the Deity of the Lord (arcanā) rather than go into the forest to search out the Lord. Devotional service begins from the process of arcanā, which is better than going out in the forest. In his present life, which is completely freed from all material hankerings, Śrī Nārada Muni does not go into the forest, although he can turn every place into Vaikuṇṭha by his presence only. He travels from one planet to another to convert men, gods, Kinnaras, Gandharvas, ṛṣis, munis and all others to become devotees of the Lord.
Because he wanted to continue his life comfortably, even at the risk of all humiliation. Vidura, therefore, was astonished how powerful is the urge to continue life. This sense of continuing one's life indicates that a living being is eternally a living entity and does not want to change his bodily habitation. The foolish man does not know that a particular term of bodily existence is awarded to him to undergo a term of imprisonment, and the human body is awarded, after many, many births and deaths, as a chance for self-realization to go back home, back to Godhead. But persons like Dhṛtarāṣṭra try to make plans to live there in a comfortable position with profit and interest, for they do not see things as they are. Dhṛtarāṣṭra is blind and continues to hope to live comfortably in the midst of all kinds of reverses of life.
SB Canto 3
The Supreme King of all kings has created different planets and places of habitation where living entities are situated in terms of the modes of nature and work, and He has created their different kings and rulers.
The so-called law of gravitation which sustains the planets is described herein as the potency of the Lord. This potency is invested by the Lord in the way that an expert sacrificial brāhmaṇa puts fire in the araṇi wood by the potency of Vedic mantras. By this arrangement the world becomes habitable for both the moving and nonmoving creatures. The conditioned souls, who are residents of the material world, are put in the womb of mother earth in the same way the seed of a child is put by the father in the womb of the mother. This conception of the Lord and the earth as father and mother is explained in Bhagavad-gītā (14.4). Conditioned souls are devoted to the motherland in which they take their birth, but they do not know their father.
Śaunaka Ṛṣi here inquires about the topics of the conversation between Maitreya Ṛṣi and Vidura. Vidura's qualification was that he was not only a friend of the Lord but also a great devotee. When Kṛṣṇa tried to stop the war and mitigate the misunderstanding between the cousin-brothers, they refused to accept His counsel; therefore Kṣattā, or Vidura, was unsatisfied with them, and he left the palace. As a devotee, Vidura showed by example that anywhere that Kṛṣṇa is not honored is a place unfit for human habitation. A devotee may be tolerant regarding his own interests, but he should not be tolerant when there is misbehavior toward the Lord or the Lord's devotee. Here the word aghavān is very significant, for it indicates that the Kauravas, Dhṛtarāṣṭra's sons, lost the war because of being sinful in disobeying the instructions of Kṛṣṇa.
SB Canto 4
The word sahasraśīrṣā refers to the Personality of Godhead known as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Although the Lord appeared as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, He has been described here as Sahasraśīrṣā Viṣṇu because He is nondifferent from Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. According to Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī in his Bhāgavatāmṛta, the Sahasraśīrṣā Personality of Godhead who appeared at that time was the incarnation known as Pṛśnigarbha. He created the planet known as Dhruvaloka for the habitation of Dhruva Mahārāja.
Nor does she know why she is present in that place. She frankly says that she does not know anything about all this. This is the position of the living entity in the material world. There are so many scientists, philosophers and big leaders, but they do not know wherefrom they have come, nor do they know why they are busy within this material world to obtain a position of so-called happiness. In this material world we have many nice facilities for living, but we are so foolish that we do not ask who has made this world habitable for us and has arranged it so nicely. Everything is functioning in order, but people foolishly think that they are produced by chance in this material world and that after death they will become zero. They think that this beautiful place of habitation will automatically remain.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Madhya-lila
Being very advanced in the renounced order, Sanātana Gosvāmī used to wander from forest to forest, never taking shelter of any habitation built of stone. He used to live under trees or beneath bushes both day and night.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Renunciation Through Wisdom
These planets are transitory—merely theatrical stages upon which the soul enacts his mundane existence. But when the living entity is elevated to spiritual perfection and is situated in his pure, eternal identity, devoid of all mundane designations, he attains the natural habitat of the spirit soul, the supramundane realm transcending this material creation and the intermediary zone of the unmanifested Brahman effulgence.
The material body, made up of material ingredients such as earth, water, fire, and air, is mortal. Similarly, because this material universe is an amalgam of earth, water, fire, air, etc., it is also transitory. But the spirit soul (which, incidently, has never been duplicated in the laboratory despite repeated efforts) is imperishable, as is its natural, eternal home—the kingdom of God.
Message of Godhead
If we examine human affairs in the light of the caste system as created by the Personality of Godhead, surely we can visualize the four social orders functioning in every part of the world. In every part of the globe, wherever there is human habitation, there are some persons who have the qualifications of brāhmaṇas, and there are others who have the qualifications of kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and śūdras. The various modes of nature are persistent in every corner of the universe, and since brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, and so forth are simply products of the modes of nature, how can one say that the four castes do not exist in a particular part of the world? This is absurd. In every country and at all times there have been, there are, and there will be the four social orders, according to the modes of nature.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
And three... The two I have explained, sāyujya and sārūpya. Then sālokya. Sālokya. Sālokya means you can, one can, get habitation, residence, in the same planet where God is there. That is sālokya. And then the next is sārṣṭi. Sārṣṭi. S, A, R, S, T, I, sārṣṭi. Sārṣṭi means to get the same opulence. As I have already explained, opulence, he, he gets all the opulences as the Lord has got. He becomes so..., as good as Lord, becomes so powerful. This is called sārṣṭi. And, and the last is sāmīpya. Sāmīpya means he is always in the company of the Lord. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna is always... Whenever Lord takes His incarnation, Arjuna is there. Arjuna is there. Sāmīpya. They are never separated. Just like a husband and wife, never separated. You see. Or the father and the son.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
There is no cause of quarrel between the two countries China and India over land which is not very suitable for habitation, and certainly there is no cause for fighting on this issue. But due to the age of quarrel, Kali, which we have discussed, there is always a chance of quarrel on slight provocation. This is due not to the issue in question, but to the polluted atmosphere of this age: systematically there is propaganda by a section of people to stop glorification of the name and fame of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, there is a great need for disseminating the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all over the world. It is the duty of every responsible Indian to broadcast the transcendental message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam throughout the world to do all the supermost good as well as to bring about the desired peace in the world.
They are selling. In London I have seen many hundred of churches. Nobody is going there. Not only churches. In India also, except a few important temples, ordinary, small temples they are being closed. They have become habitation of the dogs. So dharma, religiosity, is reduced. And truthfulness. And kṣamā, forgiveness. That is also reduced. We are very sorry that one thing has happened. He was excused, but again he was shot dead. Just see. No forgiveness. Vengeance. Formerly, if somebody has done something wrong, the other party... Just like Arjuna, you see. Even in the battlefield, he was so much tortured by the other party. Still, he was, "Kṛṣṇa let them go. I don't want to kill them." Forgiveness. So even for a small interest, they will kill. This is going on. So satyam, śaucam, kṣamā, dayā, mercifulness. Even if you see in your front somebody is being killed, you will not take interest. No mercifulness. It is happening already.
That is called varṇa-saṅkara. Then he said, "My...," Arjuna... Strīṣu duṣṭāsu varṇa-saṅkara (indistinct). "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are asking me to kill my... There will be widow, and they'll be polluted, and there'll be varṇa-saṅkara, and (indistinct), and when there'll be varṇa-saṅkara, then the whole world will be hell. It will be no more suitable for habitation of gentlemen. Finished."
Therefore in the Vedic civilization two things are very much stressed: to teach the man from childhood how to become expert in sad-ācāra, and woman trained up how to become chaste. So this chaste woman and this sad-ācāra, brāhmaṇa, ideal is brāhmaṇa, he'll become married.
There is no need of going there. The grapes are sour." (laughter) The jackal jumping, jumping, jumping. When he could not get the grapes, then he is rejecting, "Oh, this is sour. It is no use." So after jumping so many years and spending so much money, they are now rejecting: "The moon planet is not habitable." But we get there. This is one of the heavenly planets, and it is habitable by the most advanced pious men. So these are the difference. Now it is your business to believe the so-called scientist or the śāstra, as you like. But we cannot believe. Because we are Kṛṣṇa conscious, we have to believe what is stated in the śāstra.
They are passing M.A.C., D.A.C., doctor, Ph.D., and still they are ignorant?" "Yes." "How?" Māyayāpahṛta-jñānā: "The so-called knowledge is taken away by māyā." Otherwise why they are sticking to this material world? If you become enlightened, then you must know that this material world is not for our habitation. We must go back to home, back to Godhead. Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is preaching that "This is not your home. Don't try to be happy here."
General Lectures
This knowledge is in full because Kṛṣṇa consciousness teaches all these things, what is God, what you are, and then what is this nature, beyond the nature, what other things are there. Those who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, they do not know. They are frogs of the well, simply calculating, "This three feet, water, space, is my habitation." And when he's given information of the Atlantic Ocean, he does not believe. "Oh, there is Atlantic Ocean? What is that nonsense?" "Oh, it is very, very big," somebody says. He's simply calculating his well water. "Oh, it may be four foot?" "No, very big." "All right, ten feet? How...?" He's calculating, this. These materialistic scientists, they are simply speculating like the frog in the well. They do not know; neither they have means. But a Kṛṣṇa conscious person knows. He gets information from Kṛṣṇa.
"On the Ganges there is a neighborhood which is known as Ghoṣapalli." Now, this statement is in your front. So one may question that "The river Ganges is water. How there can be a neighborhood which is known as Ghoṣapalli? On the water how there can be a quarter or neighborhood of human habitation?" You can question that. Gaṅgāyaṁ ghoṣapalli. Then the interpretation should be, "No, not on the Ganges. 'On the Ganges' means 'on the bank of the Ganges.' " This interpretation is nice. When one cannot understand clearly, there is interpretation. But when the matter is clear... Just like sunlight. The sunlight, sunshine, does it require your lamp to show the sunlight? The sunlight is itself so illuminous that everyone can understand, "This is sunlight." If somebody brings some lamp, "I will show you the sun," sun is already visible. Why your lamp is required?
| Page Title: | Habitation |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 25 of Dec, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=2, SB=8, CC=1, OB=2, Lec=8, Con=8, Let=2 |
| No. of Quotes: | 31 |